Day 1: The Phantom Menace

This is the first real entry of the blog, hopefully this entry will be informative and perhaps even interesting. Unfortunately, the first sentence is neither informative nor interesting (and it looks like this one isn’t either). After a semi-sleepless flight with a talkative neighbor, I arrived with no hangups and set about my self-guided weeklong reorientation of Paris. I set about trying to get to know the left bank better, and walked from the 5th arrondisement to the 15th (where the dormitory will be situated), but I felt drawn to the right bank, with its more familiar territory.
I wandered around Paris University at lunchtime and found the longest line for sandwiches and joined it. I figured out the opera schedules (Cosi Fan Tutti!) and took up various stations around the city to read. I started on the steps of the Opera Garnier, the roof of Gallerie LaFayette, the carousel in the gardens off of Rue de Rivoli, the fountains by the Lourve and finally ended up back in Place Contrescarpe, where much of the A Moveable Feast takes place.
The hotel I am at is merely a hold over, the one I had planned on staying at doesn’t have any record of a reservation, so I am down the block at another recommended place for just one night. As much as I hate dragging around my stuff, I really want to stay at the other hotel, it is beautiful and has a great history, literary and otherwise (my Dad having stayed there in his med school days).
I went to Le Soufflet for a late dinner, but was so dead tired I promptly crashed thereafter, even though the Eiffel Tower had a spotlight on it, and I want to know why! I also need to make a list of stuff to do before classes start, but right now I know that somewhere on my list I'll make room for dressing up like Waldo (who must be French) and hiding in the crowds.