First Day in the City

Today was our first day of the Welcome Program which also meant our first real day in the city.
We took the metro in to Sciences Po at 8 30 am in order to make it to the croissant and coffee brunch before orientation. The Americans all found each other and the Australians managed to find us as well. We were then packed into an overheated auditorium and informed about how lucky we were to find such a special school and how great of a group we were and so on. Pretty typical school orientation with the exception of the heavy French accents.

We then went to a sandwich shop called Cosi (not at all like the American chain...wayyy better) with a girl from Florida and an Australian. Brad Brown would have been very proud of us for branching out.

It was then time for us to begin the search for cell phones. We went to Virgin Mobile where the man that worked there offered us directions to the closest competitor to compare prices. We assumed he was lying to us about the location, so we then asked a man at Sophora. He, too, pointed us across the street and told us it was right in front of our noses. We still couldn't find it so we finally got directions from a bank teller at HSBC. It was only a block away and in the exact direction that everyone had already told us. So thank you Virgin Mobile salesman for your honesty....now if only he could've been a little more upfront about the phone prices and we could have been in business.

We then went grocery shopping and bought more wine because all that was left in the refrigerator was a half opened bottle so we were afraid to drink it. We then found out that it is French custom to leave wine, cheese, and bread to welcome people to France. Good news is, now we can drink the wine. Better news is, we bought three more bottles to try over the course of the week. I love this city.

Sidenote: last night Kendall's parents took us to dinner at a very French restaurant where the old men waiting for a seat shouted "Bon Appetit" as we walked to our table. For all of the foodies out there (that means you Sarah and Steven), I ate duck with foie gras in an apple vinegar sauce with gingerbread and roasted pears. And yes, it was as heavenly as it sounds.