The heat woke me up again this morning, curtains closed and windows open yet the heat seems to permeate into my room and thus my natural morning wake up call was at an orderly 7.25am. With no class until 1.30pm I thought a stroll around the area would help me locate my surroundings but I quickly got lost in the beauty of the streets, the buildings and the people. I walked down long rues, flanked by large trees, the autumn leaves descending on the pavement and covering up the mounds of dog poo (it is lessening, the fine for not picking up after your dog in France is ridiculous. You might as well kill someone instead). The morning sun was intense and the shade of the buildings was a welcome delight.
The lack of any defined grid to the streets made not getting lost impossible so after at least 30 mintues of walking I realised I actually had no clue where I was. Luckily my hostel is located right next to a huge stadium which includes 50 ft high lights so looking up and accross the horizon, my eye was led to the right direction.
Thanks to the beautiful location of my accomodation, it is clearly a hot spot for fitness enthusiasts (and makes everyone else feel terrible in the process. They run, I go to the Boulangerie). Approached by a friendly looking man (or so I assume, it was kind of hard to see his face below a thick layer of sweat), I had my first real, lengthy conversation in french. Surprisingly, he seemed to marginally understand some of what I said (either that or his head bopping was from sheer exhaustion). He patiently waited as I struggled with verb tenses and feminine/masculine nouns (my conclusion: simply guess and mumble).
I was impressed once again with the understanding the french seem to have with foreigners (or so I have encountered) but this quickly changed when he told me he was heading to the park to do some weight lifting and whether I would like to join him as I had what he classified as un corps physique. I'm thinking this was either a.) sarcasm b.) his eyesight was blurry due to his sweat, c.) I misunderstood him or d.) I should seriously consider cutting down on my daily visits to the Boulangerie. Needless to say, I didn't accept. I might have to wait a week or two (read: never) before I go weight lifting with a french man.
The second half of my day was filled with Uni related activities. After catching the metro successfully to SP (I think I'm getting the hang of acting like I know where I'm going), I had a 2 hour class on the art of oral presentations in which my dozing had nothing to do with the course content and everything to do with the heat of the room. It was out of my control. Followed by a one and a half hour class on tips to delivering successful oral presentations. This class began with an introduction session which normally I hate but something about being in a class full of people from Korea, Brazil, American, Slovakia, China, Canada and Thailand (just to name a few, honestly, we could have done a Model UN tournament with the number of nationalities we represented) made the intro's fascinating and funny. This may be in part due to one question we had to answer which was something weird about ourselves. Never have I felt so normal after the answers I heard.
Downside to class: homework. One week, two oral presentations (one in front of the Centre Pompidou, can't complain there) and two essays. Welcome programme say what? Finally we were released and I met up with a friend who was having a coffee at the local cafe. I joined her and 5 other friendly strangers (Norway, Ireland, England, Singapore and New Zealand, OMG!!) for a cafe au lait followed by a spontaneous trip to the Eiffel Tower. It was actually the first visit since I've been here! There's something so captivating about the tower, like no matter how many times you've seen it, you can never remove the sheer beauty it represents. No photo can truly do justice to the real life version. Its breath taking.
We even stumbled upon a movie being made. The street was filled with old cars and cameras and people were everywhere! We got a photo with a car so the movie better become massive so we can cash in on it. With exhaustion quickly setting in, we caught the metro for a long ride back to the cite, street singers serenading us all the way back.
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