We had orientation virtually all day long, but I was happy about that. I like being informed and whatnot.
They had told us breakfast would be at 8, so Katie and I were down there at 8. A couple minutes later, the RD showed up to show us how everything works in the cafeteria, and about 30 minutes later a couple other people started showing up (only after the RD made an announcement on the PA system). Classic!
Our sessions were about all the usual/expected things, like health and safety, the campus, Paris itself, etc. We also had a little crash course in French (everyone sucked at it. It's very difficult). We were provided with lunch made by the kitchen staff. It was soooooooooooooo good! Not even just because Seville's cafeteria food was so bad. I had this amazing fish in a really good cream sauce, yummy potatoes, broccoli, yogurt, cheese, and bread.
After all the sessions, Matthieu took us on a walking tour of our area. It was pretty extensive, and fun, too. We walked back to campus afterward to make it in time for 7:00 dinner (so early! But also not...).
Dinner was not AS good as lunch, but it was still pretty great. I can't remember exactly what I had...I think it was pasta and vegetables or something, accompanied by cheese, pudding, and pineapple.
Katie, Gina, Tiffany, and I then went to the Eiffel Tower. We were there a good hour or so, taking pictures and having fun while trying to stay warm.
We kind of failed at staying warm, so then we went to Starbucks to get some waaayyyy overpriced (but delicious) hot chocolate. We posted all our cute Eiffel Tower pictures on social media, and then left.
Right at this moment was when word started to spread about the initial terrorist attacks. Luckily, we were far enough away to be totally oblivious, and were headed back to campus. As soon as we reached the gate to campus, one of our fellow DTW students, Desirée, ran up to tell us about what had been happening. Everyone saw from our posts that we were out and about, so they were all worried about us. I also started getting messages from concerned family members and whatnot.
The rest of the night was very weird. Several of us stayed up together until about 2:30 am (when things kind of "calmed down") and just listened to the news and tried to keep each other sane. Facebook came through with the safety check-in feature; it was a great, quick way of informing pretty much everyone we knew that we were indoors and protected. The RAs here came and took roll, making sure we were all accounted for. St. John's back in Queens, though, was largely silent, or at least that's how it seemed to us. We were infuriated to see so many tweets about the basketball game while we were hiding in a room genuinely fearing for our lives. Luckily, though, we were all perfectly fine, and the staff here proved to be absolutely wonderful following the events of this night (I'll elaborate on what they've done for us in my next few posts).
Many people had trouble sleeping after that, but luckily I was exhausted enough to just pass out.
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