G****'s in Paris

Well I'm finally in Paris! My voyage here was probably the longest 24 hours of my life.

My plan to pass out on the flight failed (more or less). I had hoped that dinner  would be served within an hour after take off (at what would have been considered a standard dinner time in the eastern time zone), but dinner was served an hour (and a half possibly, I don't remember) after that, taking up precious sleeping time. I finally got to sleep an hour or so after eating (couldn't find a comfortable sleeping position). After getting some sleep, they woke us up at a little before 5 AM Paris time (GMT + 1:00) for breakfast. Adding it all up, I want to say that I got only like 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep on the plane.

Getting off the plane went surprisingly well, but then I encountered yet another issue. I was supposed to meet two of my classmates at a train station within the airport to take a train to where our class was supposed to meet. I got to the station at around 7 AM (maybe a little earlier). 2.5 hours later and there was no sign of them (their flights were scheduled to land 10 minutes after mine, so I'm going to blame the issue on my decision to sit in a chair for the two hours instead of looking around for them). Luckily for me, I spied the one person I actually knew on the trip beforehand (who was scheduled to land 2 hours after me, so I had no intention of seeing her until after arriving at the meeting spot) and we took a taxi to the meeting location (and somehow, we were the first two people to arrive). Running into her was definitely one of the luckiest breaks of my life (and it saved me 30-some euros by splitting a cab with me)

Random aside: OMG I JUST HEARD A DOG BARK INSIDE THIS BUILDING! I HOPE MY HOST MOTHER HAS A DOG (she doesn't according to my housing information)

Anyways, after some more students arrived, our professor took us around the quartier, treating us to some food and such. We then explored the quartier (mainly just to keep the blood flowing) and got some more food later on. After that quasi-excursion, we had a housing orientation, followed by the reception of our housing assignments.

I'm living in the apartment of a sweet old lady. It is, without a doubt, the nicest place I have ever lived in (for more than a few days). I'm honestly scared to touch anything since I'm pretty sure I'll break something. I have to share a bathroom with someone named Kevin (he's either the host-mother's son, or another student living here, which I think is the case), but he's very nice and speaks English (which makes my life easier).

I didn't mention this earlier, but this blog is going to be part photo-blog (I like hearing myself talk in my head as I write the crap that ends up in this blog, so this blog will mostly be the aforementioned crap with some pictures thrown in). Sadly (for you, the reader), while I was out and about today, my camera was somewhere in the depths of my backpack (which was in the meeting location, which from here on out I'll refer to as "the Accent Center" (it's also where we hold our classes, so there's a chance I'll mention it more)), so the only picture I have right now is one of the view from my window:



























A comment on the quality of the picture: there was a smudge on the window, which I didn't open to take the picture since I didn't know that the smudge actually existed (and when I couldn't open the window when I tried to retake the picture, so DEAL WITH IT (or photoshop the smudge out please)).

A comment, not on the quality of the picture: the roads here are designed terribly. There are no designated lanes; I've seen cars in what would be the left lane of a roundabout make a right turn (and without signaling too). I'm just very glad that I'll be traveling by the metro for the majority of my remaining time here.

Yet another random comment: I was called to eat dinner before I was able to finish this post, so I'll go ahead and discuss dinner. It was great. My host mother made Cantonese Rice (I think). So good.

The random comments continue: I think a storm is a brewing,  but I have no idea as to how I'm supposed to close my window...

Anyways, au revoir tout le monde!