The above is a line from the Steve Miller Band song, "Jet Airliner." I listened to that song on the teeny tiny jet that we took from NYC to Washington, D.C. (Why we had to fly literally out of our way to DC before flying to Paris is beyond me, but such is the life of a broke college student who buys the cheapest ticket possible...).
I listened to that song because I felt like being cliche, then I heard that line and I realized how appropriate it was. We certainly went through hell before we got to heaven. Hell being the AWFUL 1 1/2 hour plane ride to DC, to begin with. The jet we took was so small -- 60 people -- and completely claustrophobic. We sat in the very back row right above the engine. In addition, it was raining and windy and the ride was bumpy, to say the least. I sat the entire time with the vomit bag held to my face (although I never actually threw up, thank god), barely able to breathe. It was a sad site. Then hell continued with our 3 our layover. Luckily, our flight to France was fine -- a normal size 747 with good airflow and I never had to look out the window and see the side of the plane dip 45 degrees....
However, it was a huge ordeal to get to Eve's apartment. First we went through customs. Then baggage. Then we waited on a long line to take an elevator to the ground floor of the airport. Then we took a shuttle bus to the RER (train) station. Then we took the RER. Then we took a taxi. When we arrived at Eve's hours later, we were so excited and desperate to get inside and sleep after almost 24 hours of travel. But just our luck, the code to open the door didn't work. According to Eve, this happens a lot recently, and there is nothing that anyone can do about it because the company is on vacation so nobody will come to fix it. Meaning that people are regularly unable to enter their own apartment buildings. We had no phone and no way of getting inside, and we didn't know what to do. So Em went to seek out a phone -- which took 20 minutes and required her literally crossing the bridge and leaving the island for the left bank. Then she discovered that the phone booth didn't take coins and had to buy a phone card. All the while I was waiting at the door in the freezing cold with our suitcases. At some point during that time a beautiful man came out of the building and let me in, and helped me with my suitcases, which lifted my spirits, but then I still had to wait a while more for Emily to come back because I didn't know which apartment was Eve's.
All that being said, we are here now and everything is fabulous, as expected. We had an amazing dinner at a creperie last night, complete with dirt-cheap yet delicious wine, and a perfect crepe au sucre for dessert. Eve is hilarious and lots of fun -- she talks more than anyone I have ever met so I can't always keep up with what she's saying but I understand most of what she says (we are speaking only in French), so that's been reassuring. We've been able to get along pretty well with our French, and I'm feeling pretty good about my language ability and it gets better with every day.
After we leave this cafe (where, by the way, half the people are American, and the French half are all playing WORLD OF WARCRAFT -- oh, the irony), we're gonna hit some museums, maybe try to go to some bars tonight -- although it's been difficult to convince Eve that we can handle coming home past 10 o'clock by ourselves...
Friday I leave for Montpellier, which I am mostly excited for but slightly scared -- only because my two suitcases weigh about 40 pounds each and I am physically incapable of carrying them...I guess all I can do is act cute and pray that someone will help me (they did in the Paris subway stations, and supposedly people in Montpellier are even nicer, so I'm not too worried). Not to mention the fact that I've been going everywhere with Emily so we've put our French skills together and it's been easier...starting Friday I'm going to be on my own...which is, like I said, exciting but a little scary.
Mostly I'm just pumped to get out of this 40 degree weather and into the 60s, which is the avg. temp in Montpellier right now.
I love you all, I apologize for the length post, and will try to send out some personal e-mails as soon as I am in a position where I'm not paying for internet by the minute....
Bisous!
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2 comments:
crepes and cheap wine = i can NOT wait to come to france! you're leaving this friday? when? i might try to come up for the weekend (need to talk to em about that first, though, i guess...)
anyway, hurrah for europe! :) can't wait to see you.
hey babe! i didnt see your comment until now, for some reason I thought that it would e-mail me when someone posted. Ummm, I don't know if I'm going back to Paris or not because it's pretty expensive (70 euros each way), but you should TOTALLY come here! It's succcchhhhh a cool city, you'll love it. You can fly directly here, there's an airport. Check out Ryan Air? I might come to London with Emily whenever she goes. We need to start e-mailing/skyping. But let me know if and when you plan on going to Paris and we'll see. Also I want to try to get Emily to come here, so maybe you can both come here instead of all of us going to Paris (dont tell Emily I said this, but it's much cooler here than Paris -- and less touristy, and cheaper! And more beautiful. And better weather! It's been in the 60s all week. And 5 min from the beach!)
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