Le Banlieue

Le Banlieue is the French word for the "suburbs".  Now, Paris is completely opposite to that of the United States and its major cities.  For example, when comparing living situations in Washington D.C and it's surrounding suburbs, which do you think is safer?  Well, as charming as inner city D.C. is, I'll have to choose the suburbs of Arlington and Fairfax as a safer, cleaner, more enjoyable place to live.  In Paris this is the complete opposite.  The suburbs are the 'bad parts of town' where there is more crime and poverty.  Even during CEA orientation, the program coordinators told us to not go to the suburbs because nothing good happens there.  It isn't really a place where one aspires to visit...   
Last night, the roommates and I decided to go over to Montmartre to visit some other CEA students living over there and go to a bar for some live music.  Montmartre, in the 18th arrondissement, is on the compete other side of town.  It's unfamiliar and quite different than the 14th arrondissement on the left bank of Paris where I live.  It's famous for it's night clubs like the Moulin Rouge and the famed red light district of Paris.  Yippee!  After we took the long metro ride to the Northern side of Paris we were a little disoriented and went to go grab a quick sandwich and ask for directions at a small restaurant outside the metro station.  These directions did not help at all so we left, food in hand, and asked some very nice people on the street.  This super nice and helpful woman told us to go all the way down this one street for a very long time and then we would find the street to our friend's apartment.  So we walked and walked and walked.  The lighting got scarcer and it started to smell like an odd mixture of urine and garbage.  Just lovely.  So, we stopped again and asked some men at a bar for directions.  This man kept telling us, in French, to go to the 18th arrondissement.  Confused, I asked him which arrondissement we were in and he politely told me that I was no longer in Paris anymore.  Great.  No wonder we couldn't find the street signs on the map we had because our map was of Paris and we weren't in there anymore.  Freaked out we turned right around and walked at an amazingly fast past, warm food now cold in our to-go bags, back to where we came from.  Turns out the very nice lady had pointed us in the complete opposite direction and our destination was not far from the metro station in which we arrived.  Unfortunately, by the time we made it to the guy's apartment we were over an hour later than we said we would be and they had left and gone to the bar.  Exhausted and defeated we ate our dinner on the steps outside their apartment and headed back home.  Overall, it was an eye-opening experience and from now on our friends will be coming to our side of town.
Also, to all you older people who have lived most of your life without cell phones, Power to you!!!  It is tricky to meet up with people and coordinate plans without being in constant contact with each other.  I'm totally going through an iPhone withdrawal right now because with my handy little GPS, I could have gotten us there in no time, but I guess it wouldn't have been the same experience and I now can say that I've survived le Banlieue.