I woke up early this morning, and was on the train into Paris by 8am. I started off in Pereire-Levallois, then walked down Avenue Niel, which is the street my apartment(which I'm moving into on Thursday) is located on. I passed by the Arc de Triomphe, then walked down the Champs Elysee, passing by la Louvre, the Jardin Tulieres, and also spent some time walking along the quai, watching the boats and admiring the bridges. It was overcast, but dry up until this point, when a light rain started, and slowly picked up. I investigated the area around Notre Dame, and after about half an hour walking in the latin quarter, I managed to find Shakespeare and Co., an amazing English Language bookstore owned by Walt Whitman's grandon, which I had visited last time I was in Paris(2000). I then proceeding back across the river, walked through the Marais until the Bastille, but by then the rain had gotten so bad I decided to take the train back to my Hotel.
Tonight, i went back to the pizza place, and talked with some guys who live in the area--two of the ones I talked to longest were Harry and Armand, who were very nice and helped me work on my french.
When I got back to the hotel, my guitar had finally been delivered, but it was completely destroyed. The headstock is snapped off, so I don't think it's possible to repair. I've filed a claim with British Airways, but who knows if they'll actually do anything. So, I'm in a bit of a somber mood.
Anways, I've got a big day tomorrow and it's pretty late, so I'm signing off.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Paris-Day 1
[The following is a repost from http://www.leitnerinterns.blogspot.com, the website for Fordham University Leitner scholars. I'll be posting here, on my personal blog, things that are less closely related to my internship with the OECD, which is the subject of my posts on the leinterinterns blog.]
I just arrived in Paris tonight, so I thought this might be a good time to write a first post. I'm very excited to be here, naturally, but I am completely exhausted from the past few days--because of a combination of the writing competition and packing up my entire apartment in a day, I've only slept about 9 hours since Wednesday. Also, I'm a bit bummed because my guitar is missing in action. The baggage handlers at Charles de Gaulle airport think it must have gotten stuck in London, and will hopefully arrive in a day or two. Nonetheless, as soon as I hit Paris, I was invigorated. I'm staying at a hostel for the next few days, until I move into my apartment. The hostel is right on the outskirts of Paris, in Epinay-sur-Seine, a nice area with a very suburban feel to it. I went exploring a bit after moving in, went for a long walk and relished being in a new place. It was overcast and lightly raining on and off, with a cool breeze that was a welcome relief from the sweltering heat of New York these past few days. I had only been walking for about five minutes before someone stopped and asked me for directions. Of course, I had to let them know I was fresh off the plane and barely knew where I was, let alone where they were going. Still, the inquiry gave me an instant, and encouraging, sense of belonging. As I walked around, I started getting hungry(they served meals on the plane, but, well, it was airplane food and it didn't really do the trick), so I stopped into a cool little pizza shop. Inside, a crowd of locals was huddled around a thirteen inch(33cm?) TV watching a football match--they were all going absolutely crazy every time one of the players made a good play or someone scored. I watched with them while I ate and got pretty into it, and thoroughly enjoyed meeting some people who weren't tourists.
I'll be starting my internship at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Monday, so I think I'm going to sleep in tomorrow(just a bit!), then spend the day exploring Paris. For now, though, I think it's time to sign off.
À bientôt,
Adam
I just arrived in Paris tonight, so I thought this might be a good time to write a first post. I'm very excited to be here, naturally, but I am completely exhausted from the past few days--because of a combination of the writing competition and packing up my entire apartment in a day, I've only slept about 9 hours since Wednesday. Also, I'm a bit bummed because my guitar is missing in action. The baggage handlers at Charles de Gaulle airport think it must have gotten stuck in London, and will hopefully arrive in a day or two. Nonetheless, as soon as I hit Paris, I was invigorated. I'm staying at a hostel for the next few days, until I move into my apartment. The hostel is right on the outskirts of Paris, in Epinay-sur-Seine, a nice area with a very suburban feel to it. I went exploring a bit after moving in, went for a long walk and relished being in a new place. It was overcast and lightly raining on and off, with a cool breeze that was a welcome relief from the sweltering heat of New York these past few days. I had only been walking for about five minutes before someone stopped and asked me for directions. Of course, I had to let them know I was fresh off the plane and barely knew where I was, let alone where they were going. Still, the inquiry gave me an instant, and encouraging, sense of belonging. As I walked around, I started getting hungry(they served meals on the plane, but, well, it was airplane food and it didn't really do the trick), so I stopped into a cool little pizza shop. Inside, a crowd of locals was huddled around a thirteen inch(33cm?) TV watching a football match--they were all going absolutely crazy every time one of the players made a good play or someone scored. I watched with them while I ate and got pretty into it, and thoroughly enjoyed meeting some people who weren't tourists.
I'll be starting my internship at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Monday, so I think I'm going to sleep in tomorrow(just a bit!), then spend the day exploring Paris. For now, though, I think it's time to sign off.
À bientôt,
Adam
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