My arrival to France is always a doozy...

Well nothing like being 4 weeks late on writing my blog - sounds typical doesn't it? It is hard to believe - I have been in Lyon for 4 weeks TODAY!!! and let me tell you has it been an interesting 4 weeks.

I flew out of good ol' O'Hare on Monday, September 26th. My amazing parents took me to the airport and to my surprise my best friend Brittany showed up to surprise me and say goodbye! It was already an emotional day, so I started to cry like a baby. Typical me. She brought me this AWESOME Illinois Pillow Pet that I use every single day. What's an Illini Pillow pet you ask?

Why it is a pet that turns into a pillow!

Yep I am 22 years old and I own a pillow pet. People kept staring at me during the security line like I was a weirdo but I didn't care. I even got asked if I was a recruiter for U of I. If only! But that pillow pet has been a godsend along with my Illini snuggie. Yep, I have a snuggie too. You will see later why they have been so important to me later.

Beth, who I studied abroad with and you might remember if you suffered through read my other blog, is also an English Assistant this school year! However she is in a different region, but we decided to take the plane together, but unfortunately didn't get to sit together. I did however, get to sit right next to another assistant, Nicole, and across from another assistant Raudel! The plane ride flew by because we were talking and sharing stories. This is the first time my flight to France has been great! The first time I had a broken seat and couldn't watch movies or anything as all of my friends got to. The second time I got food poisoning. This time it was great. I made it to Paris without a hinge! It was getting out of Paris that was the problem. Little did I know there was a train station ATTACHED to the airport. I only lived in Paris for 5 months and didn't know that. Oops. So I followed some of the assistants to go get a train ticket to Lyon.

I finally get up to the SNCF ticket counter and my French comes back to me and I am able to order a ticket and my 12-25 years old reduction card in French - woo! I go to pay and it will not accept my card because his machine is broken. Great. Thank goodness I had some money on me. I leave the line and look at what time the train leaves. It was 10:45 and the train left at 11. Commence panic mode. So I run to the elevator and get down onto the tracks only to find out I went to the wrong track. So it is either wait for the elevator that takes 7 minutes or take my 2 huge suitcases, computer bag, and carry-on suitcase up 2 flights of stairs. I chose the elevator obviously. I finally get to the right platform only to find out I must go down an escalator to actually get to the platform. WHO DESIGNS THESE THINGS?! So people are watching me frantically try to pull my luggage onto the escalator while one is moving and one gets stuck on the landing (a.k.a the part that isn't moving) and I am basically doing the splits on the escalator. All while it is 2 minutes until my train leaves. This seriously was a scene from a movie. I finally get to my train car and I am trying to heave my luggage over the stupid gap when suddenly my luggage breaks. Yep, pulled the handle right out of the suitcase. Luckily, a very attractive French guy helped me. I am sweating. I smell. I am frantic. I haven't slept in over 24 hours. Of course very handsome guy would help me.

I get onto the train just as the doors close to depart. I look at my ticket at see that I am placed on the second floor of the train (they have double decker trains) The staircase to the top barely can fit a backpack - there was no way I could get my luggage up there. So I was forced to reside in the loading area with my luggage for 2 hours just sitting on the steps because I was so paranoid to leave my stuff just sitting there in the open. It was wonderful. And then the cute French guy kept coming out to get something from is stuff and cracking jokes to me - but I couldn't understand a thing.

This video sums it up perfectly:
Joey learning/speaking French

This was my first dose in the Lyonais French accent. People from this area have a very different accent than in Paris. They speak MUCH quicker, they slur their words more together etc. I felt like I had landed in Germany because I couldn't understand a word. I just nodded and laughed when I thought it was appropriate. Oh mon Dieu.

Another surprise was the fact that my phone did not work AT ALL. Stupid AT&T was supposed to activate an international plan for me but they did not. So I had no way of contacting my parents who I knew at this point would be freaking out. I also had no way of contacting the girl who I was going to be living with. Originally I thought I was going to be arrive at 3:50 something, but I took an earlier train meaning I would arrive at 1. I needed to tell her to come find me earlier otherwise I would be stuck in the train station for a couple of hours.

We arrive in Lyon and I am the last one off the train because of my broken luggage. let me tell you is it hard to navigate 2 big suitcases and a carry-on when one handle is broken. The suitcases kept flipping over, they kept falling over, I couldn't move - and again people were staring at me. I locate a pay phone and I found my only 2 euro coin I had. What happened? The dang machine ate my money! I had no other coins left to try and call Mindy, my new roommate. I walked from store to store in the train station seeing if any of them sold pay-as-you-go phones - not a single one did. I am so flustered at this point that I walk towards the entrance and here someone yell "Erin!" To my surprise there was Mindy! Thank god she had thought my train arrived at 1:50 not 3:50 so she had come! Hallelujah! We went to a cafe that had internet so I could contact my parents and get something to eat and we sat there for a couple hours getting to know each other. I was exhausted at this point but we still had a longggg night ahead of us, which I will post in the next blog post! I am boring you enough as it is :)