On becoming a Parisian

Our first week living in Paris has been quite exciting! After unpacking our stuff last weekend, Matt started work on Monday. I spent most of Monday getting to know our neighborhood. We live near the famous Rue Cler market. The street is filled with essential shops for wine, cheese, bread, meat, vegetables, chocolate, as well as a bank and post office. There are also two small grocery stores at either end. After taking my time in all the grocery stores (to translate the french labels) I met Matt for our appointment at the bank.

A French bank account is essential to pay bills and use a debit card without getting charged fees. Our appointment was all in French. Luckily Matt was able to use his skills from high school and college to translate the details to me! Overall it was a fairly easy process! My next challenge was setting up our internet, digital tv, and phone service. I stopped at the local French Telecom store. I was a little concerned that the sales representatives would not speak English, but luckily a girl was able to help me through the process. I was sent home with two boxes and instructions in French on how to setup the internet service.

Tuesday was spent checking out more grocery stores and trying to find a place similar to Target. By Wednesday, the national sales in France started. I went shopping with another girl here from Atlanta. The stores were packed with people buying everything from clothes to housewares. My big purchase was two rectangular pillows for our bed (we have been sleeping with square pillows). I also found a store similar to a Target, although much more messy and disorganized. It had almost everything I needed!

Today I attended a monthly coffee with other American women living in Paris. It was great to meet more people to ask questions and find out about volunteer opportunities in Paris. I have a few ideas of places where to volunteer, but I'm going to wait until after my French classes are over to commit to any of them. I'm starting two weeks of intensive French on Monday. I'm really looking forward to increasing my ability to communicate and carry on simple conversation!

This weekend Matt and I are planning on exploring more of Paris. We're planning to go to an open market on Saturday morning and out with friends on Saturday night.

The first week has been great. I feel like we've accomplished so much in just a few days. We're settled into our apartment and ready to continue our journey into immersion in the french culture. We're looking forward to exploring more of what France has to offer us during this year!