Arriving in Lille

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The traveling was good, but the intermediate parts were a little bit worse. Starting at the beginning: I arrived at the airport very early and went through security about 5 hours early (I had a reason, I'm not insane). I watched the earlier flight to Paris leave and then waited for mine. While waiting, a Hasidic Jewish man sat next to me. He and a few other Hasidim were looking to make a minyan, but they didn't have enough people, so I volunteered to the guy sitting next to me. Unfortunately, I only made 8, so they had a Minion, but not a minyan (that's my funny of the day). We got to talking about Judaism and Israel, which killed some time. Yay!

The flight went smoothly, but we took off over an hour late. My feet left the US at 10:41 PM EDT. I managed to sleep for about half of the trip. When I arrived in Charles de Gaulle, there is no customs or anything. I just showed my passport (no stamp 😞), picked up my bags, and walked out. I just managed to catch the TGV up to Lille. An hour and a bit later, I was standing in Lille Europe station. However, I had no way of contacting Elizabeth, so I was a bit lost. Some British people tried to help me (or, in reality, I asked them for help). Finally I found a nice man who let me borrow his phone (a blackberry) to call. So she picked me up and we headed to her place via Metro. It really wasn't bad, once I figured out what I was doing. I discovered that a mix of English/French worked well. I hope to soon be all in French *cough cough*.

Elizabeth has a nice room, even if she complains that it is very small. There's more than enough room for two people to sleep (she's arguing with me as I write this!). I also managed to meet her friend, Rachel, and their mutual friend Lucie. We went to a great place for dinner - Los Tacos. Yes, my first meal in France was at a Mexican restaurant. But that's OK...I'll eat more traditional French food in the next few days. After all, I am spending a week here.

So the day is getting done. It is almost 9:45 and the sun is still out (albeit setting rather quickly). It's confusing me. What I will be doing for the rest of the week, I don't know. But we decided (Elizabeth, Rachel, and I) that either tomorrow or Saturday, we will go to Dover, England. Looks to be an exciting trip!

Thanks for reading and I hope to post again soon!

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Comments

[Paola]

lol
I love it how u go to a mexican restaurant in france. i hope its good. btw whats a minyan? please let me know when u get back. <3 Paola