Paris is truly an amazing city. It’s a place I’ve always wanted to visit and the experience there surpassed my expectations. At the outset I was concerned about basic things like if the language and cultural differences would negatively affect my interactions. Also, I was concerned about how an American would be responded to in France as well. To my surprise, all of the preconceived notions I had about France were all wrong. Everyone I talked to was extremely helpful and accommodating. When I arrived at CDG airport, I was immediately able to locate my bag and call 
airport connection (shuttle service), which was at the airport waiting by the time I arrived at the exit gate they requested I meet them at. The ride to the Fondation-Des-Etats-Unis, where I lived for the duration of my stay, was approximately a thirty minute drive to the banlieue (suburb) to inner city Paris. I was pleased to see that the Fondation was literally across the street from the RER/train line and tramway Cite Universitaire stop, which I soon realized was actually ideal location to get to major transfer points on the metro/rer, major train stations, and the airport.
The check in process at the Fondation took minutes, and Abroadco provided a welcome bag with food, orientation information, and very helpful maps upon my arrival. That night, we all met Holly (Abroadco on-site director) and the other members of the Abroadco group. We met at a restaurant a couple of RER stops away and had a filling meal and got to know everyone.
The next big event took place that Friday, the placement test for the Sorbonne. It’s not recommended that you really stress over the test, it’s just meant to gauge your learning level, but brushing up on basic grammar rules and conjugation (future, P.C., use of en) isn’t a bad idea. Class was good and my teacher was Ok as well. Class is from either 9-11 or 11-13(or 1pm). It’s not likely you’ll be able to change 
sections based on time - you’d have to have another more serious conflict of interest. Also there are phonetic classes that start approximately a week later that you take for an hour for 10 days. (This depends on your language level).
On a lighter note, my personal exploration was another highlight of my trip. I often just took off with my map, and began to explore the city. The map is essential and there are many one way streets and streets that are parallel, but don’t have perpendicular connecting streets for a long distance. The logic you’d use in the U.S. to navigate might not be applicable in Paris. It seems impossible to see everything in Paris, after you’ve visited the major tourist attractions; there are so many smaller yet still significant museums and landmarks that are worth visiting scattered all over the city. A few of my favorite of the smaller museums were the musee de Picasso, Rhodin, and musee dapper.
I also recommend that you read the free newspaper that you can get in most metro stations A Nous Paris II, to keep abreast of interesting events happening in Paris for the current and following week, many of which are free and very interesting ranging from art exhibits and music to theater. I enjoyed visiting the many museums and exploring the city which was what I did when I wasn’t studying or in class, but there is something to do for everyone depending on his/her interest(s). I definitely missed home toward the latter part of my trip, but I’ll also miss Paris, it’s a great city that I’m sure I’ll visit again.