I left the United States feeling nervous and excited and sad. I knew there was a ton to look forward to, which turned out to be very important. If we didn't have high spirits and the ability to laugh at ourselves, we would've been much worse off than we were!
We arrived at Charles de Gaulle around 9 or 9:30 am, after a relatively smooth 8 hour flight. We got our bags, took some cash out at an ATM, and walked for what felt like forever to the RER station, with plenty of stops in between. For inexplicable reasons, it felt like it was scorching hot inside the airport and we were dying of thirst and sooo tired from carrying our 100 lbs worth of luggage. Eventually, we made it to the automated ticket booths, and we couldn't find the specific ticket we needed (one stopping at Laplace). We spoke to a very nice man at the desk, who provided us two maps and told us which platform we need, and invited himself out to dinner with us later.
We got on the train, and were thankful to finally rest after our hour long airport fiasco. About 30 minutes into the ride, it started to fill up quite a bit in there, which only made it that much more difficult to get off with our luggage. The doors started to close before I was out of the subway with mine, so I just sort of jumped out and dragged them with me (with some help from a boy who quickly became my only french, long lost friend). We then were leaving the train station, and once again, my luggage got stuck in the exit doors, leaving me at the mercy of the people behind me (who were not thrilled nor amused). Finally, we made it out, and proceeded to be very, very lost and confused for approximately 1 1/2 hours. Even asking directions didn't help, since people were not very warm to english speakers. It was hot. Our luggage was heavy. And we were wheeling it behind us for a LONG time, over cobblestone sidewalks, following iffy directions by google maps.
We caved and got a taxi once we reached Paris' Port d'Orleans with no luck. Once our luggage was in the trunk, our driver began to search for our address. According to the previous people I had asked, Avenue Henri Ginoux was in Paris - which we then relayed to our taxi driver. He, however, informed us it was actually in Montrouge, a Parisian suburb, and proceeded to yell and scream at us in French during our entire 5 minute ride. We were terrified, tired, physically exhausted, and very disheartened to have met so many mean people in just one day. He did bring us to our housing though, so we were happy to finally be somewhere that we could relax.
Delph paged us in, and we then had to walk up 5 flights of stairs with all of our luggage (technically the 4th étage here). She shared her lunch with us - the best quiche au jambon that I have ever been blessed with eating in my entire life, and gave us water, and showed us our room. We called home, and ended up passing out for much of afternoon/evening.
We woke up in the evening for a few hours, and embarked on our internet apartment search. We are able to find apartments, however, after our short amount of time in Paris we learned quickly that it's really important for us to have an english speaking landlord. After doing some research, it seems as though our only real option is to go through a rental agency and just suck up the agency fees. We found one we love in the 17th arrondissement, and are waiting to hear back right now.
In the mean time, we went to the mall for some much needed retail therapy at H&M. It is oddly comforting to know that the prices are nearly the same and the clothing items are international. We also gave directions to a man in french, which is ironic considering we were lost on the exact same street the day before. We returned to our temporary home and made a shopping list, and completed our grocery shopping for the week (about 45€). Now we are just vegging out until we can think of something else to do. Tomorrow we will venture into Paris!
À bientôt!
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