Friday evening I told my colleagues, in French, that I was leaving (and they all proceeded to laugh hysterically at my terrible accent) and hopped a train to London. Ok, hopped makes it seem a little easier than it was. I bought my Eurostar ticket about two months ago. This week I carefully planned my route to the train station (Gare du Nord) and got detailed instructions from my coworkers about how to get there (via bus) and how to use the bus system. Gare du N...

This past Monday I started my first day in our Paris office. There are about fifteen people that work there. The Legal portion consists of three attorneys (one Brazilian, another German and the third Polish, but she’s currently in Chicago) and one assistant, who is British. The other people in the office, I think, are mainly French. Everyone speaks several languages, including English, but pretty much everyone speaks French to each other. Mainly people speak E...

Saturday evening we decided to start exploring the neighborhood. We had dinner at a place called “Indiana Café” (which I later found out is a chain). I think that they meant “Indian Café," because there was a picture of a Native American on the menu. After dinner we walked toward my office, meandering and shopping along the way. I have a feeling that I’m going to leave Paris with a lot more than 2 bags. For dessert I bought a crepe with Nutella and ban...

The apartment that I'm staying in is very old and a bit quirky. (When I texted my friend Kim, who is visiting next week, that it is quirky, she asked "should I be scared?" Scared-no. Prepared-yes.) It looks like a Parisian apartment (go figure). While it is roomy and I’m sure very expensive, it lacks some of the amenities that I would get if I were staying at a hotel. Although, staying in an apartment does make me feel more like a Parisian. When I was looking ...

My trip and arrival to Paris was uneventful (phew). Our taxi driver didn’t speak any English and I was happy that I spent the time sitting in Chicago traffic learning French. The cab was a new, clean, SUV and the cab driver apologized profusely when he missed our destination by a couple of buildings and offered to back up. Now there’s something you don’t see in Chicago. My apartment is in a very old Haussman-style building. I had my mom and Marianne wait o...