City livin'

As a girl who's lived in Suburbia all her life, getting used to city life has been a challenge for me. Not only am I used to seeing some grass everyday, but I'm an outdoor enthusiast and plan weekend and day trips camping, hiking, biking, and kayaking.

Paris is a place I've wanted to visit ever since 7th grade when I chose to take French over Spanish and German as my language elective. I immediately realized that I wanted to learn the language, become fluent, and be able to spend a few months of my life living in the city.

It goes without saying that European cities are very different from American cities--the organization, the architecture, the shops, vendors, and restaurants that can be found there. But I have only visited NYC once in my life for a few short hours, and only spent a few days in Philadelphia. So I'm not what one could consider a city slicker, by any means.

There are a handful of things that I've observed not only about Paris as a city, but of myself in a city like Paris.

1. No matter where you go in Paris, you're likely to smell urine.
--The biggest hotspots for this is, no surprises here: the metro. It's been disheartening seeing so many homeless people all over the city, especially in the metro. I lived in Salvador, Brazil for a month, where I literally felt guilty for having the monetary means to walk around with shoes on my feet and a shirt on my back on a daily basis. In comparison, Paris is not as profoundly plagued with homelessness as developing countries. But it is sad, nonetheless. There is a man who sits at the bottom of the steps at the Vaugirard metro stop (my connection to everywhere in Paris, essentially) EVERY DAY with a cup in his hand begging for money. One day I had just bought a metro ticket and had about 10 centimes left that I hadn't stored back in my purse yet. I thought to myself that he definitely needed the money more than I did, so I gave it to him.
I felt great--that day. Now every day when I pass him, I know what he's thinking...that I COULD spare him some change and that it would not lead to a life of poverty for me, forcing him to make some room on that bottom step for one more begger. But I selfishly walk past him, pretending to be in a hurry and not really able to stop for two seconds, open up my purse, and deposit a small contribution in his cup. Having coffee, taking the metro, and feeling guilty have all become part of my morning routine.
2. No matter where you're going, you're not alone.
--I've been shoved quite a few times getting onto the metro, once so much so that I wasn't even able to make it onto the train and once so that I just came pretty darn close to having to wait for the next one. Parisians can be terribly friendly, but also city life produces people who can also be quite cold. I feel, when taking the metro in particular, that I have to make a concerted effort to avoid making eye contact with the person sitting across from me. In the states, it's normal to walk past someone on the sidewalk and smile and say, "Hi." I do it ALL the time at home! But here, I find myself feeling awkward for even producing a smile at a stranger from time to time.
It's hard being in a large city for this reason. There are just SO many people (roughly 2 million, including the surrounding "région parisien".) Making friends with French people is proving to be a harder feat than I had originally expected. Living in a small town limits possibilities, yes, but you're more likely to be rich in friendships and personal contact than living in a city with 199, 999 other possible acquaintances and friends. It's sometimes a chore for me to just be able to enjoy a walk to class or a day of shopping because you're constantly forced to weave around people or wait for slow walkers (which I cannot stand) in front of you.
3. Public transportation is a MUST.
--Parking in Paris is terribly expensive. For this reason, a large number of people rely on the metro system, the bus system, or the Velibs (bikes) that you can take around the city. It's strange that there is an obvious stigma against public transportation in the States. People who take the bus every day to work, at least in Pittsburgh, are people who can't afford their own vehicles. The metro is used in New York, for sure, but in my home town, you usually don't want to have to rely on public transportation to get you from point A to point B.
The Velib system is THE BEST way to get around the city, in my opinion. The metro is very very efficient and its a reliable way to traverse the entire city of Paris, if necessary, in a shorter amount of time. But if you're looking to enjoy a scenic, more physically engaging means of transportation, the Velibs are a wonderful option. You can charge either one day, one week, or one year onto your metro card (Navigo) at one of the dozens of bike stations all over the city. They are literally everywhere! If they're not on the street you're on that minute, chances are if you round the corner, there will be a line of bikes at your disposal. You can take a bike for FREE anywhere in the city as long as you return it to another station within a half an hour. And a day pass is only one euro!
Sophie, Courtney, and I, after enjoying a nice morning of sleeping in, met up in Montparnasse at 2:30 and biked to the Mosque of Paris this past Saturday (Oct 9.) It took us a little over half an hour (we got a little lost) but it was a lovely day outside, 75 degrees to be exact! We felt very Parisian, enjoying our leisurely bike ride around the city on a lazy Saturday afternoon. We got there at a busy time for the mosque, with the waiters running around serving tea, hookah, kebabs, brik, Middle-Eastern pastries and fare to customers out on the blue-and-white-tiled terrace. There are about 25 little tables outside where you can sit and smoke hookah, treat yourself to baklava and other delicious Middle-Eastern desserts, and drink THE BEST thé à la menthe there is! The trees provided cool shade on the particularly warm day and also emanated a comforting and invigorating jasmine scent every time the wind blew. It was wonderful to say the least. We each got two glasses of tea and sat and enjoyed the atmosphere, with a perfectly cloudless blue sky and a beautiful bleach-white building behind us with dark woven-metal lamps and decorations, and bright blue and green tiles to accent. It put me right back in La Marsa and Sidi Bou Saïd in Tunisia, where I spent the winter session of my freshman year, and for that reason, I decided from then on I would spend as much time at the mosque as possible. (There is also a hammam, a Middle Eastern/Turkish bath house! Maybe I'll be checking that out at some point.)

4. To live in a city, you've gotta be pretty good at multi-tasking. And if you know me, that doesn't exactly fit my character description. When I try to do too many things at once, I end up losing something, messing something up, and becoming terribly frustrated. Case in point: I've lost TWO important cards since I've been here. (Not debit or credit, Mom and Dad, I promise.) And I lost BOTH of them the same way!
Every Wednesday from 5-7 I have art history, and this particular class period is specifically set aside for museum and site visits within Paris. A few weeks ago, we went to see Notre Dame for class. As we lined up to enter the church, I fumbled around in my over-sized messenger bag for my art history card, that grants all of us Delaware students FREE access to any national museum or art site in the city! (Pretty awesome right? Makes you feel like a VIP when you walk up in line and with the flash of your card, you're in sans problèmes! So as I fumbled around, I found my card and was waiting to present it, but didn't even have to, seeing as we were in a large group. I stuck the card in my back pocket and forgot about it.
Fast forward two hours. I arrive back home at the apartment and my card is nowhere to be found. Realized then and there that putting a card in your back pocket probably isn't the safest place to keep it.
Fast forward again two weeks or so later, same class period, same sort of deal. This time we were visiting the Hôtel de Cluny in the Latin Quarter. I mindlessly stuck my metro pass (VERY IMPORTANT) in my back pocket after using it. In the church we visited after the Hôtel, I reminded myself to check for the card in my back right pocket to avoid another catastophic loss of an important piece of plastic. Check: where I had left it, safe and sound snuggled in my jeans.
I reached the metro station and went to grab my Navigo pass where I had ASSURED it was located just about an hour before, and it was gone. My body temperature instantly rose 10 degrees as I patted myself down, looking like a fool in the line to swipe your card or metro ticket, people breezing past me with their cards in hand and ready to go. "Jeez, Anne," I thought to myself. "AGAIN?"
Yep, it had happened again. I placed myself aside the line, out of the way, to dig in my bag frantically for my card. But I knew it was gone. I immediately became furious with myself. How could I have made the same mistake again? I had recharged my Navigo pass at the beginning of October for the whole month for 60 euros and now I'd have to buy a new one.  Just a pain! The timing, however, could have been worse--I only have to buy a week pass for the rest of October, seeing as I'll only be in Paris for six more days, then it's off to Vienna, Prague, and Berlin for fall break!
I remembered that I had put my metro card into my bag at some point after leaving the church that day. This is when my lack of multi-tasking ability came into play. I dug around in my bag during a nice walk through the Luxembourg Gardens on my way back home after class to find my almond croissant I had bought earlier in the day and had been saving for a snack. I guess I had pulled my card out of my bag while pulling out the croissant, or had accidentally stuck the card inside the plastic bag that contained the pastry, then threw it out after eating it. Either way, I'm a moron. I apparently can't handle too many things on my plate at once, and should just avoid trying to do so in every way possible.

So these are the things I've been struggling with as an American girl of the suburbs living in the big city of Paris for a semester. I've wanted to live in a city all my life, and its turning out to require a lot more coordination and attention than I expected, and obviously more than I possess. But it's a work in progress. Still about three full months left! Let's see if I can become as sophisticated and graceful as the Parisians by Christmas time...hahaha