First night in Avignon

Hey e'erybody.

So getting the internet connection has been pretty difficult so far so I've only been able to respond to/write a few e-mails and just googled some things for info that I needed. Thus, no blog. But here's the blog I wrote to myself on the train from Paris to Avignon on my first day. It's probably kinda whacky sounding because I was all cracked out from lack of sleep but maybe it'll be interesting/fun. It's about ALL my travels,a ctually, from New York to Paris and Paris to Avignon. Woohoo!

Amusez-vous! :)

[this part was written on Monday the 24th]
Bon matin, tout le monde! Je suis ici! Je suis a Paris!
Hi, everyone! It’s 5:42 your time and 11:42 my time…I just realized that I’ve been traveling for fourteen hours. It’s weird to think that only nine hours ago I was making a “farewell tour” of phone calls to a few of you, in my last-minute, hurried attempts at good-byes. Well here I am so hello!
Traveling has been very successful thus far. Well, for me anyway. The guy next to me on the shuttle out to Newark has not been so lucky and here’s why… [warning: this part might be boring but I wanted to tell it anyway...]
Dan was my neighbor on the shuttle and he’s a guy from Switzerland who came to the US to get a taste of LA and NYC and to learn English in the hopes of going into international business. So our shuttle but was around 20 minutes late, with the promise of arriving ever 15 minutes and instead being crazy late every time. No good. I planned my trip out with a ton of time as cushion but my chum, Dan, did not. Apparently the airline told him that he only had to check in an hour pre-boarding rather than the usual 2 hours. I find this really odd and hard to believe but anyway, Dan took this to heart and was squeaking by, time-wise. Then our shuttle was late so he missed his check-in time. He proceeded to spend the shuttle ride calling the airport asking them to check him in, insisiting that since one can check-in online, one should be ablet o do this over the phone. For the curious of you out there, this is not possible. So anyway, we arrived at Newark at the very last minute he could do anyting about his flight and he ran inside to plead with the airline. Oh – on top of this, Dan had just spent a week in New York with his dad with whom he hadn’t spoken in two years so that was all tense and then he missed his flight and THEN the airline told him he had to buy a nnew ticket b/c he was the non-refundable, non-exchangeable kind bought through Orbitz or something and if he wanted to talk to the online provider he could, but he’d have to wait till Monday. To put icing on the cake also known as the dagger in his eye, it was Dan’s birthday yesterday. So I’m thinking he didn’t make it home to Zurich. Or else his credit card bill is now maxed out.
Now on to my travels: Air India was awesome! And by awesome I mean I was passed out for most of the flight which rocked. I think I was awake for one listen-through of “Spring Awakening” on my iPod and then the last half hour of the flight. Didn’t eat a thing because, while the croissant for breakfast looked like a croissant and felt like a croissant, it had the curious stench of vomit lingering on it. Awesome. Oh but we got dinner and breakfast and a movie. And screaming babies. A lot of them. Funnest part about Air India was going to the bathroom. Why? Well, most of the people I encountered at hte bathroom didn't speak English and I for sure as heck cannot speak to them in their native tongues. So at the bathroom we were all trying to be polite in line and gesturing toward the open stall and everyone was just gesturing and nodding, gesturing and nodding and smiling, no one moving but everyone had to pee. Eventually we got it. Oh yeah - I also opened the bathroom door on someone. Guess what - there's not much of a place to hide in an airplane bathroom. That's just somethin' to think about...
Going through customs took approx 2 minutes. I was SO NERVOUS about saying anything in France that I handed the woman my passport and said “Hi” to which she replied “You’re supposed to say bonjour.” Well I just about died – there I go, effing up in France already! And she was cute! But it’s all good b/c when I went to buy my Carte 12-25 I definitely spoke in French – woohoo!
I have 2.5 hours till I get on my train and then a 3.5 hour train ride after that. I cannot believe I am here. I keep thinking that if I click my Adidas together I’ll end up on my couch at home but that’ not the case. I’m in France. And a Charles deGaulle look-alike (the man, not the airport) just walked by.
So far: Emily- 1. France-0.
I’m gonna go call my couchsurfing girl to see if she can tell me her address.

LATER THAT DAY...
Passport, baggage in hand, I walked to the TGV station. Waited for three hours.
Ticket said Gare de Lyon… turns out I was in the wrong place! Yeah I waited for three hours just to find out that I'm an idiot and I wasn't in the right place. I guess the 'shot' of coffee I had (un cafe really means a teeeny tiny cup of coffee) didn't relaly wake me up enough to help me realize my huge mistake. Anyway, I quickly changed my ticket so could get a later train from Gare de Lyon. Paid 8 Euro to go from CDG to Gare de Lyon. Took train to Chartrelles-Halles, switched trains to get to Gare de Lyon. Waited forty minutes in the station. Boarded 4119 or something like that. “Composter” mon billet, got onto Car 15, put my baggage in, sat in seat 88. Borrowed a cell pone of a neighbor to call Sonia (couchsurfing host) but she didn’t pick up.
Am now on the train, it’s 5:17, my original train was getting into Avignon at 5:30. Now I won’t get in till 8:00. Fingers crossed.

[written tonight, Wednesday the 26th]
EVEN LATER IN THAT DAY...
Well, it turns out that Sonia, the couchsurfing lady, never got back to me. As in, I got to the Avignon train station (which is outside of teh city's center so really you have to take a bus from the train station into the city adn it was getting dark and I was exhausted and it wasn't the coolest thing I had to do) and I had NO idea what to do. I didn't have a cell phone, the information people weren't too helpful, and I couldn't understand how to use the pay phone (sorry, Madame Peterson... perhaps my French isn't great). The most helpful person in the entire train station was the woman working in the restroom (there are classy bathrooms in the train stations in France where you pay 50 centimes to pee and then these ladies give you towels and all that. I find it incredibly awkward but hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go.). This woman and I mumbled around together in French about how I had a lot of luggage (tu as beaucoup de baggages! oui!) and how I should get a cart (il y a des chariots dehors!) and I should get to the bus station (a gauche, a gauche!). She held the door open for me as I struggled with my 100 lbs of luggage (not including that which I was carrying on my back) and walked out to the bus. And from the bus to Avignon centre.

So I took the bus to Avignon centre, arriving at approx 8:00. I had realized it'd be a good idea to call phone numbers of contacts in France, whether they were Parisians I didn't know (just asking for help!) or other couchsurfers or assistants. I got through to Celine, an assistant, after borrowing the cell phone of a French woman (they're all so freaking nice and helpful) and Celine agreed to pick me up from the bus stop. Which she did. Then she called me a taxi so we could get all my stuff to her apartment. Where I ended up staying the night. Celine basically saved my life.

So Celine and I, having just met, settled down into her beautiful apartment that is tres chic and moderne and went to work going through the run-down of our lives (v. interesting) and she made spaghetti. Which I inhaled. Then I got to write an e-mail to all of you saying that I got in ok (despite a lot of mishaps) and went to bed. On the floor. Instead of at my couchsurfing hosts's place (makes me lose faith in couchsurfing.com but perhaps I'll try again...).

OK. that's everything, start to finish!
New York was an amazing trip with so much Broadway, so many songs listened to, so many friends seen, so many places visited, so many pictures taken, etc. etc.
The traveling was stressful but it turned out ok. My new motto is "it'll all work out" because, well, it just has to, right?

Now I have you up-to-date on all that. I will write more on the rest of the week soon. Perhaps, since I can't sleep, I'll just write that up now. We'll see.

peace.
xox.
bises.
emily