This weekend I went to Paris to take the GRE Literature Subject Test. Before I left Toulouse, I made sure I had a well reviewed hostel booked in a part of the city near tourist attractions and an easy metro ride away from my testing site.
The train ride from Toulouse to Paris is 5 1/2 hours, which is long, BUT it's a very pretty ride with lots of vineyards, olive groves, old castles (little ones), and meadows along the way. Second class was nicer than I expected. Then again, I only carried a backpack and my purse, so I think I had an easier time than people with large suitcases that wouldn't roll down the aisle and were too big to be stored overhead. *little piece of advice-travel SUPER light around Europe and just wash if you need to in your hotel room (most will have hair dryers if you need to dry your clothes quickly* Montparnasse, the train station in Paris (one of them anyway) seems crazy at first, but it's pretty organized. The metro is connected underground so there's no need to leave the station, and should you arrive hungry or sans travel info there are plenty of info kiosks, wall maps, and little restaurants.
*Thankfully, Paris has reduced price metro tickets for individuals 14-25. However, apparently I only bought the ones that work on Saturday. When you are buying metro tickets I suggest you buy in bulk and seriously pay attention to the zones that tickets are valid for and the days on which you can use them.* Hopping on line 12, I rode to Jules Joffrin and found my hostel literally right around the corner from the metro stop. The Montclair hostel was a good choice~ it was cheap, super friendly, and in a great location! Unfortunately, if you're on the first floor it can be really loud (I'm a heavy sleeper and it was hard to sleep) because the walls are quite thin and the doors naturally slam shut. But the hostel has a cool hippy kinda vibe and it was really clean! The spiral staircase and the cave made me happy for no reason other than it's a SPIRAL STAIRCASE and A CAVE!!! In my dorm style room I made friends with a New Yorker named Alex who ventured around our area with me in search of some travel supplies and dinner. Cafe d'Albert had yummy food for nice prices and a good atmosphere. The best thing though was the crazy, bejeweled painting on the wall of a wolf, a rooster, and a pot. After the long travel day and some good food it was time for me to put myself in my bed, study for a few hours, and get some sleep.
The next morning was surprisingly simple. I'm not a calm person when it comes to test days of any sort. I worry, I wake up way too early and somehow always end up lost, late, or forgetting something; it's just not a positive experience staring off the day. However, I woke up on Saturday morning, gathered my things quietly in the dark of my dorm style room and descended into the cave for breakfast. The metro stop was on line 12 and only a few stops away from Jules Joffrin, and surprisingly, the actual testing site for the GRE was just a short walk down the road. With the odd name 'Eurosites de la Chapelle' I was a bit worried about finding it, but it was a clearly marked white building. I'd made it, with no negative incidents !!! Awesome. I'm going to skip over the details for the test, except to say that it was so GOOD to hear ENGLISH, and that out of all the people taking the test the majority were Language Assistants.
***I'm glad I'm here, but it gets weirder and weirder knowing that Americans usually don't do what I'm doing. They come to teach or to do study abroad with programs. I feel a bit like Lewis or Clark - striking out into the vast unknown. So, the test was miserable, it was. And it's precisely supposed to be that way: 230 questions to answer in 170 minutes (aka 2 hours 50 minutes) and probably about 215 of those questions requiring you to read long passages and then refer back to those passages multiple times. And we're not talking about simple, factual passages, no we're talking Milton or symbolist poetry or Freudian criticism with words you've never seen before...
Like any other experience, I survived the test (should get my scores in 6 or so weeks) and it gave me a valid reason to take off to Paris for the weekend!
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