la vie à paris: bonjour from paris, israel and first days in france

What a whirlwind few weeks I've just had- hence my lack of bloggage.

{mayanot birthright bus 256 in jerusalem}

I just returned from a life-changing trip to Israel on Birthright's Mayanot trip. This trip included 10 days of traveling throughout the country seeing the sights and meeting the people with 48 other kids (including 8 Israeli soldiers), 2 crazy tour guides and my fabulous Chabad Rabbi, Rabbi Shmuel Posner.

{waterfall up north}

{tzfat}

We started this trip up north where we planted trees, swam in the Kineret (a lake) in our underwear, discovered the Golan Heights, saw the boarders of Lebanon and Syria, went off-road jeeping, learned about Israeli military history, hiked gorgeous green mountainsides with beautiful waterfalls and got a tour of the beautiful blue and white city of Tzfat (most gorgeous place ever).

{jerusalem}

{my best friend and me}

The trip then continued onto Jerusalem for two days where we explored the Old City of Jerusalem, shopped at some amazing markets and Ben Yehuda Street, took a 20-minute narrow underwater cave tour and celebrated Shabbat at the Western Wall (also known as the Kotel). The latter was definitely the most moving part of the trip.

{ya know, just your typical early-morning camel ride}

{masada}

{dead sea}

We then headed south to the Negev, Israel's desert, for an overnight in Bedouin tents, where we slept on the floor, ate on the floor, were drilled by the soldiers and had a bonfire with Kosher marshmallows. In the morning, after approximately two hours of sleep, we took a camel ride around the desert, then it was off to the beautiful desert mountain of Masada and the Dead Sea for some quality floating and mud rubbin'.

{beautiful tel aviv}

Part four took us to Tel Aviv for party time at a local club and shopping/sightseeing the next day. Tel Aviv is a very cool city- probably the most modern and cultural in Israel. Lots of beaches, graffiti and young people. After a day there, we went back to Jerusalem for the last two days of the trip. We went to Israel's beyond-words Holocaust museum Yad Vashem and Mt. Hertzel, a beautiful military cemetery, both located on the top of a mountain overlooking Jerusalem. Then next day we did some volunteer work and random programming, but we mostly just spend our last hours with the group. The trip ended on a wonderful note and everyone was so sad to leave our homeland and each other.

{view from my bedroom in paris on my first day here}

I returned home to New York on Friday morning just to turn around and fly back east to Paris on Saturday night. So now I'm here!! I got in yesterday morning and have spend the past two days getting settled. I am living at a place called Fondation des Etats-Unis (an American dormitory), which is part of a Parisian university housing village called Cité Universitaire. It is located in the 14th Arrondisement in the southern part of Paris. My room is huge and is a single!! I have a stunning view of the courtyard, which is especially gorgeous now that it is covered in snow. That's another thing: Paris is currently FREEZING! I have spent the past two days in maximum layerage, including tights under my jeans.

{first of many delicious snacks in paris- photo taken

in the park across from my dorm building}

My friend Olivia and I did some essentials shopping yesterday, picked up our Metro pass and hung out on Rue St. Germain des Près, where we ate our first French meal and picked up some journals and postcards. Today was Orientation Day 1 at Boston University's Paris center. We got to meet the kids in our program and learn more about what our semester is going to look like. Afterwards, we did some more shopping (obviously) and returned to Monoprix--our fave shopping spot that sells everything from clothes and makeup to groceries and toiletries. Think Paris' chic take on WalMart.

Now I'm back in my beautiful dorm unwinding and preparing for the roller coaster semester that awaits me! I'll be doing some research about what to do in the beautiful wonderful amazing city in which I now live-- not to mention figure out where the heck I am and where everything else is!!

It's very strange living in a strange place-- certainly a lot stranger than I anticipated. Not only do I now have to speak in French at any given point in the day, especially when out and about, but I also have no geographical sense of where I am or where I'm going or where anything else is in this city. And there is SO much to do! But how do I figure it out, narrow it down and find it?! The currently obstacles in the life of Marisa Rose Morrison--but I gotta say they're pretty exciting obstacles and I am very excited to conquer them! More soon! A bientôt!

Paix, Amour et Neon,
Marisa