We made it!!

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Study Abroad!! I’ve been dreaming of this experience for so long, but I’m trying to come into it with no specific expectations. I even tried to take everything the students from last year said with a grain of salt. I am determined to have my own authentic experience. I don’t know…I just don’t want anyone else’s opinions to taint my impressions of the whole thing. That being said, I think my first impressions won’t be the lasting impressions from these 5 months…at least I hope not. I don’t mean to say I’m not enjoying myself, because I am…and I am optimistic for the rest of the semester. Today was just kind of a bad day.

“Today” really started yesterday, the 1st. I packed all morning and then had a nice turkey broccoli brunch with the family and Caitlin. She and I said our goodbyes and then we drove down to Chicago O’Hare. Our flight didn’t leave until 6:19 pm but we got there at about 3:30. I was really worried that my suitcases would be over the 50 lb limit. When the woman weighed them, only one was over so instead of paying the $125 fine, dad and I rearranged some things so that they balanced out to 49.5 and 50 pounds exactly.

Met up with Ashley and Alysha at the airport. The flight was really underbooked, which was nice because pretty much everyone got their own row. I was still pretty uncomfortable for the night time, should-be-sleeping portion of the trip. I think that has a lot to do with my mood today—I only slept an hour, if that. Anyway, we arrived safely and got our luggage. We were supposed to wait for Mme Arrizabalaga to pick us up. There was like an inch of snow on the ground and when she finally arrived she blamed her tardiness on the weather. (It was NOTHING by Wisconsin standards but everyone was complaining about it today.) Madame and Elodie (a student) started to take us to our dorm. Unfortunately neither of them knew where the dorm was. Awesome. We drove around for almost an hour, with me in the back seat of Elodie’s jerky stick shift car. Around and around roundabouts…ugh. I honestly thought I would throw up (I didn’t). Finally we gave up and they took us to the Université’s campus for a meeting with the other American students. They’re from Arkansas State University. We spent the LONGEST time on a parking arrangement (I’m beginning to see this as a trend here) and went in to check out the cafeteria.
We had a very long and tedious meeting. By this time it was 2 pm. We had arrived at 9:30 (2:30 am Wisconsin time). I was beyond tired. But the day was not over! We had to check into the dorm. Everyone lugged their suitcases into the lobby (when we finally found it again). The landlady is very French…talks loud and fast and nonstop. It ended up that two of us would have to share a suite. Alysha and I were the only ones who hadn’t started the paperwork yet, so it ended up being us. We each have our own bedroom and we share a tiny kitchen and bathroom. I don’t mind but part of me thinks that Pooja’s setup would be better—a home stay. That way she doesn’t pay rent and she eats 2 meals a day at home. Pas mal.

Our building is called le Square de l’Echiquier. It’s obvious that young people live here. There’s minor graffiti on the walls and everything is a bit dirty. Fortunately our room is clean. Anyway, after we all dropped our stuff off, we had to go shopping. We went to the mall, called Les Trois Fontaines, in Cergy. This was slightly comforting, since it was basically the same as Mayfair. The main difference was that there is a grocery store/Wal-Mart/megastore thing inside called Auchan. That’s where we went to get bedding, toilet paper, and some food. It’s enormous, very intimidating. We all walked around like freshmen on the first day of high school. By this point (6 pm), I was so tired I could barely think straight. I just wanted to put my sheets on my bed and crash. Finally we finished and went outside to wait for Madame to pick us up. She drove us back to le Square and we unpacked everything. Alysha and I just made some couscous and now I’m ready for bed. I’m feeling a little homesick but honestly I think it’s just the lack of sleep. Tomorrow will be 1000x better hopefully, since I get to sleep tonight.

The adventure begins.

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