Rain, rain, go away!

Today was a great day, aside from the overcast and oftentimes stormy weather we received! It started with orientation at the class center in south Paris. The entire group seems to be getting along extremely well and I'm getting close to the sophomores on the trip. We played a game of spades in the cafe area before getting aboard a tour bus with a very knowledgeable guide who gave us insight to this amazing city! We made a few stops at major monuments of the city but the constant rain kept us from doing anything engaging; I settled for a few photo-ops without much complaint (which are posted on facebook now!).

The real fun began once we got back to the FIAP. The 6 underclassmen and I took the metro back to le Marais and shopped around for a few necessities before going back to one of the apartments to relax. Most of us were extremely tired because our bodies have not quite yet adjusted to the new time zone but we all stayed awake! We each bought a bottle of wine and slowly worked our way through 7 bottles... there were 7 students drinking said bottles over the course of 5 hours so we all reached a healthy dose of "veritas" without getting drunk. I bonded really well with the others as we discussed politics, social issues, life, death, marriage, and everything in between before venturing onto youtube to find solace and laughter amongst great videos! We had a wonderful meal prepared by one of guys and really enjoyed one another's company. This is definitely a wonderful group of engineers who want to thoroughly enjoy both Paris and the rest of the students.

I made my way back feeling wonderful about life and found my apartment without much difficulty... Sadly, my fun ended as I had to (finally) start on homework assignment 1 which is due tomorrow by noon. The problems were very simple and merely an introduction to the program we will be using extensively throughout this course so no curve-balls tonight! Tomorrow is another day with more experiences and hopefully more wine! We begin our French course in the morning, a language I have taken a great interest in as it is so beautiful when spoken. The afternoon should bring a much needed shopping trip down rue de Rivoli and maybe a few department stores in central Paris!