Sara’s abroad in Paris, France, until Dec. 13.

When you’re studying abroad, the “studying” part can be quickly overlooked. Even on the more intense programs, the workload is definitely a change of pace from the everyday schedule at Northwestern. This past week though was slightly reminiscent of busy midterm weeks back in Evanston, but even with two presentations and an exam, the “abroad” part still takes precedent. And the no class on Fridays doesn’t hurt. It really is the good life. One thing I will say is that all too often we let the good things slip by unappreciated.

Maybe I’m alone in this, but I have so many memories of simple times from high school or other things from the past that I just didn’t appreciate at the time. There was always something greater on the horizon: senior year, college or just the next upcoming weekend where it was so easy to lose sight of what was going on at that particular moment.

My point with all this is that studying abroad is definitely not something I have taken for granted. At least once a day, everyday, I’ll be walking around Paris and think to myself, or think aloud, “It doesn’t get much better than this.” The past two days have been beautiful in Paris, 70 degrees and blue skies, and I’ve spent it “promenading” around the city -– shopping, sightseeing, barhopping — doing just about everything there is to do.

This weekend in particular has been one of the first weekends I’ve really had a chance to explore Paris. Everyone warns you when you go abroad not to travel too much because you won’t get to know the city you’re staying in and I can definitely see how that would happen. Especially with Paris. Sort of like Chicago, Paris is a city of neighborhoods. Within three blocks, the tone of a “quartier” can completely transform, so it’s very easy to get attached to certain neighborhoods and not explore outside of your favorite spots. Paris itself is a divided city with the Seine River running right through the middle of the city. I have a feeling people develop a preference early on for a left- or right-bank experience, similar to north and south campus leanings at NU. I, myself, have just happened to find more points of interest on the left bank. It’s the home to the Latin Quarter, the famous intellectual center that has now turned into great nightlife and cheap “grec” sandwiches. It’s been my experience that the right bank is much more touristy and crowded — great for shopping, but not exactly where you want to start looking for a cheap meal. However, while wandering around looking for a decent gelato place, I was pleasantly surprised today by the right bank. There were cute neighborhoods that were surprisingly not overrun with tourists –- not half bad. Again, Paris really never disappoints.

And while we’re on the subject of trying new things…

All this shopping and wandering I’ve been doing over the past two days? Well, my roommate Casey jetset off to Barcelona this weekend (lucky) and more people on the program left for Madrid and Rome, leaving me all aloney on my owney. Or, more correctly, left me with a surprising ratio of more guys to girls, so that shopping and exploring has all been done with the company of les garcons. For someone who has grown up with primarily just girlfriends, gone to a school like Northwestern where there always seems to be more girls around, lived on South Campus in the center of all the sororities and majored in journalism where I think there are about eight girls to every guy -– traveling in a pack of three to four guys is an experience in itself, especially in a city like Paris, which is not particularly known for its masculinity. While there hasn’t been much in the way of actual school work, I’d say between wandering the city and navigating the Paris fashion scene with staunchly American guys, it’s been an educational weekend after all. The only downside? Bars in Paris can be unexpectedly similar to American frats: trying to get into one with fewer girls than guys is not an easy task. But if my worst case scenario is hanging out in the Latin Quarter with a group of friends until the early hours of the morning because we couldn’t get into a club colloquially called “Sexy Bar for Crazy Night”? I’ll take it.

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