Bonjour faithful readers,
Well another journey begins. I am safely in Paris, France for atleast 6 months to study at Le Cordon Bleu. It was a pain in the ass to get here, but the rewards will be worth it.
I arrived in Paris on December 29th 2006. Flying was a bit of a challenge, as always, but I got here. I finally got my luggage, after waiting for it for an hour and got into a taxi to take me to my place, 16 rue Gaston de Caillavet. It was a beautiful day to arrive in Paris, the air was crisp, the sky blue. Coming into the city, I saw the Effiel Tower and the river Seine. It was amazing to see this view. What a greeting! Here I waited for about an hour until my landlord came to let me in. He showed me aroundmy apartment which did not take long, signed some papers and then took me out to two stores where I could get the things I needed, like groceries and pots and so on. Then home to settle in.
My room... is just that, a large room. My apartment is one large room that holds my kitchen, closet, bed and lounging area. It is bigger than the room I had in Australia with nicer furniture! The bathroom is separate, which is nice. It is located to the right when you enter into the apartment. It is in it's own separate room. I have a large window that overlooks the city. There is a huge building in front of me, it blocks the Effiel Tower, but I can see the spot light of the Effiel Tower that revolves. Also, to the right of me, I can see Napoleon's Tomb, the gold just glistens. It's so wonderful. I am in Paris! I can't believe it. This really is amazing. I have to stop and soak it in.
I have not yet gone out to venture around my neighborhood, because of the nasty weather and because I can feel myself getting sick. The past couple of days the weather has turned cold and rainy. But the weather is great to just sit and get cozy in bed. I think my body finally realized that it had some time to just stop and relax. So that is what I am doing...relaxing. When school beings I will be going ninety to nothing again.
This time, I have a few more people coming to see me though. So that will be fun and something to look forward to. A friend, Brian will be coming over for a couple of weeks to eat and hang out. He is a chef and has done the program I am about to finish. He is friends with my sister. Then one of my bosses from Cafe Iz, Ken, is coming over in Feb or March, so it will be nice to see him. Of course I believe my parents will be coming over, a far less distance to travel than Australia, plus better food and more to see. I look forward to them coming.
For the next couple of days I am going to venture out, if the weather cooperates with me to find my school and get a feel for the neighborhood. There won't be anything interesting to report on, not just yet. School begins on 4th January 2007. At that time I will begin to write in the blog, until then, Happy New Year. I hope ya'll had a blast celebrating it. I drank the bubbly and watched movies. What a start the year!

Au revoir - Laura