Coke just tastes better in France.

Well, I'm here. Where should I start? Maybe with the trip here? All right, here I go...
Plane ride number one was great, except for the baby who was crying I'd say... over 50% of the flight. And it wasn't just a small cry. It was awful horrible sreaming-at-the-top-of-his-lungs cry. So that made the flight a bit miserable. I left MN at 7:20 (after having only 4 or so hours of sleep the night before?), so all I wanted to do was sleep the whole flight. But that darn baby just kept me, and everyone else, up most of the time. I sat next to a woman who, frankly, took up more than her share of space in the row, so I felt a bit restricted on space, too. But I managed through. And she didn't speak English at all and was rather silent. So I kept to myself. On the other side of her was a girl going to England for a year to study. We had a nice chat when middle-seat-lady got up for a potty break. Oh, and my little screen with the flight info and movies and stuff didn't work, and neither did the others in my row. Not cool! Oh well, you get what you pay for I guess.

I flew to Keflavik, Iceland first. From there I left for Paris, but we left about 30 minutes late because of another plance with connecting passengers that was coming in late. I didn't care, but that leaft me less time for my transfer once I got to Paris. More on that later. The second flight went very well. I sat next to a cute French couple, but kept to myself once again. This time I got all my sleep in, and we actually ended up getting to Paris on time, despite our late departure!

I was so nervous about not getting all my luggage, but I did get it. AND both suitcases were some of the first few off the plane. What a relief! So I didn't have to wait for hours for all those people to get theirs and keep crossing my fingers mine would come next. This was where I had to start thinking. My next few steps were the most difficult because they were things I couldn't exactly plan from home. I had a little bit of a scare with the customs people. In fact, I didn't encounter customs at all. Rather, I did it in Iceland and had my passport stamped there. I was still under the impression, however, that I'd have to get it stamped in France. Before coming here, I received lots of info about what I need to do upon my arrival, and one of them, which was VERY IMPORTANT, was to get my passport stamped. I had already exited the traveler section of the airport, and I just missed my one and only chance to get this thing stamped! So I dodged all the taxi drivers waiting inside (who offered me a 50 euro ride to my train station, only 45 more than the bus I knew I would eventually be taking! Obviously I looked lost, like I needed a taxi...) to try to find someone to help me. One woman told me to go outside. Yeah that was wrong, obviously if you're going to go through customs it will be BEFORE you exit the airport (and at this point I was already outside the "restricted" area). So I asked someone else, and she showed me where the customs counter was. Well, it was on the other side of the sign of the gate you walk through when you're leaving the restricted area, and there was a sign above that read something like, "No access. Violaters will be prosecuted." Great. All I needed was to be prosecuted trying to get a stupid stamp in my passport. But I risked it, and right inside I talked to the customs people, who insisted I didn't need the stamp. Turns out I don't, because the Iceland one works just as well. Okay Mr. Frenchman, you proved me wrong. But I did not give him the pleasure of letting him know he know he was the first. ;)

My next step was to find this bus. A very specific bus I knew I had to find in order to take me to my train station. I looked all over, went outside, went inside, went back outside, checked bus schedules, went back inside, etc. Couldn't find the one I KNEW I needed. Finally someone was helpful and told me how to get there. I follwed her directions, which were right, but I ended up waiting forever for this bus to come. Just when I was about to give up on it because I thought it wasn't coming, it came. And believe me when I say it was crowded. My suitcases didn't help, either. I thought this would be a bus that puts your luggage underneath the bus and then carries a mass quantity of people to and from the airport. WRONG! I brought it ON the bus with me, which wasn't easy. To my surprise, there was an older couple on the bus who I had seen earlier on one (or both?) of my plane flights. Not sure where they got on before me, but they did. And I knew they were from Minneapolis because their luggage tag had a 612 number. I felt a little bit at home. :)

Well, the bus I took (for those of you wondering, it was the RATP 350) actually didn't go directly to the center of Paris. First it went around it, through suburbs and picked up people in little areas. It was kind of cool to see all around, but the trip took about 60 minutes. I was standing the whole time, and more and more people kept getting on, including two people with huge baby strollers with babies in them. There was close to no room for more people, and here I was with two big bags I could barely control. Finally toward the end it started emptying out, and it stopped right in front of my train station. GOOD! The hardest part of the trip was over. Only 2 more hours until my train arrives!

The rest is boring. In the train station, I followed all the signs for tickets but somehoe managed to walk in circles. I think another person was doing the same thing because we kept crossing paths. After having to ask someone for help AGAIN, I was directed back to where I had come from in the first place. Thanks, Paris, for labling your ticket area so prominently and your signs properly. The rest was just a waiting game. It was fun to watch people though. At the end of all of this, I want to say it was the smartest idea to bring a suitcase with 4 rotating wheels. SUPER helpful in trying to navigate the airport and city and train stations.

It was about a 4 hour train ride to Lure, and when I arrived, I was driven to my room by one of the English teachers at the high school named Fabienne. She was super nice and even bought me some food, which was in my room when I arrived. So I didn't have to starve for my first few days! Since that night I've just been sleeping, cleaning dishes (left in my room from previous assistants), going for walks, etc. Only thing that's gone wrong so far is my shower...

They installed a brand new shower in my room just before I arrived. It's super nice, but after finding giant puddles on the bathroom floor after my first three showers, I knew something was wrong. I may have replaced my bathroom faucet on my own at home, but I wasn't about to fix this bad boy. Yesterday two very friendly men came over to look at it, and this morning came back to fix it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's done with, because I really don't want to deal with not having a shower for any time.

I really really like where I live. It's a bit weird living at the school because if I leave in the middle of the day, there are always kids around who can see me come and go. They sit outside between classes and on breaks (not like home where it's forbidden to leave the school!), so I think I'm going to soon find another route to take to the center of town from now on. Not that it really matters though. I live really close to all the cute stuff that you think of when you think of France. It's great! Lots of stuff is in close walking distance, although the supermarkets are a longer walk, and bigger stores (like Target-ish places) are further away. Luckily, there's another assistant here from Germany who lives in my same building and has his car here. I'm guessing we'll be able to make store trips together.

For the next week or so, I'm just getting everything situated. Fabienne is helping me do everything I need to do... all the paperwork and stuff. It's great! Yesterday I met a bunch of the people at the school, and Fabienne took me to her house to work on the papers. Her family is great. She has three kids. The youngest is a 2-year-old son named Eloi, and he's my favorite! Her husband is also an English teacher, so around me the two of the were speaking English the whole time (which isn't the norm for them I guess... just a courtesy to me!). Eloi kept talking nonsense, nonstop. Fabienne said he was pretending to speak English (which I couldn't tell anyway, he's a baby!... But she I guess could tell it was more English than French) just because he was hearing the three of us speaking English. I can't tell you how cute this kid is. We even got him to say a couple things in English, although he has no clue what he's saying. He just made my day!

I think that's everything for now. I still don't have regular internet access, but I'm working on getting it set up. Right now I'm at McDonald's, which took a while to walk to. That's proabbly a good thing, too. And yes, I know it's McDonald's, and I'm in FRANCE. I'm only here for the wifi, although I did get some fries and Coke. They just take better when I'm away from home. :)