I’ve made it to Paris, y’all! Getting to the place we are staying was a challenge, but I’m sure someone else here has a few choice words that will capture the situation far better than I can lol. First impressions, this city smells a bit worse than Amsterdam and the public transport is worse too. The architecture is completely different and people don’t look as relaxed. I don’t think there are a lot of tourists around where we are staying. The rooms we are staying in are a lot nicer and we each have our own bathroom and stovetop. Excited to create art in my little kitchen (I don’t know if my culinary creations can count as food necessarily).
I’ve walked around a bit and our places are in nice neighborhoods. It’s in district 13, which is mostly residential. The neighborhood is very quiet and there’s a lot of good food spots around. Chinatown is also nearby so I’m looking forward to walking around there. It’s easier to get around than I would have initially thought, especially since I only know basic French phrases. I’m excited to start our design challenge, but I’m worried about our timeline, since this is supposed to be an eight week process that we are working on for two weeks.
I really hope I feel as relaxed in Paris as I did in Amsterdam, but it’s fine if not. Amsterdam had a great ambiance and was very calm, and already, Paris seems to be pretty stressful. I still hope I have a chance to see the city, check out green space and parks, and spend time walking around. Apparently it’s not a good idea to stay out too late here, so hopefully I get some sleep instead, but with the size of our laundry machine, I feel that I will be up late doing laundry quite often. There’s not too much I really want to see here. I want to see the Eiffel Tower, as tourists do. The Louvre is also somewhere I want to go eventually but I’m having some trouble buying tickets so I need to figure that out. I’m also going to Disneyland Paris at some point, so there’s that (I know nothing about Disney really).
This is the last two weeks I’m spending time in Europe with my classmates. I hope to spend time with them to explore the city, eat good food, and struggle through prototyping. If I had to choose one specific memory I want to make, I want to have one of the best meals of my life here with them because I’m a foodie and food in Amsterdam made me dislike eating at times (this has never happened except in Rice servery). We went to a Vietnamese place near our residence last night and it was great. Probably one of the best meals we’ve had since coming to Europe, which makes me kind of sad. There’s a lot of good places to eat around here, so I am looking forward to trying the food here. Here’s to a fruitful eating experience in France. Let’s also hope I don’t embarrass myself with awful French while we’re here. À bientôt!