Je suis arrivé

I made it to Paris.  And surprisingly I didn't freak out.

 My Dad drove me down from SB at 7:15AM and we made it there by around 9:00AM.  Since I was flying business class I didn't have to wait long to check in and go through security. The flight from LAX to JFK wasn't bad.  I took a muscle relaxant because for some reason my jaw always hurts more when I fly.  The upside was that it put me to sleep right away.  On that flight I was awake for maybe an hour.

I got into JFK a little a head of schedule so I had an hour to kill before my flight.  I went to the Admirals club where a really nice puerto rican lady kept calling me "mi amor" and she made me a diet Roy Rodgers.  Yes, she did work there.  I'm not really sure how to react when people offer me alcohol like the free drink they tried to give me in the Admirals club.

The flight from JFK to CDG was great.  I didn't sleep that much, but that was fine because I had the row to myself.  I also made friends with the flight attendants.  I watched Date Night which was not as good as I was hoping, but then again I'm not 45 with 2 kids...  The only bummer is that I left my eye glasses on the plane.  It isn't that big of a deal because I have 4 months supply of contacts, but now I HAVE to wear my contacts...  I might see if the French government will buy me a pair.  They seem to be very liberal with their money here.  Or at least that is what my host family would have me believe.

Speaking of which my host family is awesome!  They didn't pick me up from the airport, but I knew that.  Instead I went with this really nice guy (who at first I thought was trying to kidnap me because he was waiting by all of the taxi's but he said his car was downstairs.  I followed him down there and found a van with a guy in the drivers seat.  I figured I would either get a ride into town or my family would be getting a ransom note.)  Turns out he was legit and he gave me his card.  He dropped me right off at my host's house.

Her name is Michele (I will have pictures later) and she lives in a really cool flat on the 4th floor of a really old building.  Her son, Gerome and her daughter-in-law Georgina live with them with their son, Lukas.  Gerome is 22 and Lukas is 8 months.  They are both really nice.  So is Georgina.  Michele is probably the nicest.

Today (after my 2 hour nap) she took me on a little tour of the city.  The main goal was to find my school so I know where I am going tomorrow (which is still a coin flip if I wont get lost), but we ended up seeing the Arc de Triumph, Effiel Tower, Notre Dame and the Assemblée National.  I have to give her credit.  She really did try to teach me how to use the bus and metro.  The metro I think I got, but the bus... not so much.  Mainly because I don't really know where my house is.  But I'm sure I will find it. I hope.

That brings me to dinner.  Dinner was really good.  Gerome made this weird (but tastey) garlicy, cheesey, meaty thing on top of a baguette.  Then Michele had made soup with a little bit of fois gras.  It wasn't very good, but being a good guest, I ate it.  The soup part was good.  The fois gras wasn't.  Then we had pasta with ricotta and spinach.  Then dessert which was sorbet.  It was really melty so Michele served more than normal.

The best part about dinner though was the conversation.  It was all in French (expect for Georgina who is Romanian and doens't speak French very well despite being married to one).  We talked about how I want to go to Euro Disney and how the Gypsies are just terrible people and Obama and the Economy and so much more.  I can already tell my french is getting better.

Well that is all for now because its 22:49 and I am about to pass out.