arrivée à Paris

We made it without a glitch. Our flights worked out perfectly (and how often does one say THAT?!). Our luggage all fit in the car and we had croissants for breakfast. I'm going to do my best to avoid le décalage horaire...

The ticker says "1 day until Paris." I'm freakin' out!

I'm speechless. What a fantastic and exhausting day! I was almost dreading going to the Michigan game because I have a ridiculous amount of packing to do before Monday morning (day of departure), but boy am I glad that I went! We had so much fun, and it was probably one of the best football games I have ever been to (excluding the triple overtime Michigan- Michigan State game I saw a few years back). I will miss those Wolverines!

Ever so slowly the reality of the coming days is setting in, and as the title of this post states, "I'M FREAKIN' OUT!" I'd say it's a pretty accurate expression of how I feel.

My suitcase weighs far more than the 50lb weight limit, and I feel like I just keep throwing things in it on a whim. It took me 20 minutes to realize that I absolutely do not need the pair of black pants that I haven't worn in 3 years. Why do I even own those?

Sleeping probably won't happen for a while because of the adrenaline, but that's what 7 hour plane rides are for, right?

Technical problem= not my forte

Vista users cannot see the pictures on my blog that I post using the older operating system. I have no idea why, but if you are reading this and you think to yourself "well duh.. it's obviously _________", please let me know how to fill in the blank!

3 days

A Very American Labor Day Weekend

One week from today, should all travel arrangements go as planned, I will be boarding a plane in Washington DC... destination PARIS.

This weekend was, on my part, quintessentially American, and in an effort to avoid packing I am going to write ALL about it.

On Saturday my brothers and I went to the opening UofM football game against Western Michigan. It was a blast. UofM killed Western 31-7, the weather was gorgeous (as always on that first football Saturday), and we took a lot of fantastic pictures thanks to that 10x zoom on my camera. Next weekend I'm taking Ryan to the Notre Dame game at the Big House! Go Blue!

On Sunday we traveled to Lansing for Connor's belated b-day dinner. (I'm not sure if that is a uniquely American activity, so I apologize for the lack of consistency in my blog). ANYWAYS... I then drove to Grand Haven to attend Ryan's going away party with his family and ate a lot of delicious peanut butter brownies (certainly unavailable in France).

Though I'd have to say that the most American meal consumed this weekend was my 4:30 dinner on this fine Monday afternoon. Well first I wandered into the kitchen and began munching on Ruffles potato chips before scooping myself an extra large bowl of mint-oreo cookie ice cream (yes, it does exist). Of course, I felt somewhat unfulfilled after this sugar rush so I microzapped a single serving frozen pizza which I consumed with a side dish of Wendy's french fries and Heinz tomato ketchup. To top it all off, I washed my meal down with a nice cold Coca-Cola straight from the can.

Delish!

Pre-Departure: Bureaucracy at its finest

It still may be a bit premature to frequently update a blog for a trip for which I have not yet left, but as long as I have some free time (and believe me, I have PLENTY), I might as well keep updating about trip preparation.

I have finally had my first encounter with French bureaucracy:

The next step in trip preparation is to contact my corespondent at the school at which I will be teaching. Preferably this should happen via e-mail. Problem? I have no idea how to find contact information for my school or for a specific person at said school for that matter. With some help from Ryan, I emailed the académie of Versailles to ask for a contact person. Four days later a woman emails me the snail mail address for some sort of administration building in my region. Really? I have two weeks until departure and I am supposed to send a letter in the mail to ask for the new contact information for my actual coorespondent?

I love it!

Okay, so it's not the craziest thing in the world (though it would be extremely simple to fix this confusion by creating a directory of contact information--including email addresses-- or by providing contact information on the assistant's contract, but c'est la vie... right?), but it's precicely the type of issue I have been warned about, and I'm excited to recall more of these adventures once I actually arrive in the country.

13 days!