We're here!

Finally I’m in France! It took a few days to sink in, since I’ve been thinking about and preparing for this trip for almost a year, but I am slowly and surely getting acclimated to life in France. After an 11-hour long flight from LAX to Paris D’Gaulle, getting lost in the airport trying to find baggage claim, and a long crowded train into the city, I found myself somewhere in Paris. Disoriented and tired, I wandered around carrying my huge 85-liter backpack and clutching my map in one hand for a while, until I figured out where I was. Finally, I met up with my classmates and professors at the Jean Monnet hostel in Paris.

For some unfortunate reason, I didn’t sleep a wink on the plane so my first day in France was sort of a daze, as I stumbled around feeling the affects of no sleep in 48 hours and only one cup of coffee on the airplane. Needless to say, I was not in the best of moods.

After a dinner in the hostel, I ventured out with the entire group (all forty of us) and we trekked out to the Eiffel Tower for our first night in Paris. It happened to be pouring rain and freezing cold—not my favorite—but still the bad weather didn’t hinder us from being amazed at the immensity of this famous French icon. I guess my expectations of the Eiffel Tower were inspired by those tiny figurines of the tower that you see in souvenier shops. But let me tell you, the real thing is huge. I almost fell over backward trying to see up to the top. The entire tower is lit up at night, so it made for quite an impressive sight. We took a little elevator up to the top and walked around, getting a nice panoramic view of Paris at night. We also got our first taste of French cake, celebrating some birthdays in the group.

Here is a shot of the Eiffel Tower from our first night.

I can't quite figure out how to upload multiple pictures onto the blog so more photos will be coming soon, as soon as I figure that out!