Well, I made it! After a long flight and lots of anxiety, I am in France. I am sitting in a hotel in rainy Troyes while the rest of my study group spends the day napping. I'll start from the beginning (sort of).
My mom and I left our house yesterday (Saturday) morning with plenty of time to get to the airport. About an hour into the trip, my mom's car starts shaking and doing all kinds of weird things, so we turn around. We met up with Tom, my step-dad, who traded cars with us, and we ended up only losing about an hour and a half. Luckily we had left with plenty of time to get to the airport, so I was there by 3 for my 7:10 flight. My mom and I ate lunch and then had a tearful goodbye at the security checkpoint, something I suspect the security people took an odd sort of pleasure in. Got through security, found my gate as well as the rest of my study group, and boarded the plane! The plane was only about half full, so I ended up having the two seats by the window to myself. The plane itself was HUGE. It was an A380, a very new and spacious plane with two floors. I was on the upper deck which was a definite first for me.
We landed in Paris around 9am (Paris time), sailed right through immigration and baggage claim, and met our study group director and our bus driver (when I was introduced to him I got to say "enchantée"-- something I've never actually said before! I was very excited about it). We had a two hour bus ride to Troyes (where we're spending the night in a hotel to rest up before meeting our host families), unloaded into our hotel rooms, and showered. I then went out to explore the city with a girl in my group while the rest of the group slept. The rain and slippery sidewalks are not the ideal circumstances for sightseeing, but we found a nice crêperie and enjoyed some crêpes and chatted. I might venture out again in a bit, seeing as we're not meeting for dinner until 7:30 and it's only just after 4. Maybe the rain will let up.
In any case, I'm off to Dijon tomorrow afternoon to meet my host family and move into my house for the semester. Until then, you can find me wandering the streets of Troyes.
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1 comment:
Hey, ca va?
just read ta blog (ton blog?) and really enjoyed it...chile is a bit like france, especially the heat and electricity conservation, the cold, the animal issue (chiens et chats) ...but here the dogs live outside which means you can listen to their incessant barking ad nauseum...
antony has a film producer from wgbh coming to work wit him this afternoon, here and at the clarinet factory...maybe he'll be starring on postcards from buster in april...
ps would LOVE to make 'surprise' visit...but I am going to venezuela to teach then antony & I are going to chiloe (island) ..that's february..hugs from aunt penny.
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