My First Day!!!

Bonsoir from Le Mans! I am currently sitting in a Case-sized dorm room, at my desk, on my computer plugged into the ethernet jack in the wall. I just showered the rest of Ohio off of me in the closet sized bathroom - it was minorly claustrophobic so I'll need to figure out a better way to shower. Fun fact - I could be sitting on the toilet, taking a shower, and brushing my teeth over the sink all at the same time. Europe is amazing.

Yesterday afternoon, I flew out of Akron-Canton to O'Hare where I changed my flights to be a direct flight between O'Hare to Paris. After the 8-hour flight and some sleep, I landed in Paris! My first priority was, of course, to find wifi so I could wake my parents up at 2:30 and tell them that I made it and then to text my friend, Esther, to try to meet up somewhere. After a lot of waiting and confusion, we decided to just meet up at the gate for the train. However, what I didn't realize is that the train was in terminal 2, while I was in terminal 1, on the completely opposite side of the airport. Fortunately, I was able to find a janitorial lady and ask her "Excuse-moi, où se trouve le gare SNCF" to which she replied (in Italian I think) "..... escalatios ..... grandisse ....." which I pretended to understand to be polite. After going up the escalator with all of my baggage instead of around it, then going back down to realize that I needed to take the shuttle, I dragged all of my belongings behind me and hauled them onto the shuttle that took me to Terminal 2! I met up with Esther, we got lunch, and eventually we got onto the train. An hour and half-long nap later, I was in Le Mans!

After getting settled in my room, I took the tram downtown with Esther to pick up water and snacks at the local Carrefour and then wandered around downtown. We passed so many cafes and restaurants and some local guys selling produce and fish and squids. For dinner, a student from Le Mans showed us this great little Italian place where I got a delicious Margarita Pizza (not especially French, but it was yummy). The highlight of the night however was walking into Old Le Mans where we sat on a rooftop terrace and ordered drinks while we talked and watched the sunset. I drank a delicious non-alcoholic (attn. Ellie) Bizet which came with an orange wedge on the side of the glass and a plastic lily stuck through the orange. I wish I would have taken a picture of the terrace, but I will definitely return there so I will snap a picture next time.

Being in Le Mans feels very natural and I am not feeling much of a culture shock at all. I was really well prepared for this trip, but also I haven't been faced with any real challenges yet. I am completely exhausted (I managed to stay up until midnight France time this evening, when I didn't think I'd make it past 5!!) and I don't really have any reflections or thoughts on the day, but I absolutely love it here and I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings (hint - it's my own Le Mans student ID!!). Hopefully tomorrow I'll have the focus to figure out how to upload pictures. Bonne nuit!