As I write this, I am back in the United States. I have been wanting to get this blog going for a while now but somehow never got around to it. I figured now is as good a time as any. Well... here goes!
I left for Paris on the morning of January 15th. I knew the airport would probably be the most relaxing part of my journey; however, it was a bit more hectic than I anticipated. My mom dropped me off at the Delta terminal at LAX. I go to check my bags and am told I need to go through the security gate at the international terminal. This was a surprise to me as the boarding pass I had printed out at home had no mention of that instruction (turns out it was outdated). I had plenty of time to walk the fifteen minutes to the international terminal. As I was walking, I kept thinking how ironic it was that earlier that morning I told my mom how I was slightly disappointed over the fact that I had never been inside the international terminal before. Well, turns out my wish was granted! I have to say, I have never seen so many lines before (Disneyland exempt). The weirdest part of international security was being told to walk down a thirty of forty-foot mat at the same walking pace as a complete stranger.
Soon enough, I was at my gate. I waited for about an hour before boarding started. I was lucky enough to have a Premium Select sear. I was so impressed with the hospitality provided by Delta. I had never flown Delta before and truthfully had low expectations which were completely surpassed. Shortly after takeoff, the stewardesses brought us warm cloths to dab our faces and hands with. The dinner presentation was absolutely superb:
Everyone had their little individual salt and pepper shakers which I thought were the cutest thing. The food quality was excellent!!
The flight was all together uneventful. It was between 10 and a half to 11 hours long, most of which was during the night. I couldn't sleep for very long so I passed the time by watching movies and looking through photos and videos I had taken earlier that day. The entire time I kept my eye on the flight tracker to see when we would be arriving. This was definitely the longest flight of my life. Longer than the returning flight (which ironically was longer in terms of time).
Shortly before we landed, the captains informed us that we would be departing from the plane the old-fashioned way: a staircase. We were loaded onto a bus and taken to our respective terminal just as the sun started to come up. it was around 7:30am in the morning. The airport terminal was slightly tricky to navigate. I got through it by following other people who looked like they knew where they were going. I happened to find two other people who were in my program and we worked together as well. We walked out of the exit and found program representatives who were waiting to help direct us. They got us to the line awaiting taxis and bid us farewell.
My cab pulls up and the driver gets out to put all my luggage in the car. I ask him in French if he speaks English, to which he replies no... great. I have to tell someone where I need to be when A). I don't really know where I need to be myself and B). in a foreign language. I speak some French but I wasn't confident enough to depend on it for directions. I showed him the address I had and eventually he figured out where I needed to go.
The thing I didn't know and was completely unprepared for was how, in Paris, the airports are not close to the city center. In European cities it is either a hit or a miss with airports being close to the center of the city. The journey from Charles de Gaulle Airport to the 15th Arrondissement of Paris was about two hours. I felt so awful because I wasn't confident in my French to carry out a full-on conversation. This poor man is stuck in a car for two hours with a stranger with no real conversation to pass the time. Fortunately, I knew enough French to make a few comments about the traffic and tell my driver how I was a student studying abroad in Paris.
Finally, we arrived at my homestay. I selected a homestay because I wanted a more traditional French experience than I would have gotten by staying with other American students in an apartment. My host mom's name was Anne. This is her:
She is the cutest woman ever. She had a Siamese cat named Joke. In case anyone is wondering, the word "joke" does not mean anything in French. Here's Joke:
I also learned that there was another student, Hannah, staying with Anne. I was delighted to learn that she was in my program. Throughout my stay she spoke French 95% of the time, which posed a little bit of a challenge. Thankfully, I had Hannah to help. Here's Hannah and me:
Hannah was better at understanding French and I was better at speaking it. She would help me break down what Anne was saying and I would come up with a response. It was like a three part chain reaction. It worked out very well, though.
After we were all acquainted, Hannah and I unpacked in our respective rooms. Yes, I had my own room in Paris. I was not expecting to have that large of a space, so I was over the moon. But wait, it gets better... from my balcony, I could see the Eiffel Tower!! After we unpacked, Anne took Hannah and me for a brief tour around the city. Here's a photo I took during the drive:
Let me just say that I felt so silly for ever thinking driving in Los Angeles was crazy because Paris was a whole other level of craziness. You take your life in your hands when you get on that road. So many lanes and none of them made any sense to me. I wasn't even the one driving and yet I was still so stressed out. Another thing that blew me away was how Europeans need virtually zero room to parallel park. Anne managed to get her car out from between two others with about 5 inches on either side. I haven't been that nervous in a car since I took my driving test.
After the drive around the city, Hannah and I were getting tired. I was going on 25 hours with essentially no sleep. When we got back to the apartment, Hannah and I hung out for a little while Anne made dinner. Let me just say this lady was an incredible cook. She brought us soup and bread. I naively thought this was all we were going to have for dinner so I stuffed myself with bread. Boy was I wrong. After we finished with the soup she brought out spaghetti with meatballs, followed by cheese, followed by dessert. After that incredible dinner, I passed out. A funny thing about my bed was that the pillow Anne gave me was rather flat. I got through my entire study abroad experience by propping my head up on the neck pillow I brought from home.
This concluded my first day in Paris! I am working on creating a video montage of things like my room and footage I took when I walked around the city and through the airport to give you all a better idea of what everything looked like.
My next post will either be about my first few weeks in Paris or the story of my trip to Amsterdam. I hope you all enjoyed this story!
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