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A day in the life of Kimberly Tower

French Major, Villanova University
CUPA Spring 2013

My weekdays in Paris usually start with me heading to my ten or eleven o’clock classes at Sorbonne Nouvelle. I’m always out by the early afternoon, and that’s when the routine ends. If I’m being completely honest, I don’t think I’ve ever had an average day here. There’s always this temptation to hop on the bus or the metro and go somewhere wonderful. And you can. One of my favorite places to study is the Institut du Monde Arabe in the 5th-if I’m heading there after class, I always get off a metro stop early. That way I can grab a crêpe and walk past Notre Dame along the Seine. Sometimes I just check out the Louvre or the Musée d’Orsay or Musée de l’Orangerie, since entrance is free with our student cards. If I haven’t got much work, I go the Marais for ridiculously good falafel and cheap thrift stores. Heading back to CUPA – either for homework help or to just say hello – I duck into the Luxembourg gardens on my way from the bus stop. By the time I go home, it’s usually about seven or seven thirty and the boulangerie by my house is giving out bits of leftover pastries. It’s always nice to hold me over till my host family makes dinner about an hour later – besides, when you’re in Paris, there is always time for pastry. After dinner, I read a bedtime story to my host brother and sister, chat with the parents, and head up to my room to finish whatever work I didn’t do earlier. The city’s always changing. Every day is a cultural sensory overload. The only thing that’s constant, I think, is the way the Eiffel Tower always tends to sneak up on you. You’ll feel so calm and composed, just going about your day, and then you see it peeking out from the top of a building. It’s absurd.

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A day in the life of Kimberly Tower

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