Orientation...

So after an awesome first day in Paris, day two consisted of orientation all day until 4pm. Then, at 4pm, we FINALLY would get our home-stay information (this will be thoroughly explained in the next post). It was a very nerving racking day because everyone just wanted to find out information on their home-stay.

The first part of orientation just explained everything banking.  It explained that the currency is the Euro.  Each bill and coin is a different size based on value (50's are huge, while 5's are like Monopoly™ money).  They told us which ATM's to NOT use because they liked to eat international cards.  They explained how American credit cards didn't have the "pus" or chip, so you would need to explain to some places that they need to swipe it (by explain, they mean do a swiping motion).

After money, they moved onto the Metro.  They tried to scare us by going way over the top about it.  They saidwe would get pick-pocketed on the Metro. It was a foregone conclusion.  We would stick out like dumb Americans and be prime targets for thugs.  And we shouldn't ride the Metro late at night!! Absolutely not, that's when all the scary bad men come out... Needless to say, I haven't felt unsafe on the Metro yet.  I have listened to my iPod, played games on my cell phone and even almost fell asleep once. No pickpockets and no trouble yet (knocking on wood).

Outside of that, orientation was pretty uneventful.  They went over emergency contacts and how to call the police/fire department. After six hours of endless meetings and stuff, we finally got to the topic everyone wanted to talk about: our home-stays!