SFO --> Paris

I sat in an aisle seat my first leg of the trip (SFO to JFK). I'd never done that before and I found I quite liked it. I think I will try to from now on.

The flight attendants were supremely nice, especially since the flight was very turbulent and, well, I don't do so great in those kind of situations. Eventually I fell asleep. I think I managed to sleep at least two hours of the five-hour flight. I was trying to stay awake but exhaustion won out.  

As I was disembarking the plane in New York City one of the flight attendants handed me a stack of her old magazines she'd already read. I'll read them soon and then pass them on to someone else. They are surprisingly heavy.

From New York to Paris I had a window seat. I was really excited about that because I was hoping to see the Eiffel Tower as we were flying into the city - I didn't get to. We sat on the tarmac in New York for about 45 minutes apparently, but I was asleep again before takeoff. I woke up in time for an inflight meal which included some interesting reconstituted mashed potatoes. Then I managed to sleep until about an hour before we landed.

Flying into Paris I was surprised by the flatness of the city and the countryside around it. There were a few small outlying towns and they seemed rather far between, but the roofs were read and had the classic French look I had always imagined. From my position in the sky, it looked as if they were designed around a center point and then circled outwards.

It wasn't until I disembarked in Paris that I began to feel a bit of culture shock. I was in a new country, by myself, and I didn't speak the language - for the record, I still don't.

In the line for customs I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I had heard a lot of stories about customs coming into America: they take forever, the ask a lot of personal questions, I went throuh carrying fruit totally visible in my hand and told them I wasn't bringing any food into the country, and so on.

I was expecting an arsenal but it was nothing like that. I waiting in a quick moving line, walked up to a window when it was my turn, I was asked no questions, my passport was stamped, and I was free to enter France.

After I got my bag I felt a little panicked. I didn't know where to go and there weren't any signs. AFter walking back and forth a few times I finally worked up the nerve to pull out some of my French from my freshman year of high school, enough to ask if the man working spoke English. He did, and he pointed me in the right direction. At this point I had about a half hour before Abby was supposed to meet me.

We met up easily enough and eventually caught an RER train into the city arriving around 11am.