30 hour travel day...

My Christ today has been long. It started at 9am in Seattle (midnight Paris time) on the 16th. 4 metro rides and an insane hunt for the internets later, I am still up and kicking at 6pm on the 17th. By my watch that is 30 straight hours I have been traveling and I am a whole lot worse for the wear. Plane rides were good, just long and I had to repack a bunch of my stuff because one of my bags (the monster I bought in Shanghai) was too heavy.

After that it was smooth sailing until the train ride. I got lucky there and rode the coattails of a couple from Portland who knew where to go. They got off at a different stop and that is when the adventure began. I had to catch another train to the school, ESCP-EAP where I’ll be studying to get the keys to my place. That is another long story that ends with Nicky Neutron Bomb here further crippling already tenuous French-American relations. I got to ESCP-EAP and in my best French (Goldy I can hear you laughing now) I tried to explain to the guard that a nice lady should have left me a key. He totally stonewalled me, wouldn’t touch me with a ten foot pole. So at me bleakest hour at about the 22 hour mark, I had no where to go and I had my 1st real French encounter. Again, being more lucky than good, a student that works part time at ESCP rode up on her bike, asked me what the hell I was doing, rattled the guard’s cage a little and then, quite literally, voila, a key appeared.

So it is back underground for the Nickbo sound and I am in the metro again. 2 more rides and I arrive at my apartment which you can see in the photo ain’t too shabby. Actually it is piss poor shabby but I’m in no shape to go to war over it yet.

Things are settling down a little so I am off to look for a nice café au lait and some internet to email my beautiful sweetness and the rest of the good time gang. Turns out they really roll up the streets in Paris on Sundays. Nothing is open and I walked for blocks trying to find an internet café. No such critter. After trying to jack free internet everywhere I could, I resigned and actually went down the hall and in real creepy American guy style asked two French gals if I could send a quick email off. While uncomfortable, it was kind of funny. I guess I’ll be getting an internet connection in the room here soon enough.

School starts tomorrow so I’ll post more then. Au Revoir!