Officially I'm "en Paris"

Let me just start by saying that I'm sitting in my tiny room at Residence de la Tour with my window open, listening to mopeds and motorvehicles zooming through the street below. My friend Nicole and I have already been invited to a PM barbecue with the locals and I am waiting for her to finish showering. We had a beer in a garden square and are ready to take on the nightlife!!

It was NO easy feat getting here. It took us a full 5 hours to get from our airport to our hotel (yes, only 30 minutes away). We had way too much luggage and not enough muscles, leaving our bags in the hands of strangers helping us up/down the abundance of stairs in the city metros. Within 30 minutes of finding each other we were separated!! While getting on a train with all of our bags, I got on first and turned to help Nicole with her bags, but before I could, the doors closed. I shouted out to her "Gare de Nord!!!!" - - our next stop, before the train brisked me away. Alone in Paris, feeling vulnerable to thieves and ogling eyes. Luckily, she understood my "Gare de Nord" and met me at our next stop. We immediately made plans in case we ever get separated again, starting with TWO copies of our full itinerary. Next we had an eclaire and frozen soda to build up our strength and proceeded to our next 6 trains/transfers. We had a follower, or if you're french a "pursuer" who insisted on helping us with all of our bags, but made us wary when he changed to every single train we were headed on. We finally told him "merci beaucoup" and offered him some euros which he denied. He proceeded to follow us until we tricked him into getting onto a train without us! The worst was flooding through my mind...A thief? A sex slave trader?? We then asked a frenchmen who spoke English to tell us how to say "Arretez!!!" or STOP! We trusted our instincts and although he may have been harmless, we found it all too coincidental that he was making the same train changes and offering to carry all of our bags.

After FINALLY arriving at our final train stop, we had to walk 2 blocks with more than 40 kilos of baggage a piece. WAY TOO MUCH. We both vowed to cut down on packing and ditch the extras. Our next surprise was our hotel... a hotel without a lift. And yes, we were on the 3rd floor, which is actually the 4th floor because Europeans count the ground floor as zero. We literally (lit-rally) had to take apart Nicole's big bag to manage it up the stairs, carrying loads of clothes at a time...And I thought that I had overpacked!!!

I don't feel tired yet, thanks to plenty of sleep on the plane, but I have a feeling the jetlag will catch up to me. As for now, I am so pleased to be with my best friend in a beautiful city, where everyone speaks french and looks at us like "silly Americans" - - which they most definitely do. Day 1 and I've already experience more than I expected, although I'd give anything to have taken a taxi from the airport instead of spending 5 hours lugging heavy bags and trying to rush onto trains when no one is nice enough to let you on. Hindsight is 20/20, but for now, let's just call it an experience!!!