Let's Play Catch-Up! (Part I)

Well, I suppose the best place to backtrack to is the day of my flight to France. After much anticipation, anxiety, frustration, packing, preparing, and all of that, it was finally time for me to head to the airport, where I faced potential overweight baggage fees, close-calls and so forth. However, I ran into many good bits of luck throughout the whole process (including a direct transport of my luggage to CDG and running quick enough to arrive before boarding even began) and eventually made it on the plane to JFK. The plane was extremely cramped and even though it was fairly chilly, it was very hot on the plane. I arrived in New York about seven hours before the plane to France would depart and, as a result, I had much time to kill on my own. I was able to sift through all of my music, etc. Surprisingly, I didn't really meet any of my classmates (except for one, but even at that time I still wasn't entirely sure what was going on), nor did I meet up with any staff of the programme. Thankfully, I got onto the Air France plane and found a group of students who were indeed going to France on the same programme as me; I sat next to Misha on the plane ride. I don't know what I was really thinking, but I got a mini-bottle of red wine to go with my dinner and combined with the hectic heat inside the plane, let's just say the ride wasn't entirely comfortable. I was able, however, to get some sleep, albeit not too much of it.

And then, it happened... Tuesday morning, at about 08h00, we landed on French territory. We were then picked up by Dorothy, an alumna from BU who completed the Paris Internship Programme (PIP) a few semesters beforehand. The 25 of us who were apparently on the plane at the same time met each other for the first time. Perhaps as a result of the fatigue and shyness, no one barely spoke a word. Instead, we got onto a group bus and were sent to the headquarters of our programme in Paris, i.e., the BU building in Paris. En route to the classroom, I'm fairly certain that many of us fell asleep, as the bus made its way through quite a bit of traffic. Finally, we arrived to the classroom, where we were greeted by Renée (the programme director) and Odile (the academic director). After filling in our initial round of paperwork, we were sent off directly to our homestays.

I soon found out that I would be having what I thought was a roommate, Trevor. We got into a taxi cab and, while talking to the driver about various subjects, including the French take on American politics, I noticed three things. First, Paris has barely changed since I last remembered it; second, my French has not completely disappeared as I had thought; third, as I passed familiarity, I felt Paris beginning to steal a bit of my heart.

We arrived at our house on l'avenue de la Grande Armée and realised that we're in a rather rich area. From the door, one can see the Arc de Triomphe, and a short walk away is the Champs-Elysées. We were greeted by the mother of our host mom and I felt totally at ease in Paris. She reached out to shake my hand and for a moment became completely American and motioned that I only give hugs. As my 'roommate' once described, she's like a grandmother, only 'Frenchified.' I say 'roommate' in loose quotes, as we soon found out that we would be living in not only separate rooms, but also in separate parts of the building. Before we get to that point, however, I must mention that our pseudo-hostgrandmother (as she doesn't live in the apartment), spent a great a deal of time talking to us in French about the Paris map, the métro, our interests, etc., and prepared a wonderful first French meal for lunch. She then took us downstairs and showed us around the immediate area, before finally showing us to our rooms. Trevor's room is across from the kids' room, while my room (known as a 'chambre de bonne') is two floors up (i.e., on the top floor). It's a completely independent room, with its own kitchen and bath. In actuality, if I didn't want to see my host family at all, I would be able to do so (outside of our weekly meal together). However, that certainly won't be the case, as they are a great family to be around.

After a bit of unpacking, Trevor and I, after a bit of trouble in the beggining, met up with girlfriend, Lauren, and Emily (both also from Albion), at La Défense. They were in Noisy-le-Roi/Bailly for the week, until Saturday, before moving to Grenoble for the semester, and were able to come that day to Paris. We walked around for a bit and eventually made our way to a restaurant where we ate and chatted, catching up and beginning to talk about our upcoming semesters. After departing, Trevor and I made our way back to the apartment where we met Christine, our host mom, and the two kids, Elisabeth (6) and Stanislas (3). Antoine, our host dad, was still at work at the time. If you read my previous blog, I believe I mentioned André (2,5), who spoke toddler Afrikaans; Stanislas speaks toddler French. I am such a fan of younger kids who speak languages outside of English. While Christine was preparing dinner, Trevor and I went to our respective rooms to continue the unpacking process and rest for a bit.

Eventually, dinner time rolled around and I went downstairs to meet up with Trevor and Christine. For an apératif, Trevor and I tried pastis for the first time; it smelled heavily like licorice and had a not-so-bad after taste. Soon joined by Antoine, we each had an avocado half that was filled with pasta where the seed would normally be, salad, chicken curry with wild grain rice, a round of cheese, and a homemade tarte aux pommes (apple pie). All of our conversations were and have been in French since the moment we got here, and soon dinner time became bed time. Before going to bed, we presented our homestay gifts (Christine loved the Target bags, just as my host moms in South Africa did). I made the short trek (did you know that's an Afrikaans word?) back to my room and settled in for the night. I was extremely happy with the current situation, and as I shall soon write (after getting a bit of sleep just now), Trevor and I continue to realise how much we each love it here.

I was settled in a bed, as I shall do so now... in Paris.