Deer in headlights?

Deer in headlights? Je suis la! [That means "I am here" in French.]

 I woke up at 7 a.m. in my cute little Parisienne apartment. I managed to get all my things together into two bags and was out the door and on to the métro, line number 2 please! After going down flights of stairs with my suitcase and getting on the métro I was plopped off at La Chapelle, problem number one occurred. I somehow managed to loose my métro ticket so I couldn’t get out the métro station to get to the Gare du Nord. So up I went up the THREE flights of stairs with suitcase in tow to go one more stop to take another line to Gare du Nord. Finally getting to the train station and my ticket wont get stamped by the little dumb yellow machine! (Wow! That’s a lot of adjectives for such a simple machine) So I just winged it, which is looking like a common thing in my travels.

There I am on the train that is taking me to a French Northern city that I have never been to. I was getting so nerve wracked because I wasn’t sure how to get to my Residency once I got there. After about an hour and a half wait behind these three Asian girls I got my room, number 18!

The room is tiny but it has a fridge and a sink, so that’s good! It looks like it’s from the 70’s & it probably is! I have unpacked everything I can but need to make a run to get hangers, linens, towels, plates, soap, you know the necessary things to live with.

After receiving the key to my room & being extremely confused for about 3 hours I went and got more confused! I took the bus to the stop Campus, where I waited for an hour because the lovely French love to take their two-hour lunch breaks! I wish I got two-hour lunch breaks! Finally I made it to the International Office and got enrolled and tomorrow is Orientation for Foreigners, ohhh Goody! I’m starting to feel like this is going to be a very hard transition!

My favorite thing about today has been that as soon as I got around my residency area, which is downtown next to the Cathedral, I went into get some food and a few things extra. I felt so French walking around with bags and my red lipstick off to my French apartment! So here is a list of things I’ve bought::

*Delicious ripe grapes!

*Plump Clementine’s!

*Soufflés Choco [like chocolate rice krispis]

*Milk, bought in the dry aisle!

*Pink toilette paper!

*Big Yellow bowls

*Neat squared glasses

*Orange juice

*Water

and we cannot forget:::

*French white wine [which was only 4 Euros] this purchase was much needed after a very stressful day and probably more to come!