A bit of an update delay...

Hey everyone! I promise I have a loong blog updating you all on everything that`s been going on this past week in my new life in France, but I still don`t have internet at my house and can`t afford to take the time to re-write my entry into here right now (I can`t copy/paste apparently), but I`ll update you all when I get internet in my appartment (hopefully next week or the week after. Sorry for the wait! :/ Everything is really great so far though, no worries!

Bonne journée à tous!

safe and sound with a bit of jet lag

I arrived yesterday afternoon to the house I`ll be staying at until I find a place (first apartment viewing tonight!). I woke up at 12 today...yikes! But I just finished my coffee and, after I shower and get that lovely travel smell off of me, ill be out the door, trying to figure out the tram system in this town. This is just a little blog to let everyone know that I am indeed alive and well and IN Orléans!

A bientôt!
Meg

One day left in the good ol' U.S. of A

Well, here's a little bitty post before I head out a day from now. I'm nervous, but that's okay. I already miss home, and I'm not even gone yet. Wish I were a bit more excited and had less of this sad feeling as I'm leaving. I'm sure once I get there things will be much brighter (albeit hectic!).

Here's a lovely (sarcasm) piece of news I received today. (Side note on how it will affect me: I fly into Paris Thursday morning around 9am and there's a train strike that day, so I'll either have to find one of the few trains NOT on strike in the city and take that to Orleans, or I'll be spending the night in Paris and taking a train on Friday):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8014095/France-raises-Paris-terror-alert-over-al-Qaeda-warning.html

So, keep me in your thoughts, I guess, and let's hope the terrorists do not strike, for the sakes of everyone in Paris, myself included!

Can't we all just get along?

I'll update you guys as soon as I can after I get into Orleans so you know I'm safe and secure and in my new home! Wish me luck! :)

Pre-departure jitters

Bonjour tout le monde!

It's one week and two days before I depart for France and I'm getting nervous. I received my visa last week and am currently making list after list of things that need to be accomplished before I can step on the plane and say goodbye to security for the next 8 months. It's the moments like these when one looks back at the past nine months and thinks,

"What the *#@# have I been DOING for the past 9 months?!"

while also trying to remember everything their French professors had taught them over the past five years. I believe there was a lesson in there somewhere about breathing. Staying calm and NOT over-thinking yourself into a dark pit of despair...right?

Alright, dramatics over, I really am excited to go; I just have a lot to think about. As those who have ever danced with the French government know: French bureaucracy is NOT a fun game. Lucky for me I won't have to spend my first few weeks (month?) dishing out my life savings (okay, let's be honest here, my past 8 months savings) to the owners of a hostel! A friend of the family's lives in Orleans, and have been gracious enough to let me stay with them until I find housing. The woman with whom I will be staying also works for the government, which certainly helps!

Connections, check! :)

Anywho, as I mentioned at the beginning of the post, my flight leaves next Wednesday September 23rd at 12:55 pm from Madison and will arrive in Paris on Thursday morning (around 9am). At this point I'm planning to take the metro into the city and take a train to Orleans, since the one from Charles de Gaulle airport doesn't leave until night and I do not really want to be walking about Paris all day with luggage for 8 months on-hand. These plans are tentative, however, and I'm still figuring out the details.

Wish me luck and I'll catch you all up once I'm in France!

A bientôt!
Meg