En Route

I left at 3:45AM from my home in Spokane and proceeded to San Francisco for an 8 hour layover (I found an outlet and camped out the whole time and watched Fringe and Dexter). Closer to my departure I met up with a few people from my program, which calmed my nerves a lot -- especially when they were all feeling the same way as I was. 


The flight to Paris was roughly 10 hours long, and I wasn't feeling very comfortable about the idea of sitting still for that long. Sitting next to me was another USAC student and we were basically instant friends. She was wildly excited, which amped up my excitement rather than the pre-dominating dread. As we sat on the run-way I heard something beautiful that made me feel at the pinnacle of bliss: Bon Iver was playing as background music on the plane; God bless the French (for those of you who do not know, Bon Iver is my favorite band -- very soothing). The flight improved when they delivered dinner soon after take off; this was unlike any airplane food I'd ever had -- it was actually very tasty! And the coffee!! The most tasty espresso in the world; I'm not sure how I'll ever go back to American coffee. 


So basically, the flight was not nearly as awful as I was expecting; there were personal tv's with a wide selection of movies on the back of each seat, how could it be bad? I didn't sleep much, and the cramped spaces and weird air-pressure did a number on my tendinitis (I swear my knees were swollen to the size of apples); however, the flight went by quickly and I arrived safely in the Charles de Gaulle Airport where my group and I promptly became lost and I got yelled at by a security guard for stopping in the security scanner (can you believe it? They don't have to stop to be scanned with their hands over their heads! I was astounded). 


I arrived in Pau at about 2:20PM local time (5:20AM at home) and waited for my luggage that never came (well, it came today, 2 days late), then I met my host mother and brother, who were both very kind and gave me a tour of the city. My host brother speaks a bit of English and my host mother kept making him speak English to me; he was quite reluctant. We went to my new home and I got settled (with the little baggage I had in my carry-on) into my room, which has an adorable terrace! So great! I went to bed directly after dinner, and that concluded the beginning of my journey.