30,000 Pounds of... Luggage?

(I started writing this by hand on my flight to Chicago)

Ok, I didn’t bring quite 30,000 pounds, but I couldn’t resist another song allusion (that one's mostly for you, Dad). After packing, weighing, removing items I previously considered necessary, repacking, reweighing, and repeating, I arrived at the airport less than confident that my bags would be under the 50 pound limit (I was already devising contingency plans- items to leave behind, extra layers of clothing to throw on…). Fortunately, all this scheming was unnecessary as my two checked bags came in at 50.5 lbs and 50.0 lbs exactly. The nice man at the counter was kind enough to let the extra half pound slide ;)

However, although I maximized my 100 pounds of checked baggage, I’m still left with probably another 50 pounds of carry-on luggage to lug around Sky Harbor, O’Hare, and Charles de Gaulle. My carefully coordinated travelling outfit is no match for the behemoth of a backpack strapped to my back and the overstuffed laptop bag threatening to dislocate my shoulder at any moment. I already look the part of the weary traveler and I’m only a few hours into my trip.

A cry of “We’re here, Mommy!” has awoken me and now I will go brave the craziness of O’Hare to find my next gate. Oh, and I’ll also be savoring my last two hours of cell phone usage in the states!

…

I am now seated on the plane that will take me across the Atlantic, thousands of miles form home and everything I know. Ok, a little overdramatic, I know. But at any rate, I’ve actually been sitting here for about 20 minutes already because no one seems to be able to sit in their assigned seat… There’s a group of like 20-30 French teenagers travelling together in some kind of tour group and they’re all switching seats and it’s fouling everyone else up, but I’m in no rush, so it’s just making me laugh. It’s actually putting me in a really good mood because I can actually understand what they’re saying! Or most of it anyway. I’m pretty sure they all know English fairly well too, so there’s a decent chance the guy sitting next to me can read everything I’m writing, haha. (If you are, just say so, it’s cool, we can chat… ) Ok, that was super creepy… Moving on…

Or moving back actually, to the topic of understanding the French being spoken around me – it feels great, but I’m still really intimidated about speaking myself. I need to get over that, and fast!

Everyone has a seat now, and the riveting safety presentation is about to begin. The man across the aisle from me is actually following along with the information card… how responsible of him. Don’t worry, I paid special attention to the segment just now on life vests and water landings since the majority of this flight is over water… (Steph, I don’t see anything made of actually wood around me to knock on, so this piece of paper, formerly a tree, will have to do).

“Prepare for takeoff” –now that I am prepared for. Other things – classes, cooking, making friends – I feel not so prepared for. (Sorry about the prepositions at the end of the sentences Dustin, but they’re staying.)

….

I would have continued writing for the next seven hours, but a) nothing terribly interesting happened, b) everything semi-interesting that happened would have involved the French kids who for all I knew could be reading what I would write, and c) I was too distracted by the in-flight movies (I watched I Love You, Man and Fast and the Furious 4, and then I watched parts of both of them in French).

I also tried to sleep, but generally failed, so I arrived in France at 9:30 AM with about four hours of sleep out of the previous 40 hours. I proceeded to stay awake for the next 17 hours with only a 45 minute nap. Pretty impressive, even by my standards of sleep deprivation…

Why did I stay awake so long, you might wonder. Well, one of my roommates from last year, Antoinette, also arrived in Paris on Saturday. She and two friends (Jessica and Julia Kingsley Jones) have been travelling around Europe for about a week and a half before they start their semesters and Dublin (Anto and Jessica) and Vienna (Julia). This is probably the only time Antoinette will be in Paris this semester (though I may see her for Oktoberfest J) so I definitely wanted to see her as much as possible while she’s here. It also brought a small semblance of normalcy to my life to hang out with someone so familiar. So we got ourselves situated at the Cite as I mentioned, and then we took the metro into the city to meet them at the Louvre. We picked up lunch on the way at a Monoprix in the metro (it’s a cheap grocery store you can find all over Paris, so not that exciting, but we needed something fast and something where Michelle could find food that doesn’t contain gluten – she’s allergic).

Eventually we all found each other at the Grand Pyramid, which, for the record is not an ideal meeting place – I had kind of forgotten how large/crowded it was when I suggested it… Anyway, Meghan, Michelle and I decided not to into the museum yet because they were just going to do a very quick tour of the essentials and we should be able to go in for free, or practically for free, once we get our student cards from Sciences Po. So instead we just walked through the gardens – started taking pictures – here’s my favorite:

[ok, the pictures aren't working... I'll try to edit this post later to add them]

By the time we reached the end of the gardens, we realized we were exhausted and decided to head back to the Cite and nap for a bit before rejoining Anto, Julia, and Jessica for dinner. This is when I got my glorious 45 minutes of sleep. We (“we” now includes Jim, the other ND student going to Sciences Po this year) went to go meet them for dinner, but once again did not have a very clear meeting place, and no way of contacting each other since none of us Sciences Po kids have cell phones yet. I had pretty much given up on finding them, when we stumbled upon the obscure fondue restaurant they wanted to eat at in the Latin Quarter, which has a bunch of crazy narrow streets crammed with restaurants and people. They, however, were not there yet, because they were still waiting for us at one of the metro exits (I’m so so so sorry, once again). So we decided the best bet was to go ahead and get a table and see if they would eventually show up. But the waiter directed us to the basement of the restaurant where we assumed they would have no chance of finding us. But, miracle of miracles, 20 minutes later, after we had just ordered, who should walk down into la cave (the French word for basement had never seemed more appropriate to me – we were sitting in a stone cellar), but Antionette, Julia, and Jessica! So they pulled a table over, and we all got to eat together which was great. Then we got crepes, and Meghan and I went with Anto et al to their hotel to just hang out for a little while. We went with them to a club called Café Oz (spelled Oz, but really stood for “Aus” because it was run by Australians), but while waiting in line, Meghan and I decided we probably would have collapsed from fatigue on the dance floor, so we opted to head home while the metro was still open. Whew, that was a really long first day – by about dinnertime I felt like I had already been in Paris for at least three days instead of 12 hours.

…

Today, Sunday, we slept in. Thank heavens. Then Meghan and I met Anto, Julia and Jessica at the Eiffel Tower and we all went out to Versailles. We got there pretty late (around 4:30) but those of us who had already been there before went straight to the gardens and still got to enjoy Les Grandes Euax Musicales (fairly literally, “The Great Musical Waters”), which is when they turn on all the fountains in the gardens accompanied by classical music. They do this every Sunday in the summer. Then we tried to go to Marie Antoinette’s Hamlet, which is probably my favorite place on the grounds, but didn’t make it all the way out there before it closed. Those of you who have been to Versailles before know how truly unfortunate that is, because it’s super far away. We were all pretty exhausted by the time we got back to the metro. We grabbed a quick dinner on the street, once again in the Latin quarter (although actually, I got a sandwich before we got on the train to go back from Versailles – le sandwich “traditionel”: ham and butter on baguette – mmm mmm good. That will probably be the basis of my diet while here).

Now I’m back in my room at the Cite, which I think is really cute. It’s been recently re-done so it has all these great shelving units – tons of storage- and a new, but tiny bathroom. The bathroom looks like something from a space ship because it’s all white and literally 2.5 feet by 5.5 feet. It’s not even as wide as my wingspan… but, looking on the bright side, I can easily leave a bar of soap in the shower and also use it when I was my hands! So I spent some time unpacking tonight just so I can find things because we still don’t know how long we’ll be staying in these rooms. And now I’m typing this entry in Word and will need to transfer it to Meghan’s computer via USB drive because I have managed to somehow mess up my internet login. It won’t accept my password. Story of my life. I’ll try to get that fixed tomorrow, but that may not happen- I have a full day of orienting and then I’ll be meeting Anto et al for a picnic by the Eiffel Tower for their last night!

This has been obscenely long and I can by no means promise to give this much detail ever again…. But I may try.

I'm alive!

Just to reassure those of you who won't see my facebook status, I arrived safely in France with the two other girls in my program, Meghan and Michelle. We even managed to keep all of ou luggage with us and get it halfway across the city to the Fondation Etas-Unis where we'll be staying for the first few days of the Welcome Program through Sciences Po (my school). We splurged on a taxi instead of taking metro train - way more expensive but the convience of not lugging like 150 pounds worth of baggage each up and down flights of stairs in the metro.

I hand wrote a lengthy post on my flight, so that'll be coming soon - but for now we want to go get some food and coffee (my body thinks it's 4AM right now and I've barely slept...) and then do some exploring!!

Biting the Bullet

I really don't know where that expression comes from, but at any rate, I'm biting the bullet and finally starting a blog. I've gone back and forth on whether I would do this or not, mostly because it strikes me as incredibly narcissistic to assume that other people want to read about my everyday life. Accordingly, for your sake and for mine, I will be striving to lead a "life less ordinary", hence the blog title. Apart from reflecting my current life philosophy, that phrase is also the title of an excellent song.

I've already been doing my best to live a life less ordinary, and I think I've done fairly well on that score this summer. I spent ten weeks of my summer living on a ranch in Montana interning for a non-profit political research organization called Project Vote Smart. Many of you expressed considerable surprise that I, of all people, would choose to live in such a remote, outdoorsy location. I must admit, I too had major reservations going into the experience, but most (if not all) of those proved to be unfounded. The work I did from 8-5 every day was definitely less than ordinary, but everything else about the experience was absolutely extraordinary. The scenery, the adventures, and especially the people I met were all unforgettable. I climbed mountains, saw bears, jumped in freezing cold lakes, played euchre and volleyball for hours on end, painted docks, bridges, and buildings, and talked for hours to some of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. So ask me about Montana the next time you see me (which for most of you won’t be for quite awhile), but be prepared to stop me or I’ll ramble on forever.

Here are some of the most scenic views from my expeditions in Montana:

But my days in Montana are over, and now I’m on to my next big adventure: PARIS. In a little over 48 hours, I will leave Phoenix on a plane for Chicago. In Chicago, I’ll meet two other Notre Dame students, and together we will fly to Paris, retrieve our luggage (with any luck – don’t worry Steph, I knocked on wood just for you), and navigate our way to the campus that will be our home for the next 9 months.

I’ll be staying in a dorm at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris. I’ve struggled to adequately explain this living situation to many of you, so if you click the link, you can explore the Cité’s website (don’t worry, I gave you the English version) to try to find out a little more if you like. Basically, the Cité is a site that houses about 6.000 students and adult researchers of all nationalities. There are 38 different dorms or houses organized roughly according to nationality. I say roughly because although there is a “United States Foundation” I will actually be staying in Biermans-Lapôtre, which is primarily for natives of Belgium and Luxembourg.

This is all I can muster for now, but stayed tuned, I’ll give more background information before I depart – I’ll need some breaks from packing!