Day 1
My adventure had a little bit of a rocky start when my flight from Chicago to Paris took off an hour and 50 minutes late. This was mostly a problem because I initially was supposed to have a 2 hour layover before my flight from Paris to Bordeaux. I honestly don't remember what the Paris airport looked like because I was literally sprinting to get through security and catch my flight. I made it to my terminal with less than a minute to spare! I was really surprised that I actually got about 4 hours of sleep on my first flight, so the rest of the flight wasn't too bad. Plus I got to drink real champagne, from Champagne! When I got to Bordeaux I found my friends right away, but what I didn't find was my luggage. Apparently it was lost sometime in that late connecting flight. My mom was smart and told me to pack an extra change of clothes in my carry on along with the necessities (chargers, make up, an ungodly amount of candy, etc.) so I wasn't left with nothing. We left the airport in a taxi, which was not like the taxis in Chicago. Every vehicle out here is a Mercedes, even their public bus system! Once we arrived at the guys apartment, I got to try Bordeaux wine (which I already know I'm going to miss when I go home). They showed me around Bordeaux and I fell in love with the city almost instantly. It's a smaller town and it actually feels safe, not like I'm about to be Taken. We went out for "rumsteack and frites" and I made the mistake of ordering my meat medium-rare. No no no. The waiter got a kick out of this and continued to tease me throughout the meal. Lesson learned! You order it medium or rare, they don't have an in-between. I also learned how to cheers the French way, chin-chin! The only thing I dislike about this city is the amount of dust! My allergies are super bad, plus combined with the initial jet lag, I've been a bit drowsy to say the least.
Day 2
I got my luggage! I was so relieved because I REALLY didn't want to buy new stuff out here considering how expensive everything is and the tax is like 20%. I showered and started to get ready while the guys were at class, when I got a lesson myself. CHECK THE VOLTAGE ON EVERYTHING. My curling iron was plugged into my converter/adapter device for less than a minute when I heard a loud pop. Alright, see ya curling iron. Luckily there's a shopping center right by the hostel that sells everything you could possibly need. I didn't want to bother trying my own straightener so I just bought a European one along with a replacement curling iron. Have I not emphasized how cheap and wonderful the wine is here? I'm talking 3 or 4 euros for a nice bottle, not Boones Farm or Franzia. However, I've been advised to avoid the 1 and 2 euro bottles. So naturally we stocked up on wine (18 bottles) to bring with us on the rest of the trip. We couldn't really go to dinner this night because our timing was bad and the European dining hours are so different. No one goes to dinner until 7:30ish, but the restaurants don't stay open very late like we're used to in our college town back home. Instead of dinner we went to a hookah bar that makes milkshakes, which was a random combination but so good! After knocking back a few more bottles we decided to call it a night. So far, this has been a great start to this adventure abroad. I'm just hoping my allergies will calm down!
The Internet is a little spotty out here so I may not be posting too often, but I will do my best!
Au revoir!
