Paris: Day One

What a day.

As I got on my flight from Toronto to Paris, I felt like such a foreigner. Everyone spoke in quick French and quieted as I walked down the aisle to my row.

What an outcast!

I ended up having the row to myself, just me a two empty seats. Other than that the plan was completely full - crazy I know.

Every seat on the plane had a screen in front of it to watch any one of a wide selection of films or television shows (about 4 episodes of each show offered) or listen to about 50 albums they had or even a couple XM Radio stations.

My favorite part was a map feature that blows my wanting a compass everytime I fly out of the water. You can have it rotate through a map thing, which moves from a world map with your route on it (and where you are on it) to a close up of cities nearby, to a world map showing where night and day currently are to flight stats (such as how far you have travelled and have left to go, ETA, local times of the city you left and are going to).

I spent the first part of my trip reading up on "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo," before being served a pretty decent pasta dinner complete with corn, bread, a brownie, and drink.

Not bad Air Canada.

I watched an episode of Modern Family while I ate and I must say, if I ever get the time, I am going to start watching the seasons. That show was hilarious.

Afterwards I napped (or at least tried) while listening to the Cary Brothers "Under Control" album ("Belong" is my favorite track just so you know).

I set my alarm for two hours, so I would have time to wake up and finish my book before breakfast. Breakfast wasn't notable (juice and a muffin). Unfortunately, I had to spend the last two hours working on homework for my history class. It really stinks to have two online classes going on, plus starting my French class at Sorbonne on Monday.

Stupid responsibility.

Landing in Paris was a little scary. The countryside seemed beautiful as we flew over it, even on a dreary day such as today. Charles Degaulle Airport was nothing special either, actually I think even Memphis has them beat.

After immigration, I saw my driver who advised me to have a seat while we waited on another student from Chicago. 15 minutes later, we were on our way. The neighborhood just outside the airport, like so many, was disgusting and slummish. It looked like the slums of Panama or even Memphis. We wove our way further in the city, passing several big museums, before we arrived at the program office for CEA.

They greeted us with smiles (and english, thank God) plus some french snacks. The french eat this things called Chipsters which are like the baby of potato chips and with the texture of those soft dry foods babies eat out of the pringle looking can. I can't for the life of me remember what they are called.

Weird.

There were also some sweet little cookies and a chocolate bar inside. Happy.

After some brief to-do's they sent us on with more smiles, assuring us everything would be okay and we really looked like we needed sleep. Ha!

And sleep we did.

Once we got to the hotel we were given our key.

Yes one key.

And it is literally a metal key that we have to give to the front desk agent everything we exit the building.

The elevator would not hold more than one person and a bag, so my new friend and I took turns going to the 4th floor (which is actually the 5th, the French call the ground floor 0 and the second 1 and so on). There are no more than 4 or 5 rooms per floor and are even smaller than my room in NYC. Our room was two twin beds pushed together with about half an inch of space between them. And there is a bathtub with a shower attachment that sits near the faucet you can extend. Our view is a wall. Ha. To the side there are some nice buildings and a cute courtyard below.

We immediately fell out on the bed and slept with the windows open to the sounds of Paris. We slept for 6 hours until the phone rang. It was the one guy listed under our program asking if we were going to dinner or what?

BTW, dinner was an option at 5 pm if we chose to meet in the lobby. I was a bit ticked he interrupted such a great sleep, but we needed to get up anyway. We roamed through the city until we found an alley full of little cafes and chose an italian one. I got a marinara pizza and it was the best pizza I ever had in my life. No cheese, a big square pan of bread, but so wonderfully fresh. My companions chose salad, a weird pasta, and pizza. All of which looked really great.

I could really get used to these eats.

I loved walking around looking at all the specialty shops. No Wal Mart or Krogers.

Still, it was freezing and no sunshine! I did NOT pack for that! The weather is supposed to stay in the mid 70's through the week and it better. I didn't pack coats!

My fellow students went out tonight to Bastille (apparently it is a hit for the twenty somethings) and I stayed behind.

Damn homework.

Hopefully I will be able to get ahead and have a really fun weekend.

I can't believe I am going to wake up in Paris tomorrow.