Je suis une Americianne

Current Location: Paris, France

Local Time: 5:30 PM

Bonjour!

I am currently in Paris, France laying in my twin bed approximately 2 inches from Molly’s twin bed in our hotel room. The past 24 hours have been a lot of waiting and a ton of new experiences. I guess I’ll just start from the beginning.

I arrived at the airport at 3:00 EST yesterday, and went quickly through check-in and security. We ran into Gwen while in the security line, and ended up riding the train together from to our different terminals. It was a nice surprise to see her and be all together for a little while before we left Atlanta. Once we made it to our terminal, we started to congregate as a group and before long most of our group was there… with about 2 hours to kill. There were lots of introductions and most of us were familiar with everyone by the time we boarded the plane. The plane was rather small, and we probably occupied close to 50% of it. The pilot even acknowledged our group in his opening welcome, which initiated about 50 conversations to other passengers about who we were, and where we were going, etc. I sat next to a nice lady from Detroit who told me all about the improvements to the Detroit airport, her daughters recent birthday, and her taste in books

Once in Detroit we went as a group to our connecting flight and made it there with about 20 minutes before boarding (a much welcome change from the 3 hours we had waited in Atlanta!). This plane was much larger than our first and much nicer. There were TV’s in the back of each seats, 2 meals, and even a fair amount of leg room. Unfortunately, sleep was very difficult to come by. I dozed for maybe an hour or so, and spent the rest of the time watching Juno, Bucket List, Just Married, and Big Bang Theory. Liz, Molly, and I also spend time laughing at the passenger in front of us who, since he was balding and cold, felt the need to wear a neck pillow, an eye mask, and a large blanket completely covering his head. It was funny when he was sitting up, but it was even more entertaining to see him keel over when he fell asleep. I’m sure the fact that we ourselves had not slept in 24 hours had a little bit to do with why we found the situation so humorous. At about hour 6 I was ready to be out of the plane. Thankfully they served breakfast and we ended up landing at CDG about 30 minutes early.

We were very easily recognized as a US student group, and guides all over the airport kept saying “US go this way…its ok.” I guess we looked pretty tired and in need of a little guidance. We all made it through customs and then to baggage claim where every single one of us found our suitcase! We were thrilled, having been warned earlier that there was a good chance out luggage might not get to Paris with us. We had a small scare when we couldn’t find Gwen, but after telepathically willing her to come to the group, we found her right by the bus. It’s a whole other world without cell phones!

We were able to fit everyone’s luggage in the bus, and we have a great bus driver from Hungary who is an expert at maneuvering around the many obstacles throughout the airport. Leaving the airport you could hear everyone on the bus pointing out strange street signs, graffiti, and IKEA. All the cars here are smaller, and the motorcycles ride between the cars on the lanes in the interstate. Traffic to the hotel wasn’t too bad; I’ve seen much worse in Atlanta.

Our hotel is awesome! The rooms are much smaller than an average American hotel room, but the space is much better utilized and the shower is definitely my favorite! We have explored the area around the hotel and visited the ATM to get Euros. We stopped by a little bakery where we bought “Pain au Chocolat” for 1 E. We are planning to get a metro pass later today to get around the city for the next couple of days. Welcome dinner is at 8:30 tonight and then it is off to bed!

Class tomorrow is at 8 AM, then it’s the D’Orsay and the Louvre! We are also planning to go to Notre Dame tomorrow afternoon since we will be close to it. We are not letting ourselves sleep right now trying to ward of jet lag, hence me writing so much! I have 15 minutes of “gratuit” internet, so I might not update for a while. I love you all and I miss you!