IN FRANCE

I arrived yesterday at Charles de Gualle airport in Paris!!

My flight from Dallas to London was fine, though I sat next to a guy who was pretty strange.  He stole a bunch of chocolates from the back cabinets at the flight attendant station on the plane, and asked me to go steal more for him and insisted later that I give him a plastic bag to put all the candy in.  I denied his weird requests.  He said he was going to give the chocolates as a gift when he got home.  Whatever.

I slept during the two hour flight from London to Paris, but did wake up in time to have a quick chat with the elderly Parisian woman next to me.  She complimented me on my French and was tickled that an American student was so serious about learning her native language and living in Paris.  She asked if I was studying at the Sorbonne--EVERYONE KEEPS ASKING ME IF I'M STUDYING AT THE FREAKING SORBONNE.  I wish.

Arriving in Paris was a bit overwhelming.  The airport was jam packed, and there was some sort of a bomb scare or something on one side so the metro/train station attached to the airport was closed.  Hundreds of people surrounded the area, sitting on their luggage or leaning against walls, trying to keep their restless children behaving in the non-air conditioned terminal.  Finally the station was re-opened and people started filing through.  I bought a metro ticket to Gare du Nord and a train ticket from Gare du Nord to the city of Compiègne, where we're having a week of orientation.

I was exhausted by this point and not looking forward to navigating Gare du Nord.  The "North Station" is like Grand Central Station in New York City - except ridiculously difficult to navigate, full of stairs, non air-conditioned, and in a different language.  I had been traveling for close to twenty hours at this point, and lugging around two luggage and a HUGE carry-on backpack.  I was sweating and close to tears.  A few good samaritans helped me with questions about where I was and where I needed to go, and an Asian man who spoke no English (and little French for that matter) actually bought me another metro ticket when mine quit working.  Sweating and physically beat, I totally passed out on the train to Compiègne.  

I arrived at the station and, to my dismay, stared up at over fifty stairs that I had to climb.  Again, two luggage (one at fifty pounds, one at thirty) and a carry-on (forty pounds).  I locked eyes with an African teenager who was also traveling with luggage.  Without saying anything, I helped her carry her luggage steps, we set it down, and both turned around to get mine up.  We made two trips to bring mine up, and at the end we both uttered quiet "mercis" with little smiles and parted ways.  I wouldn't have been able to get my luggage up without her.

I dragged my bags out into the hot sun and found a taxi.  I told the driver the name of my hotel, L'Hôtel des Beaux-Arts, and he laughed - the hotel I needed was just across the street and down a couple blocks.  I told him I understood that it was very close, but that I would still appreciate a ride as I had been traveling for a long time and doubted I had the strength needed after everything to even walk MYSELF across the street, much less carry my bags.  It took less than two minutes to get there, and I paid my fare and tipped the driver.  

I checked in to the hotel but didn't see anyone in my group, so I figured that they had all gone out together for a meal.  I showered and headed out to find food.  Oh god, the food.  I spent less than 3 euros on the most satisfying sandwich I've ever eaten.  When I got back to the hotel, my university group had returned, and I introduced myself to the director of the program who was relieved to see that I had arrived in one piece traveling through Paris on my own like I had.

This morning we had an orientation meeting and received lots of exciting information about our semester, plus our class schedules.  More on that later - I have to go to a French class now.  We're having French class during orientation, which at our level is more just a tool for the students to get to know each other rather than an actual course.  

Things are great!  I will write more on the city of Compiègne and hopefully post some pictures next time.

Peace, love, and Paris,

Rhiannon