l'Arriveé et d'autres choses

Yo.

So I arrived in NYC Friday morning, took a bus to JFK to check my luggage, and set off to explore the city during my layover of ten hours. Ended up in lower Manhattan, wandered a bit, and made my way to the Staten Island Ferry. A ride from Manhattan to Staten Island gratis? With a great view of the Statue of Liberty on the way? Sounded good to me.

I did all the picture-taking and stuff on the way there and sat inside on the way back. I was still tired from my preemptive strike against jetlag, which consisted of staying up all of Wednesday night with Keeler and sleeping Thursday afternoon. When I got back to Manhattan I wandered, ate some sicilian pizza in a park, and wandered some more through lower Manhattan and SoHo.

As quitting time approached, I finally found a subway station. I'd managed to avoid them quite skillfully for quite a while. I headed back to JFK and boarded my plane. 'Twas nothing spectacular, but it was the biggest I'd been on. Three rows. I took my seat next to a cute girl from Ohio who was headed to the fashion capital du monde to study its design. The flight was good, the food was decent, and I slept a bit. 7.5 hours later, I was at l'Aéroport Charles de Gaulle in suburban Paris.

The first thing I noticed in the airport was all of the English. Every sign. But everyone around me was speaking French, so that was a good sign. I stood in the passport line, not sure exactly what it was for, this being my first real experience abroad (no, Canadia, countries within a 20 minute drive from my house don't count). After that, I got my bag, and walked endlessly through the airport to the RER station to catch train B to Paris.

Once in Paris, I caught the Metro for a worthwhile ride of 6ish blocks, and finally arrived at 13 Rue du Plâtre. I met my host, a single 63-year-old woman, and she showed me around the apartment. It's comfortable. Nothing too fancy, but nice. Lots of art on the walls, des originals, she told me. My only complaint is the salle de bains. I have to take showers while sitting/lying in the tub, using a handheld shower thingy (which was later described to me as like a cell phone... go figure). Mme Lancelle offered me a meal, which I of course accepted, and in no time I was sitting in the living room, eating a biftek, green beans, carrots, bread, and apple pie (frenchified), watching the "only hits" music video channel with my 63-year-old host, listening as she hummed along to "Rude Boy", despite being unable to comprehend it. But I think the video's suggestive enough to get the point across.

Are you still reading? Really? D'accord, I'll continue then. I spent the rest of my day wandering Paris, taking pictures, and generally taking in the awesomeness. I took a 4 hour nap break to bury the jetlag that survived my preparations and went back out. I ate at a small cafe. A sandwich Italien served on a baguette. I ordered de l'eau, and got a quarter liter glass bottle of Evian instead of tap water. The waiter used his bottle opener to remove the top before I could protest, so I decided I wouldn't complain. Didn't realize it was 4 euros. Oh well, five-dollar water's my favorite kind. At least I didn't have to tip.

Today was the rendezvous with my classmates and professor. The school's a short ride on the Metro away, but I decided to take the half-hour walk, semi-intentionally getting lost along the way. I had lots of time, so I saw lots of sights, including a beautiful park in memory of Jewish children killed by the Nazis during the Occupation. I came upon a demonstration demanding the application of some law to benefit the homeless. There was a young woman in a van leading the crowd in chants of "Qu'est-ce qu'on veut ? LOGEMENT ! Pour qui ? POUR TOUS !"

I met the awesome people I'll be Frenchin' it up with, grabbed some food in the very classy (really, I swear!) McDo, stopped chez une camarade de class who lives in my arrondissement to search the net in vain for fireworks we'd heard about, and headed home to finally set up my internet with the aid of Mme Lancelle's son on the other end of a phone. But the price of your reading this is a young girl's tears. The granddaughter of la Mme was forcibly removed from the computer so her father could change whatever setting was blocking my access to the WiFi.

Anyway, class starts tomorrow, and with it comes a DINNER CRUISE!! Des aventures m'attendent.

Au revoir,

Steven