On arriving and Charlie Hebdo

My first day in Paris was overwhelming to say the least. I could be selfish and complain about the three hour flight delay, the crying baby that I wanted to murder on my flight, or the serious jetlag I faced during my first 24 hours of being abroad. To be honest, the most overwhelming thing of being here though is feeling the tension and anxiety in Paris. If you have been living under a rock, let me break it down for you: 12 writers of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical newspaper, were brutally murdered on Wednesday morning by two Islamist gunmen due to a cartoon they published depicting the prophet Muhammad. Since then, there have been two hostage situations, one of which included the two gunmen. At around 5pm local time, the police offers found the gunmen and killed them. The past 48 hours have been intense and it's been hard to get the most up-to-date coverage of it all when you have (if you're lucky) 30 minutes of wifi a day.

I've been told that these events are to the French what the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were to Americans. Luckily, what I can say about all of this is that the French are very unified on this issue. The solidarity is palpable; you can't walk more than two blocks without seeing graffiti reading "Je Suis Charlie" and French businesses all have the slogan written on chalkboards or pieces of paper on their store fronts. There have been several peaceful demonstrations against these attacks and there are more planned for this weekend. As a foreigner in Paris, I'm not sure how to react to everything; the line between being respectful of a culture that isn't my own while being vocal is very fine. I will never quite understand the magnitude of what these attacks mean because I am not French. I didn't grow up seeing these cartoons and I still don't even understand what Franco-Islamic relations are like. While it might be easy for me to be dubious of the comparison of Charlie Hebdo to 9/11, bottom line is that I just won't understand the magnitude of these events. All I can do at this point is be respectful of the feelings of many French people and remain observant.

On a separate note, I'm moving leaving my hostel in the 14th arrondissement tomorrow morning for my host family's apartment in the super swanky 6th arrondissement right off the Seine. Im super stoked because I got the family I requested and I am only about a ten minute walk from Paris 4 (Paris-Sorbonne) where I will be studying Art History. I'll try to update you all tomorrow and make sure to attach a picture of the view from my window (which is sure to make you all super pissed that you're stuck on the east coast in a snow storm lol sorrynotsorry).