Let’s pick up from Nashville airport. Not bad here. Nashville to New York, nothing to report. New York airport.. last time with my cell phone and I was panicked. Who should I call? I called my Grandma, but she didn’t answer. I talked to my mom about four times. I called CJ and Megan and Genoa and texted Lauren and everyone I could think of that wasn’t already tired of my goodbyes. It felt VERY real that I was leaving the country.
On the plane, I sat next to a beautiful French-Jewish woman who is a singer/actress in New York. She spent the first few minutes on the phone speaking French, and I was absolutely devastated to realize that I didn’t understand A WORD she was saying. Later I told her so and she told me she was actually speaking Hebrew. Phew. She gave me her card and I got to listen to some of her songs.. check her out!
That flight, although only about 7 hours, felt like the longest flight of my life. Australia with 16 hours had nothing on this. I couldn’t sleep, I was uncomfortable, my Kindle had died from all the Sarah’s Key reading.. it SUCKED.
We landed. Finally. First thing I got to see was sunrise in Paris.
Not a bad start.
I wish Nigel wasn’t stashed away or I would’ve snapped a photo. Sometimes I wish Nigel could be in my eyeballs.
The next thing I noticed was that English was the italicizd, smaller font under all the directions at the airport. Oh right. I’m in France.
I got lost trying to get to the shuttle, dumped over all my suitcases, found some French very helpful and others flat out a-holes.
Kind of like Americans.
Got to my shuttle, where I met a nice trilingual lady with whom I got to practice all my languages. Once at the train station, I dragged all four of my bags up some stairs, to the train where I was supposed to meet Audrey.
THE TIME HAD COME! Audrey and I would emet after months and months of Skyping and planning and building a friendship.
Mais, non.
When I boarded, I thought for sure she’d be on there somewhere so I travelled up and down EVERY.SINGLE.CART looking for her. On my second trip, a random girl said “Asia?” and I expected to see Audrey but Rachelle manifested in my eyes- she recognized my face from our Facebook Montpellier group and was on her way to the dorm I would be staying in as well! And her French was PERFECT. She has a boyfriend here, had lived here for a while.. needless to say I was intimated as hell. Very good to have around for survival, very bad to have around for ego. But she is s kind- eager to share (food.. wash cloths.. I didn’t bring a towel so she offered her wash cloth for my drying off!) and helpful with French. She even runs in the morning, so we went on a run (okay we walked the whole time because we were kind of lost..) and I praised God that I brought my running shoes last minute even though it put my suitcase over weight.
So anyway, we get to our dorm. 5 euro a night until we find a place, a month tops. Not bad. Our room isn’t super tiny.. thought I had a picture, but I will have to take another one.. coming soon.
Everything is fine but some minor disadvantages:
1. You have to bring your toilet paper that the front desk provides you (ONE roll) to the bathroom and back with you. Because it will get stolen. Thankfully my room is right next to the bathroom..
2. BUT down the HUGEEE hallway from the shower. Where you have to HOLD THE BUTTON DOWN for water to come out. Shaving was a chore and a half. It was warm though.
3. There is a microwave and a fridge that is divided into four compartments, three of which are locked and all smell.
4. The only place for Wifi is the “kitchen” where everyone gathers (the kitchen is about 15 feet long by four feet wide) to use the same wifi, the same password, that probably doesn’t even belong to anyone still living in this dorm. Needless to say, it’s slow as molasses and frustrating. We’ve been going to McDonalds to use their Wifi.
5. I live on the third floor.
6. Okay that’s it.
It’s much like the dorm I lived in freshman year of college (GROSS I say it like it was so long ago). Communal bathroom, showers.. only a fridge and a microwave.. etc. Oh right. Hold on.
7. Everyone speaks French
My.French.sucks.
Let the record show that at this point, this is only up to September 28th. Sorry! Working on the posts..
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