Bonjour de Pau!

I’m here in Pau, France now as this comes to you. I’m [tentatively] starting to get settled in, and things are going quite well.

I was rather paranoid about my bags, having checked them in Columbus all the way to Pau so as not to carry those hosses all over JFK Labyrinth. Miraculously, they were in my hands just minutes after landing in Pau. I had already prepared for them to be delayed and/or missing, but grace á Delta/Air France, they came through and made everything much easier.

Leaving home didn’t start to bother me until the morning of, which I woke up four hours before my alarm… that I set very early to ensure that I had time for last-minute alterations. Everything was packed, it all fit in the suitcase, but it never crossed my mind that it might weigh too much (Thanks, Hammer). I used Archimedes’ displacement (who said chemistry didn’t apply to French?) method on my erratically inaccurate scale to get some semblance of how much needed to be shaved off. However, it appeared that I was in the clear (and later found out I was safe by ten pounds per bag).

I was ready to leave in the psychological sense but physically, Mother Nature and TSA had other intentions. It snowed substantially the night before I left and added a bit of stress. Where was this snow all of winter break? Also, I never realized how much “terrorist potential” I had, and TSA had a field day patting me down and playing with my stuff before I stepped foot into any plane. Mum and I decided to skip out on my previously-reserved flight (after sketchy Studentuniverse pulled a fast one on us and changed my direct flight to JFK to stop in Chicago beforehand) since O’Hare is notoriously known for lovely winter weather and delays. Despite the rickety plane and delay-induced tour of New York from the sky, It ended up being the smart choice and I was able to “rest” a little easier.

It took several tries to find an airport employee to speak English in New York, and send me in the right direction (well, they did get me there and whether it was a road for cars or pedestrians is of no matter to me now).

I was quite carnivorous the day I left. I made myself a cabinet-cleaning bratwurst/chicken breast/angus strip steak over rice farewell feast for lunch. Once I got to JFK, I received a $12 voucher to go to the delightfully tacky “Wok and Roll” or McDonalds. Rats. I opted for the latter by default and had a large jus d’orange, milkshake, and a variety of five chicken snackwraps of which I ordered plain, as opposed to without sauce (by incoherent mistake).

Got in my last free (comparatively) phone calls to friends and loved ones after a $3.50 snack of banana and small water. I was introduced to a couple of my group members during my six-hour intermission before the flight to Paris. They lead me back to the rest of the group - all girls. Went through the obligatory introductions and inquisitions, and then boarded the mammoth plane.

It was more of a spaceship, really. After my previous flight, I was utterly blown away. I felt like the entire airport was on this plane. There’s a reason tickets cost a grand.

I had my own personal touchscreen television, complete with music, movies, cartoons, games, online store and status/progress map, detailing what exactly we were flying over at the time. Of course my screen was the only one on the plane that was broken, and decided to let the woman who was sleeping in my seat alone (even though I’d really liked to have watched the Darjeeling Limited). I was strangely calm on the plane, although sitting right in the middle irked me a bit. But of course like every flight, I was aligned with the wings. Didn’t seem to help this time though, because the flight was ROUGH once we were in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I was moderately frightened when we dropped thousands of feet and the flight attendants sprinted up the aisleways to their seats.

My final flight seated me next to a smelly Spanish woman who spoke no English or French. I smelled of roses and cookies, myself. Once we lifted off the ground, she took out a white sheet and draped it over herself, celebrating Halloween a full nine months early. She later pulled out the barf bag… only to spit her gum out into it. The ghost of the Fokker 100 (yes, that was the name of the plane) frightened the many young ones who were aboard and a screaming child festival was had by all. From the window of the plane though, Pau at night is dark and spread out, unlike the gold-plated blocks of electricity from cities back home.

For any of you haters/gamblers out there, I will not be coming home early. I’m done with planes for a while.

I wasn’t ready to start doing the French thing right off the bat. I had been in a state of Greyhoundish insomnia (it’s a miracle and an enigma that I’m not sick), where I knew that sleeping would make me feel better, yet I wasn’t the least bit tired. Being travel-worn and hazy made for some clunky and awkward conversations on the plane.

My nut allergy has made things a bit difficult. The airplane food wasn’t labeled nor clearly identifiable, so I did without. Airport terminal food in Paris was also suspect, and their workers deceiving. Cheated a friend of mine out of some euros. So I involuntarily went hungry to spite them. Yesterday I only had orange juice, water and yogurt in a span of 24 hours. Also, I spent an exhaustive amount of time today at the supermarché reading the labels that I was able to find. I need to brush up on my food vocabulary quickly. I’m still alive at the moment, so I guess I’m doing well. Don’t know how much restauranting I’ll be doing, especially since I have a refrigerator and stove top. Although I did order a pizza last night which was absolutely delicious (Royal = ham, cheese and mushrooms).

Woke up early this morning for a meeting with the whole group and our advisors in the town hall. Lots of information thrown our way but I’m not feeling overwhelmed. Skipped lunch to take my own tour of Pau, then had a guided tour of Pau. Didn’t get a lot out of it, though. Our group was large, our guide spoke quietly and entirely in French and every stop was next to the street which had a ton of traffic and did a good job of drowning out what she was saying. Not too worried about it, because I’ll be doing a good bit of exploration on my own.

Price disparities between the Les États-Unis and France are interesting, and sometimes startling. Wine is very very cheap. Scissors here are $20. Guess I’ll keep using my nail file to open things.

My room is pretty nice: treat it like a one-bedroom apartment. Apparently the rest of the rooms are occupied but no one’s thrown me a welcoming party. A little disappointed on what “surprises” the last tenant who lived here left. Just some books, dishes, silverware, a pot and a pan. I’ll make use of them, though. The shower was challenging because it was a simultaneous onslaught of scalding hot quickly followed by a piercing cold. The trick is to turn the cold water on first and then the hot. Bed’s paper thin, but I didn’t seem to mind last night. I slept lights out, possibly the first time I’ve ever laid my head on a pillow and immediately fallen asleep. I’m adjusting well to the time change thus far. I’m using my sleepless travels to my advantage.

Pau is an exotic city that I’m looking forward to calling home. Deciduous trees stand next to coniferous trees which stand next to palm trees. And their palm trees are furry and have berries. It’s a beautiful city, despite being the middle of winter. The weather is tricky here, cold enough in the morning to wear a winter coat, but you regret taking it with you by midday. And then it gets cold again after you’ve had the opportunity to ditch your winter coat. Yay, more mountains too. The Pyrenees lurk in the background, and I can’t wait to conquer them.

Everyone from the group is unsurprisingly easy to talk to. A melting pot of folks, nice people and their friendship will definitely come in handy. I’ve also made a couple of indigenous friends, to add to my cred.

Haven’t figured out the internets, yet. I’m writing this prior to the ability of publishing it, so hopefully I’ll have access to the world wide web by Monday. Looks more like I won’t be watching the Buckeyes game.

There is a significantly ostensible disparity between ethnicities that I was unable to notice until now. I’ve yet to see an ugly Italian. Europeans dress very much the same: classy and elegant, but their clothing’s lack of vivacity is a little disappointing. If there are any differences, they’re very subtle. Needless to say, there’s no doubt that I stand out, like a green hat with an orange bill.

Set off some other American signals today. Threw out a “bonjour” instead of a “bonsoir” tonight and I forgot to take my fruit to the weighing station and held up the checkout line at the grocery store for a while. I did successfully avoid taking more than three pictures, for today at least…

Hot dog, the dollar is weak. I hope very much that it starts taking human growth hormone and anabolic steroids very soon. So that it can play baseball and put more money back in my wallet.

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