Mardi 1/1/08:
My flight was at 10:25 pm from Dulles airport, so Daddy dropped me off at the airport around 8:40. It was good I got there early, because I got randomly selected for extra security screening by my airline (the girl who led me to the extra screening place said, "I don't know why they randomly selected you"). First I stepped into this machine that puffed air on me (it was made by Smiths, the company my dad works for), then I had to take off my shoes (not before), and then I walked through an ordinary scanner and into this glass holding pen to wait for my turn to have my bag searched. The lady who searched my bag rubbed this white paper all over it and then put it in some machine, and then I got to leave. I also stopped to get cash, since I realized that I forgot to call Bank of America and tell them I was going overseas. I made it to my flight 10 minutes before boarding.
Mercredi 2/1/08
I slept maybe an hour during the 7.5-hour flight. The meals on the flight weren't bad: couscous salad with shrimp and cheese ravioli for dinner, and yoghurt for breakfast. At each meal, the flight attendants also brought around baskets full of baguettes!
After getting my luggage, I exchanged money to get 200-odd euros and a 10e phone card, and meandered around looking for the train station. When I finally found it, I took a guess at what ticket to buy from the machine (a ticket to Paris), had to use my credit card because it only accepted coins and I didn't have enough change in euros, and tried to use the ticket to get onto the platform. I put my ticket through, grabbed it, and tried to walk through with my suitcase, which didn't work because my suitcase wouldn't fit through. I tried pushing my suitcase through ahead of me and going through, but the machine had given me enough time at this point and wasn't giving me anymore. I wandered around looking for employees to help me out and couldn't find any.
Finally I asked some girl for help. She showed me there was a spot for me to push my suitcase through, took my ticket and said "C'est deja valide" (already used) and then told me something fast that I couldn't understand. I figured I had to buy another ticket, so I wandered off in that direction, but she grabbed me and turned me around and told me "Sautez la barriere", so I ended up jumping through the luggage thing to get into the train station. I got a train, which turned out to be the right one, and arrived at the Lozere station about 90 minutes later. At the Lozere station the doors I was standing in front of didn't open, and I looked around, panicking, until some nice guy gestured to push the button. Turns out you have to push a button to open the doors.
Once at Lozere, I figured out I had bought the wrong ticket. "Paris" is Zone 1, and I was all the way across the city in Zone 4 or 5. Oops. The machine you're supposed to put your ticket through on the way out said "pas valable" but the gates were open so that I could just walk out. I felt bad though, so I pressed the button for help. A guy came out of the station across the tracks and I shouted across that I had bought the wrong ticket, and he seemed puzzled that I was telling him this. So I asked him if there was a telephone at the station (which I mispronounced) and he told me there wasn't. He thought there might be one at the restaurant on the other side of the tracks though, so I hauled my suitcase up two flights of stairs onto "la passerelle" (the bridge?) and down two flights of stairs on the other side (a nice lady helped me with this part, but did not know about telephones). There was no one in the restaurant, but it was connected to the bar next door, which did not have a telephone. The man behind the bar suggested I try the general store on the other side of the tracks, so I hauled my suitcase down another flight of stairs to go underneath the tracks, and then up a sloped walkway (thank goodness!) on the other side. The general store turned out to be closed, but there was a man sitting in front of it and I asked him if there was a telephone nearby. He said no, except if I wanted to wait an hour for the general store to reopen.
At this point, a friend of his pulled up in a car and asked what was going on. When he found out I was looking for a phone to call Cecile Vigouroux at Ecole Polytechnique so that she would come pick me up, he offered to give me a ride to Ecole Polytechnique. I accepted, and offered to pay him, not really sure what was going on. He declined graciously, and said he was Portuguese and sympathized with me about how difficult it is to speak and understand French when you first get here. As we were pulling away, I spotted a "cabine telephonique" right across the street at the post office, but it was sort of too late at that point. I was pretty nervous getting into a strange man's car, but he was very nice and took me straight to Ecole Polytechnique and helped me look for the right building, and got someone in an office to call Ms. Vigouroux so that she could come down and find me.
Cecile Vigouroux got me set up with my bedding and room and paperwork and gave me directions to go into town to Chatelet Les Halles to buy an "adaptateur de prise electrique" at Darty, a French hardware store. She showed me an on-campus cafe where I bought a mock-crab pasta salad (which turned out to be not tasty - mock crab tastes very different in France). With my salad, I also got a free half a baguette, which was quite tasty and soft and fresh.
Back in my dorm room, I unpacked everything and took a shower. I get my own, private bathroom! I realized rather too late that there was no toilet paper, but luckily I had a couple packets of tissues, which is all I ever used in China, anyway. I attempted to connect my computer to the Internet so that I could email my parents to let them know I arrived safely, but the Internet didn't work and I couldn't find anyone around to help me out. I went to bed at 8 pm France time.
Jeudi, 3/1/08
I woke up at 5:30 am to pee and have some water, and went back to bed. I didn't set an alarm, but I figured I'd wake up within a couple of hours. Instead, I woke up at 4:15 pm, which makes sense because that's 10 am back home, about when I would wake up. I can't believe I slept 20 hours! I immediately set an alarm for noon the next day.
I was very groggy, so it took me a while to get up, shower, dress, eat a snack, give the Internet a second try, and make a list of all the things I needed to do. I finally managed to get myself out of the dorm at 7 pm, and wandered around campus looking for somewhere to buy food and go on the Internet. I was hoping Ms. Vigouroux would still be in her office since she had to greet a number of foreign students today, but she wasn't there and I failed on both counts (food and Internet). I came back to my room and spent about an hour going through the Windows Internet wizard and trying things to connect to the Internet (including borrowing an IP address that appears on the phone's screen when I plug it in - the phone is also plugged into the ethernet). After no success, I just decided to write this journal entry and snack on nuts and granola bars. I kept poking my head out into the hall to see if anyone was around, but these dorms have the sort of doors that slam shut on their own, so everyone's door was shut, and I didn't quite have the courage to go knocking on anyone's door. Tomorrow, I will have to work up the courage to go talk to people, and get someone to help me with the Internet.
I think I will go to bed early and hope that I fall asleep, so that I can wake up at a reasonable time tomorrow and go shopping. I really need to get that plug adapter, since I have burned up my computer's battery life writing this entry.
LATER:
I couldn't fall asleep, so I took pictures of my room. It's long and narrow, with my own bathroom. Did I already mention that? The link is here:
Actually, facebook won't upload my photos right now so I'll have to try again later.
