International Travel Limbo

(note: I am writing this during school in my French Literature class. I don't have to do anything in this class, in fact, the class is going to go see an American film tomorrow. I guess it has something to do with what they are studying.... I will do another post on the school later)

Anyways, international travel limbo... in a nutshell, it was a day and a half of trying to sleep and hoping that we were following the right sign. But this blog isn't about nutshells, its about the big picture.
So Camille and I commenced our journey at the Sacramento international airport. It wasnt crowded at all and going through security was extremely low key. After a tearful goodbye to my mom, Camille and I went up an escalator and into the security check. I was surprised that I did not get any curious looks from people because I was carting around a sloth doll. I know that I would have given myself a curious look. Security took 4 minutes, and i didnt even have to take off my shoes, but I still did because I thought that we had to. We waited in the gate for fifteen minutes or so and then we boarded the plane. The flight to Chicago was only three and a half hours long. The airplane played "The Office" and "You Again" on their dvd players. The man sitting next to Camille and I was from Chicago and he suggested that we should have a Chicago -style hot dog while were there. I unfortunately never got to try one...

So we arrived in Chicago and we had about forty five minutes to walk about until we had to board our next plane. We looked at the food options and Camille bought a very dry croissant. I had nothing because I was looking forward to my special vegetarian meal that I had requested when we bought our tickets. When I went to the bathroom I accidentally walked in on a tiny Asian women doing her business. She shouted at me in some language and I just hid in another stall until she left. After this is when the near disaster happened. Somehow we lost track of time and went to our gate fifteen minutes before the plane was scheduled to take off. Alright, I know exactly how we lost trqck of time, we just didn't check our cell phones. Plain and simple. So we arrived at our gate and sat down. There wwas a handful of other people at the gate and I found this to be very strange and thought that we were somehow early... we werent. The man in charge of the gate announced over his speaker, with attitude, "last call for boarding the flight to paris" while staring directly at Camille and I. Camille and I freaked out and ran to our airplane, leaving a trail of destruction in our wake. (I just accidentally knocked over a marquee pole) We made it in time, but we had to put our carry on in first class as there was no more room in second class, what a shame right?

The flight was long, but the view out the window had moments of pure magnificence. I was so hungry by the end of the flight that the clouds underneath us started to resemble croissants. We arrived in Paris at 9AM and I hadnt slept at all since the previous night. Neither had Camille, and we had even taken mild sleeping pills in an attempt to get some sleep in. The airport wasnt hard to navigate and the entirety of customs was just a French man stamping my passport. Seriously. No questionnaires asking me about my purpose there or whether or not I brought in any food or had any inclinations to commit acts of terror. Just a quick glance and a stamp. Then Camille and I followed the signs to baggage claim that took us all around the airport, through two escalator tunnels, up a floor, and finally to one area solely reserved for all of the different baggage claim roundabouts. The pilot had told us we were baggage claim number 2, and immediately upon arriving at number 2 I saw and grabbed my baggage and pretty soon after Camille had hers too. Easy peasy. After we had our baggage we followed the signs to the shuttle to terminal 2, where the train station is. We got our train tickets from a helpful woman who convinced us to buy first class tickets and then we waited around until 1:16 for our train.

We got on the right train and found ourself in Nantes. Then I went to Perrine's house and the rest is for another blog....

Pictures:

In the sacramento airport

Me in the airport with the sloth

on the airplane to Paris

the view of France from the plane

The machine that would not accept my visa card, so  I had to buy my train tickets from a real french person

You cant see it, but in the upper right corner there is a green package with a waffle inside... hah...

When one travels by train, one knows where the train will arrive only fifteen minutes prior to its arrival. Camille and I stood in front of this sign thing for forty five minutes waiting for the train information.

here we are riding first class in the train. Yup, thats France in the background.