What One Week in France Can Throw at You

Hello everyone!

It is the last day of May, and I have been in Paris for a little over a week! Arriving on May 22nd, I exited the airport into an uber and immediately was sucked into the French language, as my driver only spoke French! I remembered enough French from my four years of high school and was able to communicate fairly easily with him, making me jump with glee inside at the idea of me speaking a second language where the other person could actually understand what I was saying. From then on, my French has been improving every day and it is becoming second nature to me.

I am taking a French course here with a professor who emphasizes speaking over reading and writing French, which is the complete opposite of what I endured throughout my high school years. She speaks mostly in French to the class which has tuned my ears to the accent of the French people, immersing me quickly into comprehension. What she has taught us so far has been mostly review for me, but it is considered survival French, so I don’t mind it at all. It is quite nice to have a refresher on language that I will be using almost every day. As for my Global Marketing course, I can tell it is going to be an intense ride. The chapters we are assigned to read are long, but interesting, and I can tell that my professor is going to make it fun by using the city around us. Just this past weekend, the class’s homework assignment was to eat at McDonald’s and discuss how it was different in France compared to the United States. It will require a lot of discipline to focus on studying rather than the Paris city life I am constantly tempted to immerse myself in.

Speaking of Paris city life, I have already experienced so much of the city within one week! From the Museé D’Orsay, to a boat tour along the Seine, to Versailles, to Notre Dame, and to a little flea market in the Marais, I have discovered so much of Paris’s history and culture. The architecture of the buildings is legendary, but it cannot truly be appreciated to its fullest extent until one sees it with their own eyes. I have met the most interesting people on my excursions out to these places, and simply wandering the streets around them, and I could not be more in awe of what I am surrounded by. The French food has captivated me as well. I have had stingray, sushi (it is different in France, trust me), macarons, chouqeuttes, pain au chocolats, and eclairs. The food is a million times better here than in America, and it is probably what I will miss most when going back home.

So that is a brief overview of what life has been like for the past week, and as more happens, I will keep my posts updated. My goals are to visit the natural history museum, the Louvre, the botanic gardens, and the Sacré Coeur before I make my next post, so fingers crossed! I have found a cute Brazilian restaurant by my apartment that I would like to try as well. After all, France is known for its international cuisine as well as its French cuisine.

Until next time!

-Tyler