I'm no longer a nomad!

So after two weeks of apartment hunting and waiting, I have finally moved into a wonderful apartment and will be here for the next two months! As you may have discerned from my previous posts, I arrived in Paris a bit naive of the difficulties of finding an appartment. In retrospect, I was probably lucky to have only spent a week living in the hostels (meeting some very nice travellers along the way) and the past week was spent very comfortably renting my own bedroom from an older British woman near the Bastille.

However, all that is done with and I am now situating myself in a four bedroom apartment in the heart of Paris (about three minutes from the Louvre). Although I was initially reluctant to live with other Americans, I realized that a certain degree of familiarity is actually very nice when otherwise surrounded by a fairly foreign environment. Thus, I am living with three girls from Harvard and I think we'll do quite well together. All three of them will be working (like me) and all three speak some degree of French and are looking to improve (also like me), so I'm hoping that we'll all make our own contacts (through work, etc) and then introduce them to each other. That might be an idealistic hope, but so far I've had some luck in meeting Parisians, so perhaps it will be the same for them.

As far as the actual location goes, the apartment is located on the 5th floor (no elevator!!) of a traditional old Parisian building. We each have our own large rooms, along with a decent sized kitchen, two bathrooms, and a living room. The only downside to this situation is that for some reason, the girls we are renting from decided to take all of their linens with them, so I just had to go buy sheets and pillows (incredibly cheap, low thread count ones, of course). Otherwise, I am quite happy and glad that I held out during those first two weeks. The neighboorhood is known to be a bit stuffy because it is generally home to wealthy older Parisians, but it's about five minutes from a bunch of bars and restaurants near the Opera Garnier and the Marais district. We are also about two minutes (or less) from Palais Royal, a HUGE old building of sorts that encloses a beautiful garden. Other than a few small, non descript entrances, it's very easy to pass right by the garden without ever knowing it. The entrance to the Palais Royal is right across the street from the Louvre, so I also intend to take advantage of its free Friday evenings at least a few times during my stay.

When I clean my room up a bit and actually unpack, I'll post some pictures. For now though, I'm just happy to know where I'm going to live for the next two months. And, after a fair amount of difficulty with Bank of America and their French partner bank, I've managed to pay for the two months of rent up front, so I that burden has been eliminated as well!