Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Je suis Parisienne!

I guess you were all expecting for me to write about my trip and arrival in Paris. Well, here it goes! The trip was a bit more tiring than expected: 4 hours till Budapest with my parents and sister, a 2-hours flight to Paris Beauvais and a 1-hour trip by bus to Porte Maillot, Paris!
I got to my accommodation for one year being helped by the owner of it, an old friend of my dad’s. I am super lucky to rent this place as it looks really nice and it is close to my job and to Paris (as I do not live in Paris, my dears, I live in the Parisian region – Paris is only a 6-8 square km region with all the attractions you know and with a residential part. But many, many people live outside Paris, more or less far from it! I am lucky to live just close to it, near La Defense (the well-known business centers are all located here and the Grande Arche is also well-known). From there, I can reach Paris in 20 minutes by metro (and now I manage to get by metro in many places with the help of a map, it is quite easy, I am not lots anymore!)
I live in a studio flat, actually a small room with a kitchen on one side and a separate bathroom. It looks extremely nice, I have most of the things you need in a house and it is so cosy! I am really satisfied and I will transform it in my own little place!
During my trip, I was thinking about the purpose of my blog and what I want to transmit through it. So I decided that this blog will be from now on more than my public journal or a way of informing all of you what I’m doing, but an observation of the “world” I live in, of the country I moved in or of the people I hang out with. I wanna see how a different place can be seen through different perspectives, how different and still similar it can be! And as there is a great connection between Romania and France, I want to see where it comes from and why does it exist! Why does our culture and language get influenced by the French one? I have tones of questions in my head now and I will read and talk to people and travel around in order to get some answers!
Let’s start with Paris, still. I was walking through Paris and the Parisian region and I discovered a lovely city! It is both crowded, diverse, dirty even, but also organized, beautiful and charming! I’ve already started to fell in love with it (yes, I know it is just a city!). It is both peaceful and noisy, it is big and small, and it is all in one somehow! I visited some of the famous attractions, but for sure on top of the list is Notre-Dame. Yesterday I attended even the evening religious service and it was incredible! It is an amazing place. For sure, the well-known Eiffel Tour did not impress me at all, sorry!
How are the French people? Well, they are focused on their job, extremely busy, always dressed up. The fashion is interesting, they looks all the time very chic and trendy! The life seems rather dull though: everyone goes to work by metro at 9 or even at 10 and return at 17 or 18. There is this feeling of a system that everyone is part of and cannot get rid of! I hope I will not turn into a psychic workaholic once I start working next Wednesday!
I am extremely excited to start working and cannot wait for it! I visited the offices and saw some of the interns also working there so this got me even more curious about it!
In the weekend, visiting Rennes and Angers, in the West of France! So I’ll come back with more impressions on France soon!