Le "metroface"

Hello friends and family! I am sorry it’s taken so long to write, access to wifi has proven to be difficult. So much has happened these past few days, I apologize if this post is lengthy. The flight over here was possibly the easiest flight I’ve ever had. The plane was nearly empty and from what I could tell based on the people around me, everyone had their own row of seats. When I got off the plane I followed everyone like a sheep first to customs then to baggage, because I had no idea where I was going. At customs, I was expecting to have to explain to the employee that I was a student and there to study for 5 months, that is after all why I had to go through the painstaking process of getting a visa right? I still don’t know what the visa in the back of the passport does for me because the man glanced at my passport picture, stamped the inside and sent me on my way within seconds, not once looking for a visa.

The rest of the first day was a blur due to my zombie like state of mind that jet lag had induced, but I’ll do my best to recount it chronologically. After meeting many of the other program participants and getting a cab, we checked into the FIAP (a nice hostel, essentially) where we were greeted by the program director. All we wanted to do was put down our luggage and take a nap, but we were commanded not to sleep until after dinner. For our first dinner we walked as a group (there’s a little over 30 of us) to a restaurant near the FIAP where they had prepared a three-course meal for us containing popular French dishes. The salad had a certain kind of meat on it that we all started eating until we found out it was gizzards. The entrée was duck and potatoes, which was actually delicious. The dessert was the most puzzling, mostly because it did not taste sweet in any way shape or form. I tasted like extremely whipped liquidy cream cheese with a little bit of jelly in it or something? I’m not sure, but no one at my table was able to eat even a spoonful of it. After dinner some people wanted to go out, but since I nearly fell asleep in my food, I decided to go to sleep.

On Thursday we learned how to get to “the center” which is where CIEE’s offices are as well as where I’ll be taking all of my classes. It is located in the 2nd arrondissement, which is very central, and is within walking distance of the Louvre. We walked around the majority of the day, and we also got our metro passes and cell phones. We listened to lectures about health and safety and learned about the “metroface”. Apparently when I ride the metro, not only do I have to hold onto my purse with both hands to avoid pick-pocketing, I also have to look extremely pissed off at the world and not make eye contact with anyone. This is known as the “metroface”. For dinner, Hannah and I elected not to eat at the FIAP cafeteria and decided to get pizza and a glass of wine. (For those of you who don’t know, Hannah is a friend of mine from Iowa who is participating in the same program).

After dinner we met up with another student from the program, Allie (also a hawkeye), who had been here last semester and she showed us a fun area with beaucoup de bars. While the three of us were sitting outside sharing a bottle of wine, we saw four French teenagers stumbling drunk down the street. One of the girls fell down in the street and caused the cars behind her to stop and wait. It took a while for her drunken friends to bend down and help get the shitshow on her feet again, but no one honked or yelled or tried to get around them. The thing that really blew all of our minds was the fact that a police car drove right by on a different street just yards away and did not even slow down. Hannah, Allie, and I came to the conclusion that that would not fly in Iowa City. We called it an early night because the metro stops running around 12:15 and we did not want to take a cab, not to mention we had to be packed and out of our room at 9am the next morning!