I guess my trip began at Philadelphia International Airport on Wednesday, January 6th 2010 at 7:00pm. At that exact moment in time, I thought my trip would never even happen, because at this time, I realized my passport was not in its case...
Turns out that my mom had taken it to make a photocopy of my student visa, you know, just in case I lost it, or left it somewhere...like HOME?! As soon as I realized it was missing, I asked her where it could be, and she instantly realized that it was at home. She decided to race home and try to get it back to the airport before check-in for my flight closed at...8PM!! (Because my flight was at 9pm, they don't allow anyone to check-in within an hour of scheduled departure.) I was convinced that it was not humanly possible to get home and back within 1 hour, so I was devastated.
However, guess who comes running into the terminal at 7:59 with my passport in her hand?! I couldn't believe that she had made it back, but was still unconvinced that I would make my flight, as the recently beefed up security was supposed to take an extra long amount of time to clear.
We ran up to the check-in counter frantically explaining our rush, and we put my 2 duffel bags on the scales, and of course, my one giant bag is 5 lbs overweight. So, with literally no time to spare, my mom and I scramble to transfer some stuff into the other bag to make weight. As we are doing this, the lady who is checking me in explains that boarding should start in 15 minutes, but that she thinks I can make it. As soon as we got it down to 50.5, my mom says, "Go! Run! Bye!" and I'm off to security, running as fast as I can with my pully carry on and my big tote purse.
Miraculously, I got through security in 15 minutes, and was sitting at the gate with plenty of time, as the flight was, of course, delayed an hour.
And that's the story of how I almost didn't make it to the city of lights!
But I'm here now, and have been for four days today. Apparently it's the coldest its been here in a long time. It's been snowing on and off since I've been here, which I've been told is a very rare occurrence in Paris. While it is frigid though, it is definitely beautiful.
I'm staying in a student "apartment" in the 12th arrondissement, on a beautiful street called avenue Daumesnil. On this street are old train stations that have been converted to artists' studios, which have huge window fronts that allow walkers to see the artists' work and see them in the process of creating new pieces. I put apartment in quotes because it is definitely not what one would think of when they hear the word. It's more like a small 1 room dorm room with an attached bathroom with sink, toilet and shower, and a small kitchen area with a microwave, stove top, and sink. I'm requested to be in a double with a roommate, but my roommate is not arriving until sometime next week, and the room is definitely not a double room in my opinion. The only think "double" about it is the bunk bed on one side of the room. Other than that, there is only one closet and one desk. I'm kinda curious as to how that will work for two people, but I guess we'll see...
This is already a super long post, so I'll tell more about what I've been up to since I've been here another time soon!
Here is a view out my window:
zoomed in:
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