Assimilation almost complete

Bon soir! All is well here in the land of the snail, I have my timetable and student card now, and am pretty much ready to start my term at ISIT on Monday...at 8am. Why me? Anyway, it's not been all plain sailing this week. On Wednesday, I was almost an hour late meeting Hannah at the Louvre because I got ridiculously lost when I got out of the Metro. On the upside, I found the Mona Lisa on my first attempt this time. It's also amazing to be be able to get into these places for free, being an 18-26 year old EU resident. Sweet.

The Louvre Pyramid at night

It was quite a cultured evening, until I stole a lighter from a tourist shop on the way back to the RER station. I was desperate for a lighter and there was no one around so I just thought, okay. But, for those of you who are appalled by this, you'll be reassured that karma really does exist - the lighter didn't work.

The following day was even worse. We had our Uni meetings (so it was just Hannah and I for Nottingham) , so I navigated myself to rue Cassette which is our main building, for 11. After running around, being asked if I was there for an exam (?!), I asked reception where I should be. rue de Pondichery, you say? Oh right, well that's in another arrondissement and 4 metro stops away. I was close to tears at one point, oh dear. I finally got there and it was all tickety-boo, but that morning was my first real oh-my-god-this-is-the-end-of-the-world that I've had here so far.

View from the 6th floor of main uni building!

Enough tales of woe, last night I climbed the Arc de Triomphe (for free!) and that was beautiful. It was supposed to be an Erasmus trip and Hannah and I did meet up with them....but then they left? It was just me, Hannah and another girl called Hannah on the top. Never mind, we stayed until it was dark and then strolled down Champs-Elysees. Classy birds.

view from the top - 284 steps!

I like cheesy bridge photos, okay?

I also managed to open a bank account yesterday, the only issue being he thought I was Irish (because he asked about my surname and my passport cover has Eire and the harp on it) and very nearly wrote it on my account details. Oops. He said my French was good, well yes I should hope so, considering I slipped a cheeky subjunctive in there! I've also finally sorted myself a Navigo pass, thanks to Eleanor's assistance, yay! I shall be a true Parisian from Monday.

NO MORE TINY TICKETS FOR MOI