Day 1: The Journey

The view from the TGV
Me listening to Coldplay on the TGV
The view from the airplane

Lundi 1 septembre 2009 (Day 1)
Monday was the day that I left for my grand adventure. After hanging out with Amber Johnson in the morning my parents took me to the airport with my giant suitcase, my yellow school backpack, and a hiking backpack. I was very proud of myself, just taking baby steps. I discovered that it is a lot easier to get up and leave your life for a year if you handle it one day, and even more minutely, one task at a time. I am pleased to say that I checked in, found my flight, got on my connecting flight, got my TGV ticket, and got to Nantes all by myself. Both the flights were fine (I had a layover in Chicago). We had some sort of chicken couscous on the plane for dinner and some sort of Danish and yogurt for breakfast. I finally got to watch “The Proposal” which I recommend. I got some sleep on the plane, but not a lot. We arrived at the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport early, but baggage took forever. I also couldn’t get my Visa to work at first to buy a ticket for the TGV. I missed getting it by 10 minutes, so I had to wait for several more hours at the airport to take the next TGV to Nantes. At the airport, I grabbed a sandwich, and went to the bathroom. I paid 0,50 euros, but made it worth it. I changed, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and discovered that I could humidify or warm my toilet paper. It was quite the contrary to the pink toilet sheets in the TGV. (They also have perfumed toilet paper, it’s nuts!) The TGV is a really fast train in Nantes. I really liked the train, I was in second class and it was exponentially more comfortable than the airplane. I got a “Carte 12-25” for around 50 euros that gives you discounts on tickets. My ticket to Nantes, a pleasant 3 hour train ride from the airport cost 45,50 euros. I slept for some of it, but what I saw of France was not what I expected. It was really rural. There were fields and brown cows (not black and white) everywhere. It also seems that it is a norm here in the Loire Valley to have cream colored housing. It was very picturesque, but very not what I was expecting. I was feeling okay with my French at this point because the train man came by, stamping tickets and woke me up. I answered him in French, so I thought that I was doing pretty good.
Nantes was also not what I was expecting. Each “quartier” or section, is very different. For instance, I was lost in an area called “Commerce.” It is a very busy area with many tramways and people. I got to Nantes about the time that registration closed. This is when things got very stressful. To make an event that I have blocked from my memory short, I was lost. In a foreign country. With 100 pounds of baggage. Everyone was very nice. I asked the cutest old couple where the university was and they started asking everyone else around because they didn’t know. They asked a French college student around my age (who was quite attractive by the way) and he helped me a lot. He let me use his phone, doing which, I called every French telephone number that they gave us (none of them worked). He told me he’d take me to the school once he was done with work in an hour. Bless his heart because the school is very spread apart, it is not like at Utah State University where it is pretty much all on the same property. Two of his friends came so he sent me with them to find out what to do. They gave me a tramway ticket (tramway tickets cost 1,50 euros for an hour) because I didn’t have many “pieces” aka not bills (which is all ATMS give you and what purchasing a tramway ticket requires). By a stroke of divine intervention/providence/answer to many prayers/luck as the girls were taking me to the tram I saw Hannah. This is the point where I started to blubber and cry a little bit. Hannah was with Sam and Carter, two of my new friends who escorted me to Hannah’s. I never would have found her otherwise, my sense of direction is terrible in Nantes. I also wouldn’t have had anywhere to stay, the hostel was full and I didn’t get into my room until the third.
Hannah was so nice to let me sleep on her floor, use her things, feed me, and point me in the right direction. It was a life saver to find Hannah in the middle of Nantes when I was completely lost and alone.