orientation and my new home (:

Okay wow every time I want to post something I don't even know where to start because I see and learn so many new things every second I'm here. I guess that's basically the point though. Today was by far the busiest day. I had to check out of my hotel that we stayed in for one night and then I had two orientations at my program headquarters. After breakfast, I had to head over to my program headquarters, ACCENT, for orientation. 

typical breakfast

 So I had to be at ACCENT today at 10 for general orientation. This is where I'll be taking two classes. In our general orientation we learned all the basics there are to know about living in Paris. Such as how to go about the metro, general etiquette, where to eat cheap, where to go out, what to do when we're bored, social norms, where to grocery shop, how to buy a cell phone here, how to avoid being pick-pocketed and we got an activities list of things we'll all be doing together and weekend or day trips we'll be taking. It lasted about three hours and was EXTREMELY OVERWHELMING. So much to know. I'm sure I'll get accustomed fast but literally everything is different. For example, ordering a Coca-Cola in a restaurant… you will get a small small bottle of coke with a glass; in this glass will be a spoon and a lemon…not sure what to do with the spoon... The small bottle of coke will cost 4,90 euros or $6.60 (not good for soda addicts like me). 
After this orientation we had a break for lunch where me and a few others in my program went out into Paris to get some food. One of the girls I was with, who is a vegetarian and has been for 8 years, and has already spent about two weeks in Europe, spontaneously decided to no longer be a vegetarian! I had just met her and she was ordering chicken for lunch. Basically every cafe or restaurant in Paris has little to no vegetarian options, so she felt she'd be better off eating meat. But I just wanted to share that because I was totally shocked! Anyway, we also purchased our metro pass. So as you probably know, Parisians use the metro to get everywhere. (metro = subway). The metro pass can be purchased for one week or one month at a time. It cost about 67 euros for the month which is $90.00. This pass can be used for the metro, the city busses and the RER, which is a train. So it's actually pretty convenient. 
After lunch, we had to be back at ACCENT for our homestay orientation. There are 22 people in my program (four from UW-Milwaukee, 18 from UW-Madison), about ten of the students are living in international dorms, and the other 12 will be living with a French family, like me. It was kind of overwhelming to meet the other people in my program. Oh I forgot to mention that 21 out of the 22 people are girls and only one is a guy. hah! Poor guy. But I've already exchanged numbers and made plans with a few girls so hopefully these are friends I'll be hanging out with often.
At the home stay orientation we learned all the general guidelines for how to be a guest that stays for 4 months. We discussed etiquette at the dinner table, how to say certain phrases, bathroom/living room guidelines and more about french vs. american norms in the home. The french are very private and keep to themselves. We learned proper conversation starters, as things we might talk about in the U.S. over dinner may not be appropriate in France. They recommended sticking to easy subjects like books or movies, and not asking much about our families personal life. I've noticed that this may be why most Americans think the French are rude. But they aren't, they just keep to themselves! They see Americans as very friendly and smiley, because we constantly smile at each other or say hi to strangers on the street. Here they just look down, look straight ahead or walk with headphones in. Nobody makes eye contact or smiles at you..unless you walk into a store somewhere.. then it's necessary to say Bonjour, comment ca va? (how are you?) Ok that was random but anyway, after the home stay orientation we individually met with the home stay coordinator who chose our families for us. I didn't know any details about the family I'd be staying with up until this point! Crazy! So obviously I was freaking out. But thank god! What I found out about my family was parfait!
I was only given very general information like that I'll be with a single mother who is a lawyer and her 23 year old daughter, and their cat :) :) :) My host mom has her office in the house. She works from home and her clients come to the house for meetings. Upon arrival, I was given a tour of their extremely spacious apartment. Everybody in Paris lives in apartments, apparently a 3 bedroom apartment is very uncommon, which is what my host family has. I was told that half of Parisians live alone, and the other half live in studio apartments. To get into the apartment from the street, I needed a code to open the gates, and then another code for the elevator. It's just like the movies. The elevators here require you to close a door behind you and only oner person can fit in at a time. After a tour and seeing my adorable room where I could put my bags down, my host mom made me what she called a light dinner, but I was stuffed. It included sausage, hash browns, toast, various types of cheese, salad, another raspberry salad thing I wasn't sure what it was, Coke, and then she showed me a couple options for dessert. Wow! I was speechless. 
Her and her daughter are adorable, very smiley and french, but they both speak English. They have a beautiful home. I have my own section of the house basically, but we'll share the kitchen. 

kitchen 

living room

my own bathroom

hallway just after coming in the front door

my bedroom!

Moon. my new bff. he's currently sleeping next to me <3

So yeah basically I feel very lucky to have ended up in such a beautiful home. The program leaders at ACCENT prepared us for extremely small, basic homes and to have low expectations. I am very happy and cannot wait to get to know more about how the french live!