the rundown

Ok, so I thought about posting a monster monster blog about everything that's happened to me since being in Paris, but then I decided I didn't want to write a 20 page post. If you want that information, you'll have to skype me bitches!

But I do want to use this blog to somewhat capture my travels nad experiences here abroad, so i'm going to do a short rundown. day by day, highlight and lowlights. A lot of it will have to do with food, well, because i'm a foodie and an incredibly picky eater. Some of it will have to do with how I'm adjusting and feeling about everything. The rest will me about France itself, M&M (hostparents), girls on my program, and other random crap that pops into my head.

So, I'll start at the beginning. Maybe you should go make a cup of tea or grab a snack before diving into this, though. mmm, tea.

January 19th:
I left home! I flew 3 zillion miles and was on a plane for the better part of 24 hours, at least when you factor in the time difference. I left home on the morning of the 19th, and got to Paris on the morning of the 20th, exhausted, disheveled, hungry, and leg crampy. My first flight was from LA to Houston, and was only about 3 hours. I was sandwiched in between a bunch of people though and I had no room. Do you know, I almost always spell sandwich wrong? If I'm typing it it's ok because I can backspace, but if I'm writing it out, then my fate is sealed and everyone will know I can't spell sandwich. I always spell it with an h, sandwhich. It looks better to me that way. My flight from Houston to France was literally right across the terminal from where I got off the LA flight, so I only had to walk like 20 feet to get to my new gate, dragging my heavy bags of crap. I bought a mediocre coffee because the line at starbucks was mondo long, so I went to some little kiosk instead. Flight to Paris was long, but I had to whole row to myself because apparently not a lot of texans wanted to fly to france that day, the flight was only 1/3 full. watched tv on my own little screen, had vegetarian meals which werent awful, and slept, but being on a plane for about 10 hours is always difficult. i was a little cranky by the time we landed at charles de gaulle.

january 20th: I got off the plane with my heavy as lumber carryons, and had to go up what i thought was an escalator to get to baggage claim. Turns out its not an escalator, but a moving sidewalk that went steeply up and down hill like 3 times before i got off. WEIRD!!! I almost fell like 4 times because it was tricky to balance with 2 heavy carryons and my brain was turned off after the flight. Finally I made it to baggage claim and was delighted to see that the luggage carts are free in france, unlike at LAX where they're about 25 or 50 cents, because i didn't have any french monnaie yet and wouldn't have been able to furnish any coins. Got my giant heavy stupid bags onto little rickety cart, and asked directions from someone to terminal 2c, which it turned out was a)nowhere near where I was, b)so far that I would need to get on a little tram thingy to get there, and c)ginormously huge, and also, a train station as well. SO, I made it on to the trammy thing after I found it, which took a while, and had to have some random dude help me drag my GIANT bag onto the shuttle because it was not cooperating. Made it to terminal 2C, found another luggage cart, and tried to figure out where we were supposed to meet Mme Suraqui, the director at noon. it was only like 9:30 am at this point, so I was worried I wouldn't have the slightest idea where to go, but then I spotted Carolyn and went over where she was standing with some other APA girls. Yay! As we waited more girls came and joined up with us and our little circle of exhausted zombie americans lost in strange land widened. I met taylor, who has now become one of my best friends here, and a whole bunch of other fun girls on my program.
we waited around some more and then Mme Suraqui, Francis, and Blandine came and met up with us. Mme Suraqui and Francis are co-directors, but Mme Suraqui is the real brains behind the operation. Blandine is her assistant, and she has the best name in the history of the world; Blandine Corne. Mme Suraqui has so much personality! She's like the amazing, slightly batty, super outgoing and accomplished and stylish aunt I never had! We all piled our crap onto a chartered bus, (Francis had to help me with one of my bags, I was so embarrassed. he's not bad to look at, but he's all shy and quiet. and married.) we were all dead tired, and the drive in to Paris was pretty dim since it was foggy and raining and gross out. After arriving at the FIAP, the hostel where we were staying for the first couple of days, we had a quick informational meeting by someone who worked there (don't lose your keys, don't waste water, there is the restaurant, there is the smoking area, don't smoke inside blablabla) and then a quick meeting with Mme Suraqui about the next few days. We broke up into groups for rooming for the next few days, and I roomed with Carolyn, Taylor and Shelby, a cute fun little tiny girl from GW with very nice bangs. Carolyn and I took showers while Shelby and Taylor went downstairs to use the internet, free wifi in the lobby, and man, those were weird showers. You had to keep pressing the faucet because the shower would only stay on for about a minute. Then Carolyn and I went to the lobby and interneted for a while, but we were exhausted. I just emailed mom and dad, told them I was alive, checked facebook and went back upstairs.

then we napped, yes yes, we napped and it was glorious.

then we got up, went to dinner at the FIAP restaurant/cafeteria which was interesting. We had meal tickets from Mme Suraqui that entitled us to an entree (which is a starter/appetizer in French, not a main course) a plat principal (that's the main course) and a dessert and a drink. So I had a little salad from the salad bar, which was pretty blegghhh and tired, but did have beets, a piece of weird french pizza (it had a ton of herbs, a giant chunk of brie, and olives with pits on it), and a peach yogurt for dessert. It was so-so, all in all.
then we walked around FIAP a bit, then hung out in the room, all telling stories and getting to know Taylor and Shelby better. then we all fucking passed out because we were exhausted and jetlagged and we were in France!

so this is turning into a wayyyyyy longer rundown than i anticipated, but i might not remember each day in such great detail so hopefully it won't take me too long to finish this rundown and catch up to the present. it'll have to wait for another post though, because a) i wouldn't want any of my reader(s), all 3 or 4 of them, to have to read a novella of my life all at once. what if they had to pee? nonono, it's important to break shit up and take time to stretch. and b)we're eating dinner soon and I'm hungry. please let it not be eggs tonight, please please please.