Days 1 and 2 of France.

Bonjour all!!

I have finally arrived to the lovely country of France. It has been so beautiful- everything from the buildings to the people. I have been planning this trip since June, so you can only imagine how ready I was to finally arrive yesterday.

On Feb. 12, Lindsey and I met up with our families at the DFW airport. Security went very smoothly, no lines or anything. We grabbed a couple of drinks and chilled for a while, since we arrived at 2pm and our flight didn't leave till 5 (which was delayed till about 7:15). We eventually made it to our gate and Erik and Ashley were there. We all had met one other time beforehand. We were all so excited and just talked and were extremely anxious to get on the huge plane.

When we finally got on board, we all found our seats. Lindsey and I sat next to each other and Erik and Ashley both had their own rows. Little did we know, we wished that we didn't sit by each other. The flight crew were really nice. Our flight was 9.5 hours and we were awake for 98% of it! We were SO uncomfortable after 2 hours. We would get SO hot, and then cold. We would be comfortable and barely asleep and then the captain would get on the intercom. My long legs were not going to have it. They needed space and I sure as heck did not have any. It's funny now. NOT THEN!

After a longggggggggg night, breakfast was being served and we were getting ready to land. I gulped down coffee and a diet coke cause I KNEW it would be a long time before I would be drinking anything else for a while. Customs was really easy and quick. Took 5 minutes. All of our luggage was there too. Thank god. We were all convinced that the bus that was getting us was leaving at noon and we arrived shortly after that. Thankfully it was there and unfortunately was not leaving until 4 pm, which meant we had lots of time to kill. We just walked around the airport and tried to used to the fact that all of the Frenchpeople kept looking at us like we were wearing the American flag on our backs.

Finally the bus arrived and we all practially ran on. By then, Jacelyn and Amanda (two other people from my school) had arrived. We all sat in the back of the bus and got ready for our 3.5 hour ride to the campus in Pontlevoy. I feel asleep as soon as we left the airport, thinking I would wake up in time to see the campus. HOWEVER, strange sounds kept waking me up and sure enough our bus driver had decided to take us on a mini bus tour of Paris. Um, hello thanks people for waking me up!! I woke up and saw the beautiful Effiel Tower looking at me, so talk about a culture shock. It was SO huge. The city itself is absolutely beautiful. We didn't see much of it, but what we saw was divine. We'll be spending a week there in about a month or so. We were all just so thankful to have gotten the oppertunity because the others didn't.

After we got out of the city traffic, we had about a 2.5 hour drive. Slept about half of that and we all in the back of the bus just joked around and took in the French landscape. We then FINALLY arrived around 8pm. I had to haul up my 100 pound suitcases up of three flights of stairs. We immediately went to dinner. Le Commerce is where we eat and there's also a local bar there too. We all ate our dinner, which was spaghetti, and met some more students and a few professors. After that, we went back up to our rooms and attempted to unpack and shower and all that good stuff. I then practially dive bombed into bed and was sound asleep by about 11:45.

This morning we woke up around 9 am and got ready. We had a mini tour of Pontlevoy at 10. We went straight to the grocery store, which was so cute. I bought some coffee and bottled water and oranges. We brought our stuff back and then went around the campus and the town and took tons of pictures. We talked to a few locals and attempted speaking French a bit. I'll get there sometime.

Exhausted from the cold, we came back to our rooms and I went on the internet for a bit. An hour or so, Erik, Lindsey and I grabbed a bottle of champange and went to the common room. Some more people met us there and we all played a game of uno (LOL) and got to know each other a bit more. Most of the students are from Southern Mississippi University. All really nice people. We're going to have a great time here. Right now, I'm just killing time until my orientation at 6pm.

I can't believe I'm finally here!! I have loved every minute of it and I know I'm going to miss the hell out of it when I'm gone. Erik and I joked about getting married here. Separately of course, but still, how fun would that be!

I'm so tired right now..Still adjusting to the time difference.

More later! :)