The Epic of Christine and Her Bags in the Metro of Paris

My first day in Paris:
The flight was good. I watched Eat Pray Love (I didn't like it--very blah) and was able to sleep for a few hours. When I woke up, it was light outside.  I was very lucky to have had a "night" so that my body wasn't feeling like it was missing something. I got to the airport, had my passport stamped (after much walking around), picked up my bags, and grabbed a taxi. All very simple. The taxi took me to the building where orientation was going on and as I was getting out of the cab, one of the IES directors (Agnès) walked up and introduced herself and took me inside, where she proceeded to tell me that I was the absolute last person to arrive. Haha, yaaay!
After awkwardly standing in the corner while I waited for the current session to finish, they introduced me to the other students.  Of course they said, "This is Alexandra..er...uh...Christina? Christine!" so a third of the group probably thinks my name is Alexandra, another third, Christina, and the lucky final third has my name right.  After the next session on racism in France (fascinating laws they have here!), I met Anna, my housemate.  We get along great because we both go to school in DC and we're both Theater majors.
Anna helped me take my things home before we had to go out again for dinner on a boat on the Seine. We were going to get a taxi, but we had such problems finding one, that we just took the metro. 


And here commences The Epic of Christine and Her Bags in the Metro of Paris:

First there are only stairs. Lots and lots of stairs. We encountered maybe 2 escalators the whole time. Luckily Anna was handling my smaller black rolling bag for me, but I worked up a big old sweat carrying my green REI rolling bag, my Gregory pack, and my purse up and down the steps.
Second, I am walking through the turn-style: I get the REI bag through, I get my purse through, I get my body through...the doors shut on my backpack. So there I am, stuck with backpack on one side and myself and everything else on the other. Thankfully this man came along and pulled the doors open for me so I could slip through. Unfortunately, in the process of slipping through, my Nalgene was popped out of the water bottle holder of my pack and it disappeared into the turn-style machinery. With my Mr. Sippy. I still want to cry just thinking about it. I'm SO UPSET THAT I LOST THAT WATER BOTTLE!!!! Aaaand my new Mr. Sippy!!!! :( I really really want it back. I'm kind of obsessed with my water bottle and Mr. Sippy...
Ok, so third: the trains are super packed, and here we are with all this luggage, and no one moves in towards the center of the car like they should (and unlike DC, there is no voice over the speakers telling you to "move in towards the center of the car"), so the doorway is super crowded. I'm standing in the middle of everything, completely unable to move. At one of the stops, this woman is trying to get by me to get off and she trips on my boot. She stumbles, falls to the ground out on the platform, and probably twisted her ankle. I'm apologizing profusely, completely embarrassed, and I can't even help her up because I have too much stuff and I'm stuck where I am. Then I look down, and my boot is broken. Yes. She had tripped on the strap that's on the side of the boot, and ripped it off. So, I drag myself (and the bags of course) to the house with the strap hanging off my boot.  Oh, and it was raining outside when we got out of the metro.The End.


Now, on to the good part! The walk from the metro to the house is not bad at all. It's a very pretty area (all of Paris is pretty though) and their house is extremely nice. There is a gate at the street that has a code, then you walk through the yard (they have a lot of yard space!) up to the front door. The door is wrought iron and glass. My room is up the spiral-y staircase (!!) and it's in between Anna's and my host parents. Monsieur Pasquier greeted me at the door and gave me a little intro tour, but I didn't get to meet Mme. Pasquier until the next afternoon. They are so sweet. She is extremely friendly and he is super funny.  I don't think he speaks any english, but she does. One of their sons lives downstairs in a chambre de bonne, and he's very friendly and helpful.  His name is Charles, he's 23 (and no, he's not single, for those of you who were wondering).
We had to be at the Seine at 7 for dinner on a boat with IES, so I took a quick shower/bath...thing...you see, they don't really have a shower. They have a tub with a faucet and a movable shower head attached. You have to kind of crouch down and wash yourself with the shower head. It's very complicated and it's going to take a lot of getting used to. I got water everywhere the first time haha!
My bedroom has a loft bed that I have to climb a ladder to get onto! There is a bookshelf, a desk, and a closet. Plenty of storage room. Aaaand, Anna and I share a balcony!



Alright, this post is certainly long enough! On to the next story!