En France!

I have arrived! After weeks of passport losing, money getting, suitcase packing and goodbye saying, I am finally in France! I left from Des Moines airport at about 2:00 on Tuesday, flew to Chicago in a little three across plane. I was right up front, which was neat because they left the door to the cockpit open for awhile before take-off so I could see the neat gadgets. I was the first one off the plane, and had to push open several doors to get into the terminal. I was pushing one open when some pilots on the other side grabbed it, laughed, and said "welcome to Chicago!"

The flight from Chicago to Paris was very interesting...and very bumpy. We had the "Fasten Seat Belt" sign turned on almost the entire duration of the flight. On the upside, they showed "Roman Holiday" which is one of my favorite movies, and I got to sit next to a really neat girl who is studying in Dijon for the semester. She doesn't speak any French and hasn't ever been here before, so I was giving her tips on how to handle obnoxious flirting Frenchmen. She took my contact info down, so hopefully I'll hear from her again. We even watched an episode of Grey's together on my ipod. We parted when we landed, and my luggage came very quickly (yay!). I walked for awhile to find the exit where the bus to Montparnasse picks you up, and found it just before they left (yay again!). It was about an hour, but through Paris so I got to see lots of neat things.

I arrived at the train station and ran into my first glitch. My credit card...the Visa card we'd gotten specifically because the train stations machines only take Visa or Euromastercard....wasn't working in the machines. It wouldn't read it no matter what way I put it in. So I walked over to the desks and was going to stand in line behind bunches of people when I saw the window marked "special needs customers". It had a picture of an eye and an ear....so I hopped over there. There was only one other person, and its a good thing I was in that line because I could hardly hear the guy the way it was, and it was a special speaker system. He gave me my ticket, so I walked back into the main station and waited for my train....and waited, and waited, and waited. It said on the big ticker signs that they would post the platform the train would depart from 20 minutes before it was supposed to leave.

Twenty till passed, nothing. Ten till, still nothing. I was a little confused about how the trains were set up, so asked the couple next to me for help. Turns out they spoke Spanish, not French, but still tried very hard to help. The good thing is that I know my numbers...haha. That's about all the Spanish I remember from last semester! Finally with five minutes before we were supposed to leave, they announced the platform. The crowd took off for the trains with me in hot pursuit. I pulled my bags into the train, pushed them into a luggage rack, and sat down in my seat. A little old lady (and yes Mom, she was old, she was born in 1920) sat down next to me. We had a lovely conversation about her pets and how her dog wandered the house for three months after her husband died looking for him, before it died itself. Lovely. She was very nice, and before I knew it we were pulling into Nantes.

I grabbed my bags, got off the train, and started looking around. Nobody in the immediate vicinity looked very host-mom-ish, and I saw nobody with any signs or anything. Madame Vincent had told me, in her last email, to meet her in the north end of the station so that's where I headed. I got to the waiting room and still didn't see anybody standing stationary looking for someone. I did find two other IES students though, so they came over to say hello and to ask if I wanted to catch a taxi with them. I told them about my mom meeting me at the station, and the girl said that she'd seen her on the platform with a sign...err. I must have walked right past her! I walked back up to the platform, and sure enough there came a woman walking down holding a sign in her hand. Her name is Roselyne Vincent and she is very very nice. Very short, but very nice. We walked to her car and drove home, and she gave me an hour to unpack..which I did completely. I'm really glad I did, and Mom? I didn't lose ANYTHING this trip. Woo! I unpacked everything, put it away neatly...I have a desk (with wireless internet!!!), four little cupboards, and a sink with shelves in my room. All of my stuff fits here! Outside the room there is a shower, and a bathroom. I was unpacking when Madame Vincent knocked on the door. She introduced me to William, the French (when is the age when you stop calling someone a boy and they become a man?) student? staying at the house. He helped me plug in my computer, and now I'm not sure where he is. Roselyne and I went to the IES center to pick up my paperwork and a neighbor student whose family was tied up. Came back home and I got to meet Charlotte, their youngest daughter. She reminds me of my godsister Lauren SO MUCH its almost eerie. She's really nice, I'm very excited to spend time with her. She leaves for school on Monday, but she'll be back on weekends to ride her horse. Roselyne started dinner, then we sate down to eat. Mr. Vincent came home, he's very nice too. We all sat and ate, and they keep telling me that my French is good and fairly accent free! I'm not sure what to make of that, but it must be good. Now I am completely exhausted and I'm going to bed. Tomorrow afternoon I leave for Vannes, a city nearby where we are having our orientation for 3 1/2 days. Should be fun!