You would think that after the exhaustion I've been through these past two days-- both mental and physical-- I'd be able to sleep right now! But alas, in five hours I will be getting up once more to shower and prepare for the day, off to my second day of classes at l'Institut de Touraine. I've been up for an hour and a half and sleep just won't come... so what better thing to do than write?! (and eat trail mix... not like I did that or anything...)
PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES-- PART 2
(First, let's re-wind to the day of arrival, which I promised I'd do in my previous post. Then I'll put up another post, to break it all up.)
Preparing for the flight went surprisingly smoothly for the most part. In my fashion, I still had things to put together before leaving (toiletries, my lap top, stuff like that you kind of have no choice but to do last minute.) Though I woke up early enough, this still didn't give me much(any) time to hang with my parents a little bit as I'd hoped, but thankfully I spent all of Friday with them going to the beach in West Hampton. It had been a positively beautiful, perfect day for the beach and everything about our short day-trip was relaxing and reassuring. I guess there's no better way to send off a Long Island student by bringing them to the beach one last time!
So, Friday morning started with tying up the loose knots, eating my favorite crumb cake from a local bakery, realizing not-so-happily that my Nook did not, in fact, charge... and running those two suitcases out the door (both just under the fifty pound weight limit!)
I find JFK notoriously busy and difficult to navigate, but for some reason was proven wrong on Saturday. There was pretty much no traffic going in and we got to the terminal without trouble. After checking my luggage I sat with my family until Lily arrived at the airport (she drove up from Philadelphia!) My family from California also came to say goodbye.
Well, you know the drill... saying goodbye is never fun, from either end. But thanks for supporting me on my decision to travel abroad, mom and dad! I love and truly do miss "you guys" already.
(By the way, happy birthday to my mother!!!!!!... in French time, that is. Over in the US it's still Monday...)
I'm going to skip over the flights (the first one on a VERY small plane, the second on a rather HUGE one,) because they went over so smoothly (besides the delays, which weren't terrible) that I need to rush towards the train station catastrophe before I bore you readers to tears (whomever is a brave enough soul to actually read the essays I post up here.)
La gare... oh la la!
The original departure time Lily and I had found online did not... exist. So we paid for a 2:16 (14:16) ticket and grabbed lunch in the airport, eating delicious sandwiches on wonderful French bread and drinking the awful mineral-enhanced water that was available.
Time to go! Nothing has really gone wrong yet... what's the catch?
1) Couldn't find the "voie" for our train
2) Going down the escalator with four just-under-50-pound-luggage-bags and our duffels
3) Realizing there is no room for our luggage on the rack in the train
4) Realizing that getting our luggage off the train would be a disaster
5) Getting luggage off the train, a disaster
6) Missing our transfer train because we had to go downstairs then back up to the next platform... via the stairs... again, the weight of the luggage
7) Lily and I not finding our host parents (though everyone else did!) and wandering around the station in search
8) Realizing that I'm overseas for ten months as a very, very independent individual... it finally hit me, and that fright that should've clocked in weeks ago attacked like an angry bear. "RAWRR THERE'S NO TURNING BACK IT'S JUST ME AND YOU NOW HAHAHAHAHA" holy crap I am SO FAR FROM HOME AM I INSANE???
That all being said, I am quite happy to be here, I'm just still overwhelmed by the whole prospect. I just need to breathe and soak it in and not think too much... I'm in France. Words can't describe how thankful I am to have this opportunity, and in exchange I will fully immerse myself in every experience that comes my way, seek out anything and everything this country has to offer. Profitez-en bien.
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