Well, I'm here.
The flight over was fine. I ended up switching seats (long story), so the flight attendants wanted to give me many free things. It really wasn't a big deal at all (I still got to sit by the window, which was really the only goal), but I got a free headset out of the deal. I watched Wedding Crashers, which was okay, but not as funny as everyone had led me to believe.
Charles de Gaulle (the airport, not the person) is kind of...dumpy. I couldn't find anyone from IES Paris (though there were some on my flight), so I ended up walking with some kids from NYU. They were nice and waited with me when I thought my luggage was lost (it wasn't) and then helped me find where I needed to go. I needed to take the Air France bus to the Gare Montparnasse, but that particular bus was on strike or not working or something, so I was left clueless as to what to do. The ticket attendant was completely non-helpful and kept saying "etoile" and some other stuff that I couldn't understand. I finally got to the Arc de Triomphe and then took the metro to the IES center, all the while lugging my 45 pound suitcase and 30 pound backpack around with me. Basically, yesterday was one of the most stressful days of my life. I almost got squished by the metro doors and run over by a motorcyle (people don't stop in this city for pedestrians EVER). It wasn't exactly the wonderful start I was hoping for, but after sleeping and meeting some of the other students, everything is going relatively well.
My host mom, Nicole, is very nice. She has a little dog, Voyou, who's cute and fun and makes me miss my dogs less. She's in her 40's, I think, and has two sons who live in Lyon. She wears a wedding ring, but I guess she's separated from her husband. Although she tells me that her "ingleesh eez terrible," she can generally understand what I'm saying if I can't figure out a word in French. I think that we'll get along well.
All of the other students seem overwhelmed right now, so although we're trying to make friends, we're also exhausted and not adapted whatsoever to French life. The French are both relaxed about nearly everything (meals, for example) and incredibly intense (see: driving). This is definitely going to take some getting used to.
I miss everyone and May 25 seems very far away right now, but I know this semester is going to fly by.
The flight over was fine. I ended up switching seats (long story), so the flight attendants wanted to give me many free things. It really wasn't a big deal at all (I still got to sit by the window, which was really the only goal), but I got a free headset out of the deal. I watched Wedding Crashers, which was okay, but not as funny as everyone had led me to believe.
Charles de Gaulle (the airport, not the person) is kind of...dumpy. I couldn't find anyone from IES Paris (though there were some on my flight), so I ended up walking with some kids from NYU. They were nice and waited with me when I thought my luggage was lost (it wasn't) and then helped me find where I needed to go. I needed to take the Air France bus to the Gare Montparnasse, but that particular bus was on strike or not working or something, so I was left clueless as to what to do. The ticket attendant was completely non-helpful and kept saying "etoile" and some other stuff that I couldn't understand. I finally got to the Arc de Triomphe and then took the metro to the IES center, all the while lugging my 45 pound suitcase and 30 pound backpack around with me. Basically, yesterday was one of the most stressful days of my life. I almost got squished by the metro doors and run over by a motorcyle (people don't stop in this city for pedestrians EVER). It wasn't exactly the wonderful start I was hoping for, but after sleeping and meeting some of the other students, everything is going relatively well.
My host mom, Nicole, is very nice. She has a little dog, Voyou, who's cute and fun and makes me miss my dogs less. She's in her 40's, I think, and has two sons who live in Lyon. She wears a wedding ring, but I guess she's separated from her husband. Although she tells me that her "ingleesh eez terrible," she can generally understand what I'm saying if I can't figure out a word in French. I think that we'll get along well.
All of the other students seem overwhelmed right now, so although we're trying to make friends, we're also exhausted and not adapted whatsoever to French life. The French are both relaxed about nearly everything (meals, for example) and incredibly intense (see: driving). This is definitely going to take some getting used to.
I miss everyone and May 25 seems very far away right now, but I know this semester is going to fly by.
posted by Anne @ 4:44 PM
3 Comments:
At 4:45 AM,
Sarah said…
Anne!! Your study abroad experience so far sounds pretty much like how mine started... not so great. Don't worry, take your time and you'll fall in love with France, I'm sure :) We're all missing you here. Stay safe and enjoy yourself!
Love,
Sarah Z.
At 10:42 PM,
Becky said…
Good news! A vampire who calls himself an evil priest of satan is running for governor in Minnesota.
Sarah's right...first days suck ASSSSSSSSSSSSS! It does feel like you've been there forever when you really just arrived and it's all very overwhelming. That's why God made the weekend! And it's upcoming! Hurray!
miss you.
At 3:41 AM,
singingdoll said…
i wanted to make an account so i could post messages on your blog, but turns out i already had one! i had forgotten i had one WAY back in the day, when i used to really be into webpages. you can read about my first few days of college, haha.
i am glad that your host family seems nice and that things are going well (though maybe not quite perfect right yet). it was that way for me too in london, and i can't imagine how it'd be with the language gap. (american english is distant enough from british english; can't imagine how i'd feel trying to speak french!)
anywho, iwu and especially STD miss you. i don't like having to plan colloquia and service thingies alone! also, because i am a loser, we have to move colloquia to tuesdays, because i have to be at my internship on thursdays. (i'm interning at planned parenthood.) i am making a little trip to portland, OR, for the STD national convention, however. not quite as cool as going to france, but i've never been to that part of the U.S. and last night we had the night o' fun at lucca with chapper. it was quite great. he has given me the official internship title "Corrupter of Youth."
well, long enough message, i suppose. hope you're havin' fun! iwu's not the same without ya.
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