Coming at you liiiive from Paris!
The travel wasn't as bad as expected; I actually arrived early at CDG and my luggage was the first off the plane. But as of today, I've managed to a) be struck by panic and ask the incredulous attendants at Charles de Gaulle if I forgot to go through customs (no, not kidding) and b) forget to hook up my blow dryer to the converter and have it go WHOA EUROPEAN VOLTAGE and turn orange and all but blow up. I guess I've failed Study Abroad 101, but other than that, life is awesome.
I'm renting a room at the Foyer International des Etudiants on the Rue de Saint-Michel--pretty much standard European hostel fare (plain, slightly sketchy), but the location is...unbelievable. I have a balcony:
And that view of la Tour Eiffel that you see at the top? Yeah, I can see that from the solarium (similar to a study lounge).
Paris is so beautiful that it doesn't even try to be beautiful or acknowledge that it's beautiful. It's got gorgeous, absolutely baffling roads and beautiful people with small, precocious children. Contrary to logic and the best interests of the people I deal with in day-to-day business, being here makes you want to speak French. So I've tried.
Adventures thus far: a cheap panini (in Paris, cheap is 3.9 euros, which is equal to about $5.10), looking at fantastic art until my eyes fell out at the Musee d'Orsay, watching the Eagles embarrass themselves yet again at a Canadian pub, learning the hard way that my cellphone alarm doesn't function overseas, and figuring out the getting-to-Nijmegen situation at the Gare d'Austerlitz.
Up for tomorrow: a day at the Louvre, looking at awesome art until my eyes fall out, and then bar-hopping in honor of our newest president. And hopefully Montmartre and the Musee Rodin on Wednesday.
Hope all is well. Bises from France!
aHHHHH maggie, this is so cool! I didn't know if I was going to try to get to paris b/c I don't speak french and I'm strapped for traveling money, but now I really want to go (I think cause I know a real person who's there for now). Also, I had the same thing with customs... they barely looked at my passport and then there were just two lanes to get out to the lobby: "I have something to declare" and "I don't have anything to declare"... so I literally just walked down the "I don't" lane and left. No one even stopped me to make sure I wasn't lying... I felt like they probably should be more suspicious at airports...?
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