Le première jour en Paris
Technically, the trip started yesterday (the 7th), but given we spent almost all of it in airports and on airplanes, I'm not counting it.
We had two flights: one from Nashville to Atlanta, and then from Atlanta to Paris. The first one was so short, by the time I assumed it was safe to pull out our electronic devices, I'd hardly listened to half of one song before they announced they were going to start their descent soon. I hadn't even unfastened my seat belt yet. The next one was, conversely, eight hours and uncomfortable as hell. I got maybe an hour of sleep despite trying for at least three hours just because there was no way to get comfortable enough to sleep. On the upside, though, I did get to watch a couple movies I'd been planning on watching: the live-action Cinderella film and Kingsman: The Secret Service, both of which were very enjoyable. I fell asleep watching Sleeping Beauty, then, an hour before landing, managed to watch the defeat of Smaug by Bard the Badass.
We arrived at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris today at approximately 8AM (six hours ahead of home, so it was actually 1AM, which meant I'd been awake for nearly 24hrs with only an hour long nap to tide me over until bedtime). I will say, though, that my teacher made the airport out to be a lot more hellish than it turned out to be (and it's probably thanks to him, because he's been here before). The worst part, honestly, was dragging my suitcase around everywhere; on the underside of the handle are these ridges that are apparently supposed to help gripping it, but all it did was give me blisters, so fuck you, suitcase.
The ride on the metro was fun and I took a ten minute nap, but then we finally arrived at our destination and it quickly became disastrous. The turnstiles to get out of the station weren't letting some of us through, and a teacher and myself had to resort to ducking under the turnstiles while someone else held open the barrier. Only for that same teacher and myself to nearly fall down the escalator (and my laptop bag fell, but Yusuf seems fine, thank god). He and I both walked away unscathed, but it certainly got my adrenaline pumping enough to keep me awake for the next couple hours at least.
I got my room assignment, and ended up switching around rooms until I landed with the single room. Hell yes. Though, there are both pros and cons to this arrangement. Pros: I don't have to worry about sharing a bathroom or someone judging me on my unpracticed shaving methods, nor do I have to worry about keeping someone else up with my internet addiction (lol), and, also, I'm currently not wearing pants and I haven't for about five hours. It's great. Which leads to the cons: it'll be harder to make friends and harder to hang out with people because of said lack of friends. I have a hard time making friends already without the barrier of being away from everyone. I mean, just today, I headed up to my room after orientation and was too anxious to go back downstairs afterwards despite wanting to explore the campus. I ended up taking a four hour nap and I'm not going to eat dinner.
Regardless, I am now in Paris, it's not humid or hot out (though they don't have air-conditioning, because they're hippies or something), and I'm hoping to start making friends in the next week or so. Can't wait for tomorrow!
We had two flights: one from Nashville to Atlanta, and then from Atlanta to Paris. The first one was so short, by the time I assumed it was safe to pull out our electronic devices, I'd hardly listened to half of one song before they announced they were going to start their descent soon. I hadn't even unfastened my seat belt yet. The next one was, conversely, eight hours and uncomfortable as hell. I got maybe an hour of sleep despite trying for at least three hours just because there was no way to get comfortable enough to sleep. On the upside, though, I did get to watch a couple movies I'd been planning on watching: the live-action Cinderella film and Kingsman: The Secret Service, both of which were very enjoyable. I fell asleep watching Sleeping Beauty, then, an hour before landing, managed to watch the defeat of Smaug by Bard the Badass.
We arrived at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris today at approximately 8AM (six hours ahead of home, so it was actually 1AM, which meant I'd been awake for nearly 24hrs with only an hour long nap to tide me over until bedtime). I will say, though, that my teacher made the airport out to be a lot more hellish than it turned out to be (and it's probably thanks to him, because he's been here before). The worst part, honestly, was dragging my suitcase around everywhere; on the underside of the handle are these ridges that are apparently supposed to help gripping it, but all it did was give me blisters, so fuck you, suitcase.
The ride on the metro was fun and I took a ten minute nap, but then we finally arrived at our destination and it quickly became disastrous. The turnstiles to get out of the station weren't letting some of us through, and a teacher and myself had to resort to ducking under the turnstiles while someone else held open the barrier. Only for that same teacher and myself to nearly fall down the escalator (and my laptop bag fell, but Yusuf seems fine, thank god). He and I both walked away unscathed, but it certainly got my adrenaline pumping enough to keep me awake for the next couple hours at least.
I got my room assignment, and ended up switching around rooms until I landed with the single room. Hell yes. Though, there are both pros and cons to this arrangement. Pros: I don't have to worry about sharing a bathroom or someone judging me on my unpracticed shaving methods, nor do I have to worry about keeping someone else up with my internet addiction (lol), and, also, I'm currently not wearing pants and I haven't for about five hours. It's great. Which leads to the cons: it'll be harder to make friends and harder to hang out with people because of said lack of friends. I have a hard time making friends already without the barrier of being away from everyone. I mean, just today, I headed up to my room after orientation and was too anxious to go back downstairs afterwards despite wanting to explore the campus. I ended up taking a four hour nap and I'm not going to eat dinner.
Regardless, I am now in Paris, it's not humid or hot out (though they don't have air-conditioning, because they're hippies or something), and I'm hoping to start making friends in the next week or so. Can't wait for tomorrow!