The one with the Week Long Seminar

With a lot of class and a lot of getting acclimated to life in Paris, there are only a few key highlights from this week before my trip to Belgium. So Monday was technically orientation but we basically sat around, filled out paperwork and had a mingling luncheon to meet other international students. The luncheon was nice but there wasn't nearly enough food and when it ended, we were all more than happy to head home and get a real lunch. The next few days were filled with classes where we sat and listened to lectures by different professors to help us understand Paris, France, and the European Union. We covered various topics including the history and culture of Paris, French historic figures, the European Union, and the French language. Each day after class we filled our evenings with either shopping at the trendy yet inexpensive H&M, planning trips to other countries, or making awesome dinners in our apartment. Ok, so our typical dinners so far have consisted of spaghetti and tomato sauce or the other half of the sandwich we didn't eat at lunch.

Thursday was different though. We finished our last lecture at about 5, went to the grocery store and decided it was going to be a Mexican night! So Courtney, Torey, Monica, Jamie and I headed back to mine and Courtney's apartment and made homemade guacamole and chicken and onion quesidillas topped off with magnum ice cream bars and a glass of wine. We even met our neighbors that night who are from Wisconsin and they joined us for a night on the town. The only down side to this stellar night was the fact that we went to bed at about 4 and were on a train back to school by 9 to go take a test over what we learned that week. It was worth it though!

After the test, Courtney and I went home and each took a 4 hour nap. Even more worth it. When we got up, our friend Maureen had made it to Paris from London so we grabbed a quick dinner, got ready and headed out to an international apartment party on the North side of the city. We had a great time meeting people from all over the world who go to our school, ESCP Europe. It was another great night and we headed home to grab a few hours sleep before leaving for Belgium the next morning.