1 month!!!

So today marks the day that I've been in Paris for one month!

I can't believe all of it has gone by this fast and yet it feels like years ago that I left Miami. So much has happened in these past four weeks that I can't even begin to reflect on the impact its had on me.

Paris continues to be as beautiful as ever and I'm constantly surprised by the streets, monuments and especially the wonderfully nice people!

On Saturday I went out to dinner with Heather's French buddy which is kind of like an international assistant here. Her name is Berengere and she is the sweetest girl. She invited Heather and I to dinner at her apartment. We thought it would be just us but when we got there, there were 4 of her girl friends already there. We had a blast and made creps and talked for hours. It was so crazy how I could actually understand them and all of there jokes and actually follow and partake in the conversation! I finally felt like my french was flowing directly and like I didnt have to stop and translate everything in my head before it came out. It was a great night.

Yesterday we went to the outdoor market by our house and stocked up on food for the week. At night my great aunt Tia Maria Alice, who lives in Paris with her French husband invited us all to come to her house for dinner. It was such a crazy dinner. Her husband only speaks french and her niece who was there as well only speaks portuguese and my roomates only spoke english and french so we were constantly translating and there were three languages being spoken the entire night! Kind of exhausting but my aunt is such a nice lady and the dinner was delicious!!

Other than that I'm so glad to finally start classes. I absolutely love school haha. Its so nice to actually be motivated to read and know whats going on in the world. My introduction to Political science class is my least favorite class because its in a huge lecture hall and the prof is really boring but other than that I looooooove my classes.

My world of wine class is amazing. We are learning everything about wine and how it is made and how to drink it. Sooooo interesting! Its kind of a superficial class but I definitely am learning a lot

Then I'm taking a class on the United States and its decline as an empire that I love! My professor is a retired Colonel from the British Army, has a bunch of engineering degrees and spent half his life selling radio stations and tv stations to dictators in Africa in order to open up communication between the countries. After all of that he got a PHD in international relations and is now teaching at my school.
Despite having been in the army he is such a good professor and so chill about everything. He makes us call him John not colonel or monsieur or whatever and after EVERY lecture he takes us all out for a coffee that he pays for! The class is great because it offers an outside perspective on the role of the US in the world and is filled with students from all over so you can really get a good sense of what that role is

My next favorite class is one on Chile and the psychological violence during the dictatorships in the XXth century. Soooo cool!

But yeah I've basically been stressing out about an oral presentation I have in french for my political science class on Wednesday.

Anyway more pictures and things to come :)