I’ve stumbled across a series of emails from my days as a college student studying abroad in Paris. These were emails that I sent to an often-growing group of people back home in the US who wanted to experience Paris through me, and I thought I’d share them here for old time’s sake. Enjoy!

Let me start by saying that I’ve fallen head-over-heels for Paris. It is such a unique, interesting city; it’s nearly impossible to be bored. Even taking the métro is exciting! For example, in a métro station I ran across an eight-piece string orchestra playing Pachelbel’s Canon in D. It was gorgeous! Another time, a group of guys in a métro car burst into “Hey Ya!” (the Outkast song) and sang the entire thing, complete with background vocals. Only in Paris!

I’ve started touring the city, and so far I’ve seen Montmartre (home of the Sacre Coeur, with the best view of Paris), le Centre Georges Pompidou (a modern art museum), the outside of l’Opéra Garnier (setting for Phantom of the Opera), the Eiffel Tower, and some other smaller, quieter areas of the city. I’ve also managed to find a favorite boulangerie (bakery), café, and soup place. It’s the most amazing thing to be able to sit and have a café au lait, and maybe breakfast, before class, go to class, go see some sights of the city, then buy a warm baguette on the way home (and, of course, having eaten half of it by the time I get there). It’s even more amazing to do all of that in the snow, which I did yesterday. It was snowing off and on the entire day—not a lot, though, and none of it stuck to the ground. Still, my black coat had little white flecks all over it by the time I reached my destination. So amazing! And yet so cold.

I’ve now finished my first week of class. Right now, everyone in my program is just taking a three-week language practicum, with a three-hour class Monday through Thursday mornings and afternoon excursions into different parts of the city two afternoons a week. It’s nice to only have about fifteen students in the course, and I think it’s really going to improve my language skills, especially since our teacher (who’s French, of course) speaks only in French. After the practicum, I’ll start my regular classes: French literature, history, and women’s studies, plus a French language course. I’m really looking forward to them.

As for the language, well, I’m definitely speaking quite a bit of French! It’s empowering to walk into a store or restaurant and get what I need without speaking any English. It’s not always easy, or even possible, but my skills get better every time. I find the grocery store to be most challenging. But I’ve managed to find laundry detergent that won’t bleach or ruin my clothes and have yet to give myself food poisoning. I consider that quite the accomplishment!

The food here is amazing; anything with flour tastes absolutely incredible. I don’t know how they do it! I’ve become a carb addict. There are at least two boulangeries on each street, and they all sell baguettes for less than a dollar. Temptation city! I was also surprised to find that Nutella is a staple food here. I’ve never seen so much of it in one place before. It’s literally everywhere! That’s not an altogether bad thing, though. Nutella happens to taste marvelous, especially on (you guessed it!) bread. And crepes. Ooh, the crepes are extraordinary, too. Okay, I just made myself hungry. Moving on.

I’ve just gotten a wonderful opportunity here. I heard through our academic center here that there was a business student trying to improve his English and that he was looking for a conversation partner. I happened to be the first student to respond to the e-mail, so I’m now in the process of setting up a meeting time. I’ll be speaking French to him and he’ll be speaking English to me, so it will be a great chance for me to improve my French skills! That should be happening early next week.

I hope you all had a wonderful week, and have a good one next week too. Thanks for the e-mails. I really do love to hear from you; those little connections to home. And, if any of you get a yen to visit Paris in the next few months, I’d be happy to play tour guide and show you the insider secrets of the city!