And so it begins

(Day 3, Paris, FR)
AHHH!! Guess who's in France!! So I'm in Paris right now which is amazing. It totally hasn't hit me yet, but it probably will by the time I get to Grenoble and am sitting in classes next Tuesday, but let's not think about that right now.

So, day 1. I got to Charles de Gaulle airport fine and met my group at the airport, jumped a fence to get to the taxi (casual), and took a taxi to our hotel. It's this wicked cute little hotel in Paris right near la Rue Saint-Germain which is this pretty big street, wicked close to the Seine river, and it's awesome. I'm sharing a room with Niki who is from Rochester, Brianna from Oregon, and Aubrey from Sudbury.  Niki, Aubrey, myself, and another person from our group, Van, decided to go adventuring and we ended up at this park near the Musée du Luxembourg. We were able to see the Eiffel Tower, which didn't look too far away. DECEPTIVE! We didn't pull out a map and went by the saying "You can see the Eiffel Tower from everywhere in Paris". Another lie. We wandered the city for an hour until we got there, haha. BUT WE MADE IT! We stood underneath and we're going to climb/elevator it tomorrow (Thursday/Day 4). Then we decided we should pull out a map to find our hotel. We sort of followed the Seine and spent another hour making it to a place close to the hotel until our feet gave out and we needed food. We went to this café called Néo Cafe and it was fabulous. I ate my first French crêpe! Nutelle bananne which was marvelous! Later that night we took a boat tour of the Seine from Pont Neuf to the Eiffel Tower and then all around Ils de la Cité and another island within the Seine. Then we  all went to this restaurant called "Breakfast in America". It was a totally American diner, obviously, and we all got burgers or something of the sort, wicked French, right?

Day 2. We woke up at 7:15 (dead) and then went to Versailles which was AWESOME. It's way outside paris so we had to take the RER train which is pretty much the commuter rail in Boston. Then we went to the Musée d'Orsay which is where a bunch of Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Cezanne, etc. It was great! Then a few of us went to the Hôtel des Invalides which is also the Musée de l'Armée. That is where Napoleon's tomb is. It was crazy big for someone so, in theory, small. I guess that Napoleon Complex continues on in the after-life. We then ate une gallette des Rois, or French King Cake. It's this cute tradition for the Epiphany where everyone gets a slice of cake and there is a prize hidden in a slice. The person who gets the prize (for us it was a little Fleur de Lis) is the king. The cake was DELICIOUS, but then we went out to dinner with our API host, Marie. There are always a bunch of courses in France, even in restaurants. I had a pumpkin soup with cream as an entrée, so good; a doe filet for my main dish, heaven on earth; and this fancy chocolate thing for desert, it was a religious experience in my mouth.

Okay, so I'm chatting with my sister on Facebook right now and she's complaining that there's nothing on here so, as it is Day 3, and a LOT happened today so Day 3 deserves its own post. Enjoy reading the small portion of my time in France, haha.