Day 2, Jetlag be damned!

Today was a day of many firsts. I awoke at the solid hour of 2 AM, thanks to my dear friend Jetlag, who single-handedly kept me from having a single night's rest during my 10-day birthright trip. Worry not, friends, I probably slept a total of 17 hours in the past 36. Huzzah!

I awoke to my first petit-dejeuner of my Paris stay. OH MY GOD. CHEESE. I will say it again. OH DEAR GOD CHEESE HOLY FUCK. Over seven types of cheeses were laid out for my liking, and if I had found enough bread to satisfy my liking, I might have had another Meg Ryan moment in "French Kiss" (if you hadn't seen it, don't-- it's horrifically cheesy. HAHA cheesy! Pun!). Also, Greek yogurt, fresh fruits... tea... I've found myself loving fruits I had hated before, like melons, or spinach. I also sort of disliked white wine before today. OH MY GOD FOOD.

After yet another post-breakfast nap, and an embarassing run to the pharamacy where I was too ashamed to ask where the toothpaste was, having forgotten the word for toothpase (pate de dents? pate pour les dents? pate-dents? dentifrice, wtf?!), I did something so typically me that it's a little embarassing: I went to the movies. Hooray for French movies! Who cares if it's actually an Israeli animated flick subtitled in French? It was awesome. (My review's in the "subbacultcha" blog: juliaalekseyeva.blogspot.com)

I walked past the infamous Moulin Rouge nightclub, only 5 minutes away from my homestay. The movie theatre is a lot like the Music Box in Chicago, red velvet curtains, fake ceiling stars and all. Studio 28, the name of the theatre, was actually founded by Jean Cocteau. The theatre was known for being one of the few theatres to run Bunuel movies (before it became horribly chic to do so). It's interesting, the differences between French and American theatres: the French (at least in the one theatre I was in) had only one screen, and often played completely different movies each day, some of which had only 3 or 4-day runs (another thing strikingly similar to the Music Box).

I'd include pictures, but I'm too afraid of seeming like a tourist to take photos. Besides, it was overcast today. And so far I've had nobody blatantly asking whether I was American (or foreign), which is a good sign, I think. Tomorrow: the beginning of Reid Hall orientation. Eek!