The airplane ride was quite pleasant. I was seated next to a very nice woman named Mary from Hawaii who was embarking on a 42-day trip all around France with her husband, and guess where one of her stops happens to be: Annecy! It was lovely chatting with her for the first hour or so of the flight, and as we were preparing to exit the plane, I gave her my email address and said I would be more than happy to meet up in Annecy when they're there in about two weeks. I unfortunately didn't get much sleep, probably only about an hour total, so I watched two movies and spent much of my time watching the little airplane on the screen fly across the Atlantic Ocean, over the British Isles, and finally onto mainland France.
So random! So yesterday before I left, I was saying good bye to my friend MaryLee over iChat and she mentioned that she knew someone from her high school named Colin whom she had spoken to and who was doing the same program as I am. This morning, in line to go through customs, I saw someone I went to middle school named Colin in a few people behind me in the line, and it turns out to be him, and we were on the same flight from Dulles! How crazy!! He's going to be in Nantes, and I told him that if he ever comes down to Annecy, he should definitely let me know. Such a small world, it's insane.
I was pleasantly greeted by my good friend Flavien from MMLA right outside the departure gate. It was so incredibly nice of him to offer to pick me up from the airport; he had to leave his home in Reims at 4:00 AM to come pick me up at Roissy. It was so wonderful to see him since I last saw him in Vermont almost two months ago, and we've spent the entire day together.
We brought all of my luggage out to his new car (a gift for his 21st birthday coming up on Friday), and we ventured onto the autoroute for Paris, at 8:30 AM no less, prime time morning rush hour. Fortunately it didn't take us too, too long to get into the city. Once arrived, we parked his car and just walked around for quite a while, being sure to sit and admire the gorgeous Jardin du Luxembourg. It was very nostalgic being there because I couldn't stop thinking about all the time I spent there when I studied abroad. It had provided some nice bookends to my semester in Paris; I remember going there early in the term while it was still freezing and then at the end when we would just lie on the grass and talk and hang out. It's a lovely garden, and the architecture of the Palais is beautiful.
There is so much more to be told about today, but I am simply falling asleep at the keyboard. Keep your eyes open for my next update!
OMG! what a small world!!! please get plenty of rest :)
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