After 48 hours

"Vite!" was just shouted by a small child in my hallway. I wonder if he is hungry and ready for dinner. I'm not sure, though as the hallway is also full of cooking smells. My tiny apartment smells of the cloves that I'm simmering on the stove. There is only one window and it's on the other side of the apartment and the stove has no vent, so I've bought cloves to eliminate the cooking smells that I produce. Tonight those smells were fried egg which I put on bread with a bit of cheese, some leeks and (of course) chives. My lonely planet told me that the french eat a large lunch and a small dinner so I had some vegetable lasagna at lunch.
Yesterday, en route to church I got lost twice. When I'd finally found me way, I was pleasantly surprised that my route went past the opera and the Obelisk. I then passed the house of assembly and went to the church which shares a wall with the ministry of defense. After church (which strangely began at 2:30 pm. The "young people" were retiring to a cafe and I came along. The group was of varying nationalities and we had a great time drinking the french equivalent of Glühwein. (Warm red wine with oranges and cinnamon.) Turns out that two of the 'young people' live near me and we made plans to meet up Easter. (The Parisian UUs meet for service only once a month.)
Today, I went to school for the first time. During the grading of our placement exams and the various oral exams the teacher who offers theater activities in the afternoon (for language acquisition) put us in groups and we did a sort of pub trivia. My teacher and her assistant are lovely and a bit overly-dramatic and very enthusiastic.
Today was proof that I do learn better in a group. Thanks to a rather meek and quiet student, I learned various ways to tell someone to speak louder. Thanks to a super talented woman, for whom french is her 6 language, I was super careful about my pronunciation, attempting to get more "lovely"s and "good jobs" (whatever works, right?). I'm especially happy that I finally learned how to say "have a good day" and "have a good night" etc. I'm becoming more polite everyday and that thrills me.
Evidence that I'm super chill despite being alone in a foreign city is the fact that I missed my metro stop this afternoon while talking to my classmate and simply looked for the next possible connection and continued chatting.
I did some exploring in a new direction in my neighborhood and found the Parc de Villette. It's going to be great for reading in the sunshine ala my Rittenhouse Square days in Philly. One half is taken up with theaters, musical venues and a ton of fun things for children. So there will be sunning and reading as french children scamper by. C'est Super!