i am here...internet issues

Hi all,

I am here! Paris is gorgeous.

I am sorry I have not updated by blog. I will not have free internet until (hopefully) Saturday when I move into my dorm. I am staying in a hostel in the 20th arrondissement for five days prior to my dorm move in.

Quick news: Maggie and her mom are here! I was so happy to see her after five months! We met up at Notre Dame last night and had dinner in St. Germaine at a cute french hole-in-the-wall. I will of course provide more details in a later post. Also, Ellen and Laura are also in Paris!

Until next time,
Kristin

tracking, contacting, addressing and seeing the future

It is less than forty hours until I leave. Estoy lista. It's sad that I am more comfortable with Spanish than French. I'm possibly going to the wrong country to study abroad. C'est la vie. Here is my flight and contact information:

flights:
departing flight:
Houston to London | London to Paris – Sun., May 25 to Mon., May 26

returning flight:
Paris to London | London to Houston – Tues., July 8

contact me at:
email address: kristin.murray@bba05.mccombs.utexas.edu
skype: kristin.della

escp-eap dorm address:
Résidence Vivaldi
Attn: Kristin Murray
102, Rue de Reuilly
75012 Paris, France

time difference:
Paris is seven hours ahead of Central Standard Time in the US.

t-minus seven

I left Austin yesterday. This means I leave in one week. Rather flooding the page with to-do lists that currently occupy post-its on my laptop, digital reminders in my Outlook, or the random scribbles on pieces of paper floating between my purses, I will give you a sneak peak of who I get to meet up with in Paris. I will be rendezvous-ing with my dear friend Maggie, who has been studying abroad in Italy this spring, and her mom. We don’t have solidified plans for Paris, but something tells me it will entail many laughs, pictures, and a fantastic dance party.

Maggie and I last December before Texas Spirits formal:

Us jamming out at the greatest dance party of Fall 2007. Good times.

If you couldn’t tell, we are a fan of the one-hand-up number:

I wager we bring a riot that will rival the storming of the Bastille.

Get ready for us Paris.

what to look forward to

1. picture taking
2. meeting up with Maggie and Mama Bang (may 28-31st)
   
3. people-watching-afternoons at cafes
4. weekend trips
5. jazz clubs
   
6. being lost but pretending i know exactly what i’m doing and where i’m going
7. food: coffee, crepes and dishes with entirely too much cream
8. new faces. new handsome faces.
9. learning French
   
10. soaking up design inspiration
11. pashminas
12. dance parties - euro style
    

anxious much?

chers amis,

So this is my blog. Glad you made it here. Alas, I have joined the bandwagon and created a blog to chronicle my travels. For the first summer session, I will be studying abroad in Paris, France at the ESCP-EAP School of Management. I will be taking two marketing courses while across the Pond. As of May 25^th, I will be out of the country for six weeks attempting to get educated and more importantly, cultured. This will be my first time outside the confines of the States.

This Spring, three of my friends from UT studied abroad: Laura in Hong Kong, Maggie in Perugia, Italy, and Katie in Paris. After a semester of blog-stalking, it is now my turn to revel in the new journeys of a foreign land and to document my escapades for my readers. For those of you who subscribed to the New York ventures of the summer past, welcome back.

And so I went: The title implies spontaneity, but don’t be fooled. If anyone is the antagonist to spontaneity, it’s me. I plan. I’m the kid who drew up her own floor plan for her restaurant when she was in elementary (Spices was the name. I even picked out plateware at World Market [big chunky ceramics]). I’m the kid who actually gave her agenda a name. And I am the kid who started planning this trip since last summer. So while the title suggests I woke up one morning and just decided to gallivant out of the country on a whim, what it really means is taking advantage of my last summer of college and just going – even though you don’t know anyone, you really don’t know any French, and don’t exactly know how you are going to pay for everything. You just go.

Unfortunately, I am not too witty. And I don’t intend to experience deep personal revelations while I am abroad. So I don’t expect this blog to extremely comedic or extremely moving. It will be a chronicle of six weeks of my life that just happens to take place in a little city called Paris (and a few fabulous weekend destinations).

Current itinerary leading up to my departure:

May 1 – May 16: Last week of classes, finals, wrapping up my internship
May 17: relocate to Houston
May 18: Two by Two Wine and Cheese event
May 19 – 24: Frantically packing, running errands, and cramming in some French study time
May 25: Au revoir

traveling tyro,
Kristin