So, after two flights, a ride on the RER, a ride on the metro and a ride in a cab, I am safely in the hotel in Paris that I will be living in until Sunday when I move in with my homestay family. It is so strange to finally be in the place I dreamed forever of visiting, After being awake for 24 hours I am almost to tired to enjoy it fully. So instead, I will sit here like a zombie and recount my trip here.
Plane number 1: Calgary to Montreal.
This was definitely the easiest leg of the journey. Other than having a tearful goodbye with the family, there were no problems. I got to watch a bunch of movies on the plane and made it to Montreal on time and unscathed.
Plane number 2 on the other hand (Montreal to Paris) was the worst flight of my life. We were stuck on the ground for about an hour and a half due to late passengers and lightning. I didn't mind because this plane had a whole bunch of new movies. The only problem was the man seated next to me. For the purposes of this blog, let's call him loud snoring-seat hog-Italian guy. He snored the ENTIRE flight. And not the peaceful "oh he must be tired" snoring. This was the "Ohmigod! I must turn around to see if someone is dying" type of snoring. He also quite enjoyed taking up all the foot space, including mine, and using the middle arm rest as an extension of his seat, so much that he was elbowing me every ten seconds so I never got to sleep.
I was so exhausted by the time I got to the Paris airport that I was glad I had painted my suitcase in glitter or I would have watched it go by in the monotonous river of suitcases. I started my way to the RER train, which I had to take to connect to the metro, and realized I had lost my directions to the school where I had to check in! Not to worry, the magical mind of Kirsten Rowland had memorized it making it a lot easier.I got down to the RER station when a wonderful Brazilian man named Bruno informed me a wheel had fallen of my 52 pound suitcase as I brought it down the stupid stairs. We ended up on the same RER train to the same Metro stop and he helped me all the way so that I didn't get lost and continued to follow behind me, picking up my broken suitcase wheel every time it fell off. He was my hero of the train ride. The lovely Bruno, a man with a PhD in neuroscience and a heart of gold. Also he lived in Canada so of course he is a good guy!
Too bad Bruno wasn't there when I had to drag my suitcase from the metro 3 blocks to my school. I arrived there a sweaty, smelly, tired mess. Not cute AT ALL. And I was so tired that I was basically crying at every nice thing someone did for me. The poor man at the front desk of the school probably thought I was insane. Anyways, he helped me get a cab to take me to my hotel, which is only a 15 minute walk but would have been a day with my broken suitcase.
The best feeling in the whole world was getting to go to my room and shower before I had to actually meet people. All of the homestay students are in the same hotel and we all have bonded together for the fact that we are all lost, confused, and can speak English. I am so glad that all these people are in the same boat as me because I don't think I could do this alone. I think we keep each other from getting scared about the enormity of what we are undertaking.
Well tomorrow is orientation, so hopefully I will be a little less tired and a lot more organized. I bet I will even get to post some pictures of this beautiful city, or at least the two streets that I know how to get to.
Au revoir!
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