Orientation Week

Hello hello! I am finally posting something in real time! While my posts from my French Riviera and Ibiza trip were being published, I had a great Orientation Week (September 17-21) at ISC Paris and also started (and finished) applying to co-op jobs for my last work term.

So basically our orientation week consisted of French class every day for 2 hours and then a night event with all the international exchange students.

With regards to French class, I surprisingly LOVE it. I love the language (never thought I'd say it) and I was actually so excited to wake up early to go to class everyday.

But something that I do not particularly like is the transportation aspect. I need to take a train and then walk 15 minutes to get to campus. As you all know how lazy I am.. Back in Waterloo, I would rather starve in the SBE Atrium in between class for 2 hours instead of walk 2 minutes to go back to my apartment to get lunch. So this huge commute to school? Definitely not my cup of tea. I guess it's good though because now I'll finally appreciate living close to campus. I will finally understand how people in other universities in Canada commute an hour or more to school everyday, and survive.

Due to co-op applications, I didn't end up going out to all the night events. We just pick and chose the ones that we wanted to go to which were: the first night out, boat cruise and Eiffel Tower, and Friday night.

Here are a couple highlights from O-Week here in Paris:
1. The first night event of O-Week at Café Oz

2. Boat Cruise + Drinking by the Eiffel Tower

3. Friday night at Queen Club on Champs-Élysées

For the weekend, even though co-op applications were due, we went on major shopping adventures.
Saturday, Sept 22: we went to Bazar De L'Hotel de Ville, which was a large department store with many brands inside (similar to Galeries Lafayette and Printemps). I bought a Louis Pion watch to add to my watch collection (which now consists of 3 watches... Because I only brought 2 here to Paris haha). However, the highlight of the day was when Brianne got stuck inn beween the Metro doors. It was horrifying, but hilarious. Good thing nothing bad happened, but from now on, we are all very conscious and careful of those doors. Hahah just thinking about the incident makes me laugh.

Sunday, Sept 23: we adventured to La Vallee Village. It was an outlet mall on the outskirts of Paris. It literally took us 3 hours to get there because we got off at the wrong stop (which let us see Disney Village though!! Super duper excited to go to Disneyland!) and then we also had to walk like 20 minutes from the bus stop to the outlet. Once we actually found the outlet mall, we finished walking through all the stores in an hour. It was honestly the biggest waste of time ever! At least I finally got my wallet :)

Monday, Sept 24: we went back to BHV and walked along Rue de Ravioli (that isn't the actual name of the road but I don't remember the name right now haha it is spelled like ravioli though) which was filled with many little boutiques and also many main stores, such as H&M and Zara. We spent a good 2 hours strolling through the stores. I finally bought my long awaited trench coat for a great price! Actually, we all came out with great purchases, I must say! :)

After our shopping extravaganza, we had our first family dinner! On the menu, we had Letizia's bruschetta, Vivian's salad, our own steak, Karen's veggie dish, Allan's potatoes, and Brianne's cheese platter. As a special treat, we also had a little wine tasting. It was a great Team Canada dinner :)

And that was my week!! I am continuing with my Spain trip this weekend :) I am heading over to Barcelona and Madrid for the weekend. So, with travelling, school starting on Tuesday and co-op interviews starting soon, I don't think I will be able to post daily :( but if something important happens, I definitely will update :)

Goodbye until I come back from Spain!! Xo