Baguettes and such

This past weekend was simply glorious, so a couple other MIT '09s now in Paris and I took advantage of the weather to enjoy a day along the Seine, during which time I got in my standard tourist photo shoot.

So how's Paris treating me? The administration's killing me (it's not so easy being a foreigner in France), the people don't all grasp the concept of "personal space" (I have literally had conversations during which I kept walking into parked cars as I continually tried to get myself some decent breathing room), lunch breaks are very frustrating when you are trying to run errands (lots of stores close for an hour or two between 1 and 3), and I've had very few chances to practice my French since people here jump at opportunity to use their limited English on native speakers and most of the other first-years in my program have limited to no French. On the up-side, I have the most adorable tea and china set, I just found a great store that sells gourmet teas at very affordable prices (even given the euro-dollar exchange rate, as I've yet to get access to my European bank account), and the bread here is absolutely to die for. Mmm, baguettes...