Baby Bird Flies the Coop...in First Class

This post was written for Feb 4, my first day in Paris, but I just got connected to the internet so it's a bit late!

My life is pretty wonderful.  What can I say?  For some reason I am lucky enough to have Dave Hulshouser in it.  A pilot with Delta, Dave reallly hooked me up.  Not only did I get a ridiculously cheap round trip ticket to Paris BUT I also managed to sit in first class and be treated like a princess.  It was absolutely incroyable!  I think the saddest part for me was watching my mom and dad walk away from the van that left with me in it.  I cried a bit but hten got myself back together so I didn't make the driver too uncomfortable.  I left Fort Washing ton at 12:30 and made it to JFK by 2:00, which is an hour and a half to get to NYC...that's just plain old ridiculous.  I guess t's because it was the Super Bowl, and all Americans were watching the TV and not flying, which was wonderful for me.  

I get to the check-in counter and discover that my baggageweighs 64 lbs and 72 lbs respectively (the limit is 50 lbs)  Thanks again to my luck, the very nice Deta check-in lady only charges me $50 (thanks to Mimi and JimJim's gift card,  you got my clothing to Paris, the greatest gift I could ask for).  Now, on to security.  Please note that even though I checked on 146 lbs of luggage I STILL have a carryon (a mini rolling bag) and my "personal item" which is probably bigger than my carry on and contains my laptop.  Stupidly I forget to remove my laptop from my one bag before going through security, and of course the angry latino TSA man responds with what I assume are a series of curses in Spanish.  He then yells at me and tells me that I should have told him and now he has to hand search my one bag and swipe every possible area for dangerous materials.  So I am delayed about 20 minutes while the angry mn searches my bag.  BUT this doesn't upset me I am over 4 hours early for my plane and really have nothing to do.  I think the fact that I wasn't bothered at all made teh angry TSA man angrier.  He wouldn't even respond when I appologized.

Now I am at JFK, and I spend the next 4 and a half hours talking on the phone or reading my book, "The Other Boelyn Girl".

Finally it's time for the standby passengers to be given their seat assignments.  I walk up to the  Delta lady with a huge smile, and since we are at JFK she responds back to me with a sneer.  I hand her my standby ticket and she hands me back my boarding pass.  I look down at it and I realize I am in seat 4F!  First class BABY!  I board the plane first, to my delight, and get to to set myself up in the deliciously comfortable seat, as I watch 12 little children head back to economy class.....ahhhhh WONDERFUL!.  By the time everyone is boarded, there is no one sitting next to me in first class.  So not only am I in first class but I am also completely by myself in my row.  First things first, I order myself a mimosa and proceed to have the glass refilled 3 times.

The rest of the flight was absolutely perfect.  By now the Xanax has kicked in, but I only slept for maybe 2 hours on the flight.  I did however get to watch Jane Austen Book Club, a clever comedy based around her romances.  Pretty easy to watch as long as you are familiar with her writing.  Food was delicious for a flight.  Macademia encrusted mahi mahi served with a pineapple coulis and jasmine rice.  Mediterranean crab salad with an apple slaw (my favorite) and then a dessert of French cheeses (parfait!)

After 8 hous, I finally arrived in CDG and I have to admit the worst part of the whole flight was getting off the plane with my carry ons.  Because between me and the ground there was apprximately 20 stair that I needed to walk down to then get on a bus.   Of course the carry on luggage was not in the mood to participate so instead of looking like a chic Parisian disembarking the plane, I look like a clumsy American struggling to remain control of her luggage.

Jean-Paul was waiting to pick me up at the gate once I got though customs (which is a breeze in comparison to America).  He's quite nice and a bit sarcastic, which is typical of the French.  His family is from Northern France but I am pretty sure he considers himself Parisian.  It's fun to hear the French speak of arrondisements (neighborhood/districts)...I am pretty sure in Paris your arrondisement makes who you are.  I mentioned that my school was in the 6ieme arrondisement and J-P basically did a comical sneer for me, and said well now you live in the 5ieme.  I discovered that both J-P and Suzanne work for Nestle Tollhouse at the Paris Headquarters.  He is a Director of Innovation, so he is paid to think of new things and Suzanne is a Marketing Director for Herta, a chilled foods subsidiary of Nestle.

Once we arrived at the maison, J-P did a quick walking tour of the area.  I seriously can walk to the front of the Pantheon in under 5 minutes and to the jardin du Luxembourg in maybe 7 minutes.  He showed me Raphy's school which is blocks away from teh house adn he showed me Jassy's school which is also also quite close.  I came back to the apartment (which is deliciously above a boulangerie (bakery) which happens to always smell delicious)  and waited until Jassy showed up for lunch and then she gave me the grand tour.  My room is quite small but the family is really quite kind and they have basically said that the downstairs is also to be like my home.  Therefore I have access to everything I could want.  I am really quite happy, even though my room is a boite (box).

Jassy and I had lunch and I really enjoy her.  She's sweet and innocent but still mature at the same time.  She's just entered a new school and is allowed quite a bit of independence by her parents, but she still is quite fun and not at all upset that she has an au pair, which I was worried about.  We had a lovely lunch together, we both helped to heat up some soup and we both helped to clean up...so it wasn't as if I was a maid of any sort.  After she went back to school I proceeded to unpack my luggage by crrying bits of it up and down the 4 flights of stairs.

At 4:30Raphy arrives, and boy, is she a whirlwind.  She was super excited to see me and the two of us had her goute together.  I have to admit even though she is high energy, she is cute and smart that you can't not be charmed by her.  Until about 6:3 the girls and I played together, I then tried to make Raphy do her homework by sitting with her and helping her.  In France they do subtraction in a ridiculous fashion compared to how I learned it....so I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to help her in the "correct" way because I didnt want to get her in trouble with her teacher for doing it incorrectly.  Apparently I am going to have to learn a couple of things about being 8 years old again.  After about an hour we finished and Raphy proceeded to do my hair and make-up for dinner...I surprisingly did NOT look like a clown but more like a fairy with silver glitter all over my cheeks, which Raphy told me was tres a la mode.

Dinner was delicious, J-P made a raclette, which is steamed potatoes which you pour melted hot cheese over (usually a comte or a gruyere).  As I am a fromageophile (cheese lover), dinner was absolutely incredible.

The girls went to bed, and Suzanne and I stayed up and chatted a bit.  I really like the family.  Although I am sure at times the girls will be a handful, they are generally very sweet and good natured.  Both Suzanne and Jean-Paul seem to want to make my stay here as easy and fun as possible.  I have my own separate where I can do what I wish and my schedule doesn't seem to be overwhelming at all.

I am super excited to be here and it seems to all be working out in my favor which is wonderful!  Thanks to everyone who showed up at my going away party, I really appreciate it.  I think that  will probably be the toughest thing, not seeing the people I love for 6 months.  Tomorrow hopefully will be just as exciting as my first day!....hopefully I will be able to up date you soon...by the way it's 6 am in Paris right now and I cannot sleep!