Belated 1 year anniversary!

It's been over a year since I started this blog and I completely forgot about the 1 year anniversary. I know, that's such a huge failure but I was first busy with friends, family, and then came work and school. My first blog post was written on July 11th and the first post was just your standard introduction so my future blog readers could find out who I am. You guys basically were basically there for my whole study abroad journey. After I got home from my visa appointment, I made a blog post letting you know how it went and then I posted another blog post when I received it in the mail. You saw all the goodbyes before finally getting on that plane and arriving to Paris. After settling in my French apartment I managed to open a bank account, get beds delivered, buy a French cellphone, and even make new friends.

Disquaire Day (Record Store Day) 2012

Arcade Fire and St. Vincent RDS exclusives.

I've usually bought Record Store Day exclusive records every year I've gone to Coachella but since I'm studying abroad and didn't go to Coachella, this became my first year actually going to record stores on Record Store Day or Disquaire Day in France. For those who don't know about RSD, it is "the one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music."

Entertainment on the Métro

I won't lie, you see some pretty strange things on the metro sometimes. Whether it is a guy wearing just briefs or hearing "Cielito Lindo" sung by a French person with an accordion, you just tend to see some random things on the metro and especially if you have to use the metro on a daily basis. Last week I was asked by a gypsy woman to wake her up when we reached Châtelet and I also saw probably my favorite metro performer. A man with a portable karaoke machine entered M4 direction Porte de Clignancourt, at first I thought "what the hell?" since I'm so used to seeing men with accordions and guitars enter in hopes to get some tips but this guy- well this guy just rocked my socks off and made me laugh when I desperately needed it. The first song that he sang as "La Bamba" and his encore performance was the Numa Numa song. One word: hilarious! I hope I get to see him sing again because he was by far the most memorable metro performer I've seen to date.

USA vs. France: Concert Edition

Venue: La Cigale

Artist: SebastiAn, member of the Ed Rec crew performing at Festival Les Inrocks

The Social Club

If you're a Ed Banger/French electro fan from the United States or Mexico then you know about the Social Club and probably even dream about going there. I know that was certainly the case with me and I finally had the chance to go the Social Club on September 30th to see Breakbot. First time at the Social Club and I'm seeing an Ed Banger artist? Now that's what I like to call good luck.

First day of class in Paris

Usually the night before I go back to school I have a lot of trouble sleeping and when I wake up I'm just a complete mess. My nervousness kicks into high gear and I have to keep my fingers crossed so that I don't spend over 20 minutes finding parking, but here in Paris it was a whole different story.

New and Old Paris

La Grande Arche

Yesterday afternoon I spent the day in what I'd like to refer as new Paris- La Défense. Don't get me wrong I absolutely love old Paris, the historic buildings, and the people taking a stroll in the afternoon but I also appreciate new and modern buildings. One of the things that stands out the most at La Défense is of course La Grande Arche which was breathtaking- it was big, clean, and very modern and the fact that you can see the Arc de Triomphe in the distance perfectly demonstrates the two contrasting sides of Paris. There are various sculptures and two malls in that area, all which again are very modern. I really enjoyed spending a couple of hours in that area and getting to see modern Paris.

L'Arc de Triomphe in the distance

Today since I didn't have much energy to go out Beatriz and I decided to explore the area we live in and what we discovered was pretty cool if I may say so. During our walk I felt that I was in at least 2 other cities, it was remarkable how drastic the architectural styles would change from street to street. Some of the buildings we walked by looked like something straight out of a fairy tale- a charming little house made of red bricks, town houses painted in pastel colors, and tons of flowers. Today's walk and yesterday's trip made me fall in love with Paris even more. Although I'm at the point that I'm getting used to waking up in Paris, its moments like these that make me say "I'm extremely lucky to be living here."

¡VIVA MEXICO!

I have found there is a severe the lack of Mexican culture. As I've mentioned before I live in Tijuana for 10 years before moving to San Diego which has a very strong Mexican presence. I've seen a couple Mexican restaurants in Paris but here's the deal I'm extremely picky with my Mexican food so picky that the only Mexican restaurant that I go to in San Diego is Lolita's. So when I saw BocaMexa I went in to see if there were Mexicans working and there are. I had never been so happy to see another Mexican in my life or seeing Salsa Valentina- it was ridiculous but it brought me back home for a split second.

Quick update from Paris

I know I haven't updated in a couple of days but I've been busy with the intensive French class and also trying to see which university was the right one for me. After much thinking I decided I was going to take up the challenge to go to the Sorbonne Paris IV. Its definitely going to be hard for me but I'm ready and more than willing to give it my all this upcoming school year.

Discovering a Different Side of Paris

When we first got told that we were going to Belleville (an area where a lot of immigrants in Paris live) I have to admit I wasn't too keen about the idea. I don't even go to Barrio Logan, the immigrant neighborhood where many Mexicans reside in San Diego and I'm Mexican! So my thought was why would I want to go to the immigrant neighborhood in Paris? But you know what I was very glad we were shown that side of Paris. Belleville is a neighborhood in Paris which parts of it lies in four different arrondissements. It is also the home to the second Chinese quarter in Paris and a lot of eclectic street art.

Cooking in Paris !

Yes, I cooked in Paris. Actually I took a cooking class for the first time ever! Today I had an after school activity at Tours de Cuisine with my fellow MICEFA students from California. I really didn't know what we were going to make but I told people on Twitter to keep their fingers crossed for me since I tend to burn things when I cook. Luckily that wasn't the case today. After a couple of minutes of figuring out where exactly I was in the 11th arrondissement, Beatriz and I finally found Tours de Cuisine in a small street. We were the second group of people to get there and the rest arrived a little later since they also had trouble finding the place as well. Once everyone was there we found out what we were going to make- DESSERTS! Beatriz and I decided to make mousse de framboise (raspberry mousse) and pâtes à tartelettes (tarte crust) both which ended up being delicious.

Les livraisons | Deliveries

Source autoblogger.fr

As an American I'm used to having delivery guys be polite and on time, while I think they do that because of the tip at the end of the delivery, I still generally find them easy people to work with. This past Monday we were supposed to get our beds delivered from 11h-14h. We were hoping that they would arrive early so Beatriz and I wouldn't be too late to our mandatory orientation but that wasn't the case. Once 14h came around and there was still no delivery guy, we decided to run to the metro to get to the orientation late- turns out the delivery guy arrived at 14h30. I had to call Conforama and to see when they were going to reschedule the livraison or delivery.

The plants are on fire?

Picture belongs to SGEHagelstein on Flickr.

Around 2:00am today, just about when I was about to knock out I heard a sirens and didn't think much of them because its kinda normal for sirens to echo around here and sound a lot closer than they actually are but this time it was different. I saw blue lights flashing in the living room so I decided to take a peak outside. I saw that there was not one but two firetrucks outside!

The Welcome Dinner

 This Sunday was the day I met my fellow CSU IP classmates studying abroad in Paris. Beatriz and I arrived where everyone is staying at (we opted out of the temporary housing since we already had an apartment) promptly at 4pm but when we arrived there was no one there so we thought we had entered the wrong building. Slowly but surely people started arriving from their walks or making their way down to the lobby. Beatriz and I shortly met the MICEFA program coordinator, Melissa, who is pretty cool and very easy to talk to. What I noticed once everyone was downstairs is that everyone was in their little groups, kinda like in high school- you're in a new unfamiliar setting so when you find someone who you feel comfortable with you just want to hang out with them. You get what I mean?

Welcome to Paris

Well I've already been here for two days but this is the first time that I've found time to sit in front of my laptop to give you all an update on how I've been doing. I know I promised a vlog at the airport but there was barely any waiting time in between flights that the only things I did were go Facebook and tweet. My parents, my best friend/roommate Beatriz, and I arrived to Paris at 11:35am on August 16th.