Day in the Life

Bonjour de Paris,

Living à Paris as a student is a dream come true. You don’t have to worry about the high cost of housing. You don’t even need a job. As a student, my normal weekday went something like this:

7:30 am - Bonjour Paris! Wake up before the sun rises (I always thought that I was early because the sun rose so late in the mornings, especially during the winter). Open the windows to let in some fresh air and get ready for an awesome day.

8:00 - Stop by my homestay apartment downstairs for breakfast (unless I slept in a bit, which was most, if not all the time).

8:20 - Run to catch the bus (metro is faster but it requires more walking and transfers).

8:50 - If I get to the IES Abroad Center this early, I will run to Grenier à Pain, a bakery only a minute away, to grab a pain au chocolat before class

9:00 - Management of Art and Fashion class at the IES Abroad Center

12:00 pm - Lunch time! I often went to Le Coin Cuisine, a really affordable homey French food take out place about a three minute walk from the center. They have the best rotisserie chicken and potatoes. I would bring it back to the center and eat with friends there. Bon apétit!

1:00 - Either drop by my chambre de bonne (my room outside of my host family’s apartment) to drop off my fashion class notebook or go out with friends to a museum, café, etc. Once, Adriana, Marissa, and I went to see the catacombs in the afternoon. We saw millions of human skulls and bones piled up in an underground cave.

2:40 - History of Art and Architecture in Paris class, we almost always met at the museum that the class was going to focus on. We’ve met in places ranging from the Louvre to le Centre Pompidou.

5:30 - Explore Paris some more after class. If I had the energy for it, I would take the metro all the way to places like Montmartre to admire the view and the paintings. Often, I would be tired from walking around the museum during art class so I would stop by interesting places on my way back home. I lived by famous places peruse such as Les Deux Magots, a café, et Église Saint-Sulpice.

8:00 - Be back home in time for dinner with my host family. It was really fun to practice and learn French through a normal “how was your day” conversation with the family.

9:00 - Homework, shower, Facebook, emails, procrastinate, Netflix if I’m homesick, more homework, and sleep whenever I finally finished. Bon nuit!

Everyday was an adventure in Paris. Even on the slowest of days, I felt happy and productive from being surrounded by an entirely different culture. It’s easy to learn when you’re having fun!

Merci,

Gwen