When I first arrived in Paris, I was tired from my long trip from New York to Reykjavik to Luxembourg, then a train ride to the Gare du Nord. At Reid Hall I was told I couldn't check into my hotel until after 3 pm and I should have fun walking around the city. I walked and walked, bought some Paris postcards, and sat down with a lovely building facing me. I was so tired it didn't dawn on me what this building was. I looked it up and low and behold it was Notre Dame! I enjoyed all the nooks and crannies of the building and wrote my post cards. It was heaven on a sunny fall day.

Then on my second night at the hotel I became friends with some Yale students who were going to go to Hemingway's old haunts. I went with them and all of us felt awed that we were walking in the same streets as Hemingway and drinking in some of the same restaurants and bars. Memorable.

Another thing I remember is walking around Le Louvre and noticing that the downspouts were in the shape of dragons. How French -- and how unlike our boxes in the U.S. (This was before the pyramid was placed at the entrance - 1975).

I had two roommates, a German and a Japanese, in the apartment the Reid Hall people found for me on Montparnasse. All of us got along well but I became closer to the German. Both of my roommates spoke several languages, while I was struggling with French. Our language at the apartment was English, even though I told myself before I enrolled that I was going to immerse myself and never speak English.

I won't say living in Paris was easy. However, I have a lot of memories of being low on funds and eating a delicious demi-bagette and walking all over the city peering into courtyards and marveling at the lovely gardens. I learned a lot at Reid Hall but Paris taught me even more about myself.

Diana Jividen