Say What???

What an adventure these first few days have been!! This is my first trip to ever take by myself, and nearly every single travelers woe that could happen, did. To begin, when I got to Dallas to check in for my flight, the attendant informed me that my connecting flight had been cancelled. Uh oh! She spent the next half hour trying to book me on any last minute flights that would get me to Marseille, and finally we found a route that went through Frankfurt, Paris, and then to Marseille. Whew, crisis averted!

I ended up having quite a few hours to kill in the airport, but I had a nice time reading, writing, and wandering around. I actually met a woman who was on her way to Washington D.C. to be in a documentary about missing and exploited children because her son was kidnapped a few years ago and returned. It sounded like a really cool project, and it was nice to chat with someone for a while.

On the plane to Frankfurt, I sat next to a little girl and her dad, and we watched the new Oz movie during the flight. I think it was about 10 hours later when we landed in Germany. That airport was the absolute hardest to navigate through. I don't know if I was just being dumb or if the gates were poorly marked, but I went through security at least three times passing in and out of the terminals. I finally arrived at my gate just as they started boarding. Close call. While trying to find my terminal, I met a guy from Baylor who was also flying to Paris to live with monks for a few weeks, and our seats just happened to be next to each other on the plane. We had a nice conversation. He was a little awkward but interesting.

When I arrived in Paris, while I was waiting in line to board the plane, a very cute French guy came up to me and started talking to me in French. I apologized and told him that I didn't know what he was saying, and he responded in perfect English. He told me that he had been going to school in Indiana for the last year and a half playing for their tennis team and was now on his way home to Marseille. We talked for the next two hours, and he told me where all the good beaches were, places to visit in Marseille, and taught me a few French phrases. His name was Michael, and I really enjoyed talking with him about America, his family, and all the advice he had. When we landed, I tried to look for the people who were supposed to pick me up, and NO ONE WAS THERE. I only had one phone number for the family, and it wasn't working. Thankfully, Michael saw me wandering around and looking helpless, and he and his family took me under their wing. They took the phone number I had and called the family from their phones until someone picked up. Soon after, Emily, the missionary's daughter, came. I told them that my flight had been cancelled, but somehow the message didn't get to her. I don't know what I would have done without Michael, so I'm incredibly grateful to have met such a nice guy on the plane who was able to get me connected to my ride.

Soon after finding Emily and her friend, Maylis, we discovered that my suitcase was missing. Well, bummer. We reported it to the office there, and they said they would send it to us as soon as they found it. From there, we drove to the church. Marseille is a really beautiful place; on one side of the city, there are these huge mountains, and on the other side is the Mediterranean Sea. I'll post pictures as soon as I'm able to, but right now I can't with my limited wifi usage. At the church, I met about a jillion people, and they all spoke the fastest French I have ever heard. I was barely able to catch a few words out of entire conversations. Overwhelmed accurately describes how I felt at that moment. Also exhausted. I hadn't slept much in days by that time, so I was ready for some serious sleep.

They showed me back to my apartment where I met my two roommates, Joelle and Bethany. Joelle is from Paris and speaks mostly French, and Bethany is from New Jersey, and she is studying here for the year. Our apartment is small and many of the facilities are finicky or broken, but I love it. When I went to France with my family years ago, we stayed at this sweet old lady's house, and my apartment smells just like her kitchen did. And as soon as I got there I crashed and slept for the NEXT 19 HOURS!! I haven't slept that long in years, but I guess my body was letting me know that I hadn't slept enough lately and had some catching up to do. When I woke up the next afternoon, I helped Joelle with some cooking for the big party that was happening at the church that evening. They were hosting an island party for people in the neighborhood to come to with food, games, and conversation. I helped set up all afternoon by hanging decorations, preparing food, and just meeting everyone. I got to meet the LST students from Pepperdine, and I really liked spending time with them in their apartment. At the table to eat, I sat with one the LST girls and two men who are in Marseille working on their Phd's. Ali, from Iran, was great at speaking very slowly to me and teaching me a bunch of French phrases. Hilal, from Lebanon, was very interesting to talk to. He is the youngest of 9 boys and two girls, and he showed me how to write my name in Arabic. I talked to the two of them for at least two hours, and it was probably the most comfortable I've felt since I got there, which was a nice change from feeling so out of my element. They invited us to go to a park with them to play frisbee on Monday, so I'm also looking forward to that. I feel drastically unprepared in terms of language right now, but I'm going to work really hard to keep learning all I can. Ali told me that I should be speaking well in a month if I keep it up like I am (he also told me a have a very good accent, which was very encouraging!). So ask me this time in June if I'm speaking yet, and I'll hopefully respond in French. Good news: my suitcase arrived tonight, so I'm about to change out of the clothes I've been wearing since Wednesday and get some good sleep. The last two days really have been crazy, but I'm enjoying all of the adventure. I'll keep posting as I'm able to.