Bonne Voyage!

(Well, I am in France as I write this!!!!!!!! It is 15:33 here in Avignon)

The Voyage was not very "Bonne." My plane from DC to Madrid was on time. Seven and a half hours in the air in a freeeeezing cold, and very cramped plane is not fun. Especially when you have long legs like me. I could not fall asleep on the plane, even though I'd been exhausted all day(--I'd gotten up at 6:45 a.m. to help minimize jet-lag). They didn't turn the lights off until halfway through the flight and then they turned them back on two hours before we arrived in order to serve breakfast. That really sucked.

Then I had to walk for 10 min. in the Madrid Airport to get around from where we landed to the customs place. The lines were long, but, fortunately, they went quickly. And then another 15 minutes or so (not including a 5 min. subway ride) more of walking to get from there to security and up to where the Departures were listed. Of course, my plane wasn't even on any of the screens because it was only 10:20 (or so--Madrid time--on Friday) and there weren't any chairs nearby. At all. So I sat on the floor. I wasn't about to walk 30 min to where chairs were every time I was finished looking at the message board. I knew what wing I was in (K) but not which gate. Turned out to be gate 81. But the number didn't appear until half an hour before the plane was scheduled to take off.

Well, my tiny plane (it held maybe 50 people and was very cramped) finally arrived in Marseille. I got my huge, heavy bag from the baggage claim and met Berenice and her parents. They are both very nice. I also met her brother and her grandmother, who both live there. (Her sister was not home, but I met her a year ago in the spring at NIU.) They took me to her house for the night and Saturday morning, Berenice drove me to the TGV station in Avignon to meet my host mom.

That night at my host mom's house, there was no water in the house! I couldn't shower, etc., because a water pipe had broken. No one in the apartment had water until the following evening!

There was one issue that occurred to me as I arrived in France: I didn't have to go through Customs. Thus, my passport was not stamped. I don't have a visa, so I need to leave France after 90 days. Except that that is no longer the case. Now I hve to leave all of the EU to re-start the 90 days. I was a little panicked by this, because I wasn't sure where I could go. I spoke with La Directrice and she told me that I could go to Switzerland--just to be sure to tell them I NEED my passport stamped!!!! So we're good. I'll just visit Swisse for a weekend or something. The train is 2 or 3 hourse long so the trip will not be that bad.