Soyez Bienvenue

So, I'm currently leeching off of someone's wireless connection in my new room in Paris, right off the Place de Clichy in the 17th Arrondisement. I'm all unpacked and destressed and rehydrated after a long plane ride from Chicago, ready to hit the streets. My living situation is amazing - it's basically a two-story apartment overlooking a terrace (from which I have a huge window). Both of the guys (the father and son) are very easy to get along with, and I've already been invited to one of the son's concerts on friday. The father, who works at the Centre Pompidou, showed me his library, and I'm taken aback - it's walls of Art History books (something I've always wished I studied more of), which he gave me free rein over.

I've just figured out the metro route from Place de Clichy to Place de la Bastille, and I'm on my way now to pick up a Carte SIM for my pied noir arabic mobile phone so I can call some french friends and set up a rendezvous. Of course, I have to be back by 10pm for dinner (so much for getting some rest tonight!). I'll post some more coherent thoughts when I actually become lucid enough to compose myself a bit more. Suffice to say that first impressions are all very positive, and I'm so excited to be here. I was just looking out the window onto our little terrace/park thing, and I realized I'm fucking in Paris!