C'est Parti

OK, so I got to Paris alright. My travels were long, but well worth it. I got to see some family in Houston, which was nice and a little humid. My flight from Houston to Paris was with Air France and I have to admit that was the nicest flight of my life. Not only was the airplane food good, but there was a choice of movies and they gave out free headphones (not that I needed them, but the gesture was nice).

Also, while I was sad to be leaving the US and friends and family, my worries were tamed when I met a nice couple from Paris. They really showed me that living with the French was not going to be that bad (probably even great). The woman was Mexican, but spoke both French and English and her husband was French and spoke both French and Spanish. It was great; they even let me have the window seat!

I took a taxi from the airport to my hostel, BVJ, in the Latin Quarter. The taxi driver was really nice and we talked about his being from Chad and many other things on the ride into the city. I know that most people don’t talk to their taxi drivers, but I find it difficult not to when so far as I have found, they are very interesting people from places that I have never been (hopefully that will change soon).

I guess I forgot to mention that it is very rainy in Paris now. Apparently it is unusual, but it still kind of stinks. Yesterday in my mad effort to stay awake for the day (to avoid jet lag), I took the metro to go and see the office of the coordinators for my program, MICEFA (I would put the words for the acronym, but I can never remember them). There, I was able to send a few emails to notify my arrival (with a bit of difficulty adjusting to the new keyboard… only a few keys are different, but it is still hard; I almost signed my name Kqthy.) and also got a bit of a head start on setting up things for my stay. The people were very genial and I was happy to see someone who at least new who I was even though I had never met them.

At this point it had stopped raining so hard so I decided to walk back to the hostel, because I had time before the room would be ready. This may have been a bad idea. I started and walking and before long it was raining again. Luckily I had my rain jacket, but I still decided to stop at a café and have a beer (isn’t Europe great for underage drinking?). I then continued my trek back to the hostel and it continued to rain even harder, but I got to walk along the Seine and see the Isle de France. It was amazing; I finally realized that I am actually here. After all the applications and waiting and telling people, I finally made it. YAY! Once I got back to the hostel I made it a few more hours, but at 8:30 (20h30) I gave in to the sleepiness. I went to sleep without even eating dinner and didn’t wake up until morning. This morning I met some girls at breakfast, a Peruvian and a Swiss and while communication was not exactly easy, it was fun. I am going to go sight seeing with them tomorrow and will hopefully have some pictures.

So, here I am now, using Paris’ free WiFi system, writing this message and seeing the sun pop up behind the clouds (a mirage I am sure, but wouldn’t it be nice?). So I guess that is it for now (as if I didn't write a ton), but more soon!