Arrival

After a wonderfully relaxing three days in New York, I flew off to Paris and landed at the Charles de Gaulle airport at 10:30 am. The terminal that houses United Airlines is really modern and neat to look at. Instead of escalators, they have moving walkways that go up and down like you are walking over rolling hills. The center of the terminal has a bunch of these walkways that cross through an atrium making it feel like something out of the mother ship in the movie Independence Day.

The flight was smooth, my bags arrived on time, and my host, Jennifer, was at the terminal waiting for me. That part went about as well as I could have hoped. 

The two of us took a stiflingly crowded train from the airport to the RER stop next to the place I'm staying. I was worried that I wouldn't have a room reserved since I hadn't heard anything from the housing office after I sent in the reservation form. However, when Jennifer and I arrived, she spoke some French and all of a sudden I had a room! Language is magic. 

My room is tiny and has an even tinier bathroom, but this was quickly forgotten when I saw the beautiful cast iron balcony covered in ivy and grape vines. It is quite stunning. There are also two big (French?) doors that I can open in from the balcony to let in the fresh air. 

View from my balcony.

Tiny bathroom.

I unpacked my bags and took a short nap before figuring out how to use the internet here. Once that was done, I wandered around the area a bit to see what it is like. There's a nice park across the street that I would like to explore more tomorrow. Unfortunately, I was feeling hungry and tired so my exploring ended pretty quickly when I found a little corner market with sufficient food to get me through the night. I bought a can of sardines, an orange, and a triangle of Roquefort cheese. I ate the sardines and orange but haven't worked up the nerves to eat the cheese yet.

Several people stopped me on the street to ask where stuff was, so I guess I look passably Parisian. I quickly disappointed them however by not even knowing how to say, "I don't speak French" in French. I taught myself how to say, "Pardon me, I do not understand you. Do you speak English or Spanish?" but I quickly realized that that takes way too long to say. So my phrase to learn for the night is, "Je ne parle pas français." Maybe someday I will speak French.

The shower here is warm, (hooray!) and the sun is shining. Today is the longest day of the year so there will be lots of music and festivities going on until late in the evening. Despite that, I imagine I will turn in early. I feel like I've done well by staying up past 7:30 pm. My goal is to make it to 8:30. We'll see.

"Je ne parle pas français."

"Je ne parle pas français."

"Je ne parle pas français."