Our Man in Paris

End of Day 2

Well, I was having a good day until the blogger software decided to go down for routine maintenance when I tried to upload what I had just spent quarter of an hour writing!
This morning, I went to an introduction to the School, given by various members of staff. I met all the other international exchange placement students for the first time. There were quite large contingents of Spaniards and Italians, who sat in big long rows, there was a handful of Germans, a couple of Swiss and Belgians, and other nationalities such as Czech, Polish and American were also represented, in addition to a few North Africans.
The day went ok, considering I was listening to people talking (often about fairly boring bureacracy) in French all day. I'm sad to say we formed a bit of an Anglophone club: I had lunch with Dan a Belgian guy called Leeven (spelling?) who said his English was better than his French. The restaurant was basically a massive canteen; when I asked if they had anything vegetarian, I accepted the offer of an omelette, not realising I'd have to wait ten minutes for them to cook it for me! It was all very nice though, and I understand it's quite reasonably priced, although I don't quite understand the method of payment, which required cash and a card...
In the evening, Dan, Leeven and I met up with a Swiss guy called Patrick, and another Imperial guy, Rupert, and found a very nice and inexpensive Pizzeria, just a few minutes walk from the Maisel (students' house); I think we might go back there! Wine is much more sensibly priced than beer in bars and restaurants - we had a litre of drinkable house red for about E10.
Later, ew went to the "students' union" bar, known as the "forum". Apparently, Wednesday is beer night, which means that non-members get drinks at members' rates, and members get them even cheaper. We were drinking pretty strong Belgian bottled beer for most of the evening, and all at around a quid a pint! We played a spot of babyfoot in the games room, which also contained a pool table and pinball machines. I met a couple of interesting guys, including Pierre, the barman from French Guyana, who seemed to have a hand in organising the poetry night to which we were exposed. All rather bizarre!
The day went quite well in that I have acheived a number of useful practical things, but still don't feel I have entirely thrown myself into Parisian life, linguistically or curturally. There's time yet...

posted by Rorkey @ 1:32 AM