Oscillations

Paris, je suis ici! After bringing in the New Year in the States, I began my journey over to Paris. Shuffling through and evening out my overstuffed suitcases was my first task, then waiting to check them, then waiting in the security line; while tedious, all this still went quite smoothly. Even the 10 hour plane ride and then transfer in Amsterdam was unexciting, in a good way. Amsterdam greeted me with light snowflakes and what appeared to be a full moon, I felt as if I was arriving in an 18th century industrial town during Christmas, and this wasn’t even my final destination. After lining up to board the plane to Paris, a French man asked me, in French, if I was in line for the flight to Paris, I answered with a quick “Oui” and felt giddy that I appeared French enough for someone to ask me, out of all the people in line. An on-the-plane croissant au chocolate and a taxi ride later, I was at my host family’s apartment in the 6eme arrondissement of Paris. Michel, my host dad who, after 2 days, seems like he will be an out of the picture dad, helped me with my suitcase, showed me my room and left me there. Eventually, Christiane, my talkative, sweet host mom arrived and showed me around the apartment and let me know a bit about what life would be like there this upcoming semester. The apartment is very French. Some quirks include the mazish hall that leads to the kitchen, the contrast between the high ceiling in my room to the 6 foot ceiling in the other American girl’s (Leah) room, and the two toilets (one for “petites choses” and the other for everything else). Now after a few days, some exploration of the surrounding area has taken place. Every building is absolutely beautiful. I have already walked to grand places such as the Louvre and the Jardin du Luxembourg, but I have also accompanied these sites with important but small ones, such as the Monoprix (the supermarket) and Orange (similar to AT&T). I am wildly overwhelmed and somewhat lonely, but so grateful to be in Paris.