My new home

I have my own apartment in Paris now, on the border between the 13th and 14th arrondissements. It is not very big and it's only a studio, but it has a balcony and a huge window. There is plenty of light and it feels pretty spacious for just one person. It's my first experience in apartment living; the best thing is that the superintendent, Madame Lamare, is really friendly and helpful.
Here you can see the view whan you first enter the apartment. There is a hallway with the WC on the right, a mirror, and then the bathroom (with a tub, what luxury!) and on the left a little kitchen.

Montmartre

I had the pleasure of spending a Saturday afternoon and evening with a student visiting from UCSB, and we strolled around Montmartre. My digital camera is not too high quality, but here you can see how Montmartre overlooks the rest of Paris. We took the bus from Pigalle to the Trocadero, where we saw the Eiffel Tower glittering, which it does on the hour for about five minutes. It was beautiful! Then we ate moules-frites (steamed mussels and fries) at a place in the Latin Quarter. My moules were cooked in gueuze, which was interesting, but it didn't win me over from the more traditional preparation methods.

2 months later ....

Well, I've been so shell shocked by my defense and my new life that it took three months to get back around to writing a blog.
Many of the corny things people say about Paris are true, at least at certain times, but the personality of the city and the culture of the people are really much much more appealing than I had expected.
My acculturation improves rapidly in tandem with my absorption of the language. I say absorption, because so far it has been impossible to find a beginner's French class in Paris which is not 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. I managed to study enough on my own to get into an intermediate class which meets only 2 hours, one evening per week, starting tonight.

Halloween was not really a holiday here, although I saw some people dressed up and I know some kids took advantage of the opportunity for free candy. All Saint's Day is a public holiday, though, and I got to have dinner with my host family and take a walk to enjoy the beautifal fall weather-- it'squite warm for this time of year.