We got up today (yesterday) at the ungodly hour of 6.30. I was convinced my roommate at the hotel hadn’t taken a shower, so I wanted to give her time to do so. Turns out, she’d taken one before going to bed, so I had almost an hour of free time to do absolutely nothing. Unfortunately, the rest of the day was a lot worse. After a “group activity”, which included going to the Boston Mapparium (a huge globe that you walk inside of- great acoustics, actually!), we had to take the “T’ train to the airport. It was crowded, smelly, and just plain unpleasant. At the airport, we spent almost 45 mins at the United check-in trying to figure out why they wouldn’t let us in. After that we got to go through security. It was relatively okay, but N., D., and I were chosen for a “random” pat down and bag search. Personally, I think they just didn’t like our foreign passports.

The flight to Dulles was alright, as was the one to Paris- United provides movies, so I watched some in French, and English. (side note- I totally recommend “Flawless”, as it’s a wonderful movie, full of suspense, and yet very tasteful at the same time). The airport sucked. I mean sucked. It was crowded, the line to passport control was at least a mile long, and it was impossible to get past the people crowding around the baggage claim area. I finally had to squeeze in rudely, to pick up my two (huge) bags, and carry them to where D. was waiting, a safe distance away. We got yelled at by some large American woman, and then had to wait an hour for the woman who had our train tickets to arrive. Meanwhile, N. was getting on a plane to the east of France, where he’ll be living in a town on the border with Switzerland.

We are now in a “gare” (train station, for those that don’t speak French), waiting for our trains to take us away. D. and I will be separating- she’s going to Bourdeaux, while I’m travelling, as you know, to Nimes, and Vers Pont du Gard. I can’t wait!!!

I also just had my first conversation with a French person- I asked a cashier for Sprite, and she actually understood! I was ecstatic, until I handed her the wrong card. Instead of my Visa, I gave her… my Borders Rewards card. Oops.