Pearls in Paris

For those of you who don't know, I wear pearl earrings everyday. Whether I'm wearing a black dress or t-shirt, it's guaranteed that I'll be wearing pearls. As a result, my roommates (shout out to 907) call me Pearls. The only reason I bring this up is because "Pearls in Paris" is just some fun alliteration (plus common r's, a's, and s's, too).

We just completed our fourth day at ESCP-EAP. Classes are going pretty good. Nothing too taxing. School gets in the way of Paris anyway.

Yesterday, the marketing program students were treated to a generous welcome lunch from ESCP-EAP. We were served a three course meal (free, too!). After class dismissed, myself and three other girls decided to venture out to the Latin Quarter. We found a nice café near the Luxembourg Gardens and split a bottle of wine. Later on, I tried a Nutella crepe – delicious. We walked around the gardens and saw the original (and smaller) Statue of Liberty. Quick history: the lady that resides in New York Harbor was a gift to the US from France in 1886.

Later on we, by chance, came across the site of Princess Diana’s fatal crash. Her car hit one of the columns in this tunnel…a bit surreal:

In front of the Eiffel:

There is also an accounting program from UT who is participating in a program in Paris, too. The majority of the students from both programs went on a boat tour down the Seine River. There were some rowdy groups of German, Spanish, and Italian pubescent teens on the tour. One of the Spanish girls (who could not be more than 13) sat smoking behind me. Seriously?

Lay off the puffer, hun.

The top right picture is Invalides. Napoleon is buried here.

Notre Dame and one of the hundreds of couples along the Seine.

After the tour, our UT group some how merged with an obnoxious group of kids (probably fresh high school graduates) from New Jersey. They were fully exercising the 18 legal drinking age here. It was embarrassing to be associated with the loud, obnoxious Americans the French dislike. Luckily, we were separated from them in some metro chaos. Free from “USA, USA” shouting, bottle-cradling Jersey kids, about fifteen students from my marketing class headed back to the Latin Quarter. We all piled into a bar – St. George or something… - with green lights flashing everywhere. We were greeted by waitresses in masks and by the sounds of Rihanna playing in the background. We all ordered the cheapest drink available. Mine was called TNT, and the waitress lit it on fire. It burnt (well, not literally) and tasted like cinnamon Mike and Ikes (which I’m not fond of), but at least I can say I tried a drink with flames.

We opted to walk back to the residence. What we estimated to be a 20 minute walk turned into a 50 minute pilgrimage back the residence. But hey, we 1) saved money that would have otherwise gone to a cab and 2) burned some extra calories.

This week is our only week to have class on Friday. We will wrap up a Negotiations workshop with a consultant from the Netherlands tomorrow. Then, I’m off to the land of red coats, bad teeth, and union jack.

LONDONtown.