Finally in Paris!

So we are finally in paris! I am sat at a little wifi cafe right now having a glass of wine with my roommate emily. Things are better with my friends than the last post, and I am feeling very positive about them. I am living in the 9th arrondissement in Paris and it is very lively an diverse. My room that I am sharing with emily is very big and we have more than enough room for the both of us. We each have a full bed, but unfortunately we do not have access to the kitchen and we only have a little fridge and a microwave. It feels like I am still in the dorm rooms at Emmanuel. We should be getting WiFi in my room by the end of the week because my "Madame" feels that us students need internet access. She is a very nice woman but I do not think she has ever house AIFS students before because she is not custom to some of the rules that they set. Such as giving us breakfast every morning. Instead, she has stocked our fridge with bread and jam. However, she has had plenty of students stay with her because she has a very strict set of rules.
Classes start next week, but Tony is coming to Paris for my 21st birthday this weekend and I am really excited for that. I actually have to find a hotel for him to stay at, so I am going to get on that right now. More about all this soon! A tout a l'heure!!

Orientation

I have been in Cannes for the past week and a half, and it is a beautiful day out. It is over 60 degrees!! Although it has been beautiful staying in the south of france, I am getting really anxious to go to Paris and settle down. So far we have just been going, going, going, and then doing absolutely nothing. So far we have gone to Nice and Monaco. Both have been beautiful and much more interesting than the smaller town of Cannes. The pictures are of me and the friends that I have made and just a beautiful picture of the yachts in Monaco.

The friends that I am meeting here are great, but sometimes I am not too sure how I feel about them. Or how they feel about me. I feel like I am back at my freshman year of college trying to make friends and get people to like me. As much as I enjoy meeting new people. It is exhausting trying to find people you can trust right off the bat since I will be traveling and living near them for the next few months. With the girls that I have met, I feel like our group of 7 has separated into 2 groups. One group of 2 and one group of 3 and with me and another girl being pulled in between the 2 groups. It is really hard to figure out where I stand and even if I actually want to grow a friendship with some of them. I knew I would be meeting new people, but I didn't realize how much it would distract me from obtaining my real goals of studying abroad.

Speaking of studying, we have been having french classes each morning for 3 hours. It is great to be constantly speaking french and I have started to realize that I comprehend French much more than I thought that I did. My only problem is that I get nervous when I have to speak and I end up messing it up or taking a very long time to respond.

I think that I need to build up my confidence in my life in general.

So right now I am in Cannes, France and it is absolutely beautiful! After Portsmouth, I made my way up to London where I met up with my group. The first group of people I found in the hotel were ironically all from Boston! I am really getting to know the people in my group and it is great because I feel that many of them have the same goals as I do in regards to living in France. Right now I am extremely tired because I have not stopped going since I got to London, so I will update a lot more later this week as I have internet access here in Cannes! A tout a l'heure!