Sarah goes to school and discovers she doesn't have to go to school! (At least for a week!)

Hey everyone!  So the last few days have been quite busy, as I've been trying to run around and figure out how to live like a Parisian!  Natalia (one of my four roommates) bought a sweater that basically sums it all up - it says: "Je suis Parisien, j'<3 rien" (in english, "I'm Parisian, thus I like nothing").  The city is an interesting place, and everything here moves at a completely different tempo.  Despite this, in the past few days I've been able to set up a French cell phone (for nine Euros!), go grocery shopping, get a bank account, and take my first nervous adventure on the Metro.  Plus the food here is amazing!  Cheese that would cost a fortune in Canada is super cheap, and there are little creperies on every corner.  In Le Marais, where I live, there are a crazy amount of kebab and falafel stands that are so popular people line the street to wait for them.  So, as you can tell, the food here so far gets a huge thumbs up from me!  Today was also my first day at Orientation!  I went to my school, Sciences Po, which is situated in the 7th arrondissement, Saint-Germain des Pres.  It's a very nice area - the school is surrounded by designer stores and beautiful apartment buildings.  We met there this morning for the first part of our Welcome Program, and I met students from the US, Australia, Sweden, Brazil, Egypt, Chile and Canada!  It was really exciting to see the mix of people and hear all of the different languages spoken in one place.  Unfortunately, I have classes on the proper French methodology we're expected to use while studying at Sciences Po every morning at nine o'clock this week (YUCK.)  But the classes will be followed by tours of Paris, the neighbourhood around campus, and the school, so that's what I'm looking forward to.  Every day also happens to end with having a drink somewhere or another, which is another bright point!  And I'm going to end this post with the good news that for the first week of class at Sciences Po... there is no class!  We have a week off, which I've already started brainstorming for.  Croatia?  Turkey? Portugal?  Switzerland?  Belgium?  I'll let you know!