7 Days in Paris

And on the seventh day she rested...

Paris was a good experience. It was my first time conducting the Semester Abroad -Europe Orientation and I enjoyed working with the students. The structure of morning meetings for information, some group "walk-about"s and the evening meets on the Terrace at the hostel allowed time for them to explore and me to meet with each student. Twenty is plenty to keep track off!

The start had a few surprises. One of my students decided not to go at the gate right before we were going to start boarding. It was making a tough call at the time to let her stay but it turned out to be the right decision, just a little stressful for the start of the journey. Then it was a on to Paris- a pretty smooth flight though nothing seemed to help me sleep until the few hours before we arrived. Since I had inadvertently taken Excedrin with caffeine the night before and slept little by evening of our first day I bottomed out and had to sleep a few hours in the early evening. I recovered well then and Saturday was a good day for teaching and exploring Paris.

There were some low and high points in our adventures here in Paris but overall everyone picked up many of the skills they will need to navigate in Europe at their project sites. And watching their enthusiasm and pure joy at being here was infectious. We had a big dinner together at La Gueuze and it was superb. Student shad everything from pigs feet to mussels and many strange new desserts as well. Everyone felt extraordinarily happy to be together and made a leap to getting to know those at their tables. Many museums, markets, walks and travel arrangements later, the day came to head to their separate sites. The day they left felt much like the day we came- it was hard to sleep and I had a 4 AM wake up call to start the goodbye as each started their journey. That went on all day. All left on Thursday except for two who had to go on later trains- one Friday and One Saturday. The photos I took of each is on my Face book photo album (sans Megan who I missed when she left early- missed her by a minute, and Seth who leaves today. Kevin and I took a walk to Notre Dame after the last student trundled off and decided at the spur of the moment to stop for a drink and watch the world from a cafe'. Seconds later the sky opened with a terrific downpour! I felt like I was in the palm of the universe and toasted in gratitude for all our good fortunes so far.

After 7 days of fairly intense work I took a day of play and we went to see Chartres Cathedral- a gorgeous day in France and very mellow and moving. I rebooted and was ready to address the papers again.

Kevin and I will take the Eurostar to London tomorrow and go right on to Edinburgh. It will be fun to revisit Dalkeith Palace where we will stay and see our old haunt (I taught there in WIS in '97 and '03). Then it's quickly on to the Orkney's to see my first student. Will post photos soon- promises, promises....