Sarah arrives in Paris (finally!) and makes friends

Hi everyone!  I've decided to write a blog to keep in touch, since I've had a lot of people ask me about my exchange.  This way, hopefully it'll help me remember the best moments of my trip too!  So I've officially arrived in Paris, and everything's going well so far.  After a super long Air Canada flight where I couldn't sleep because I was so excited, I landed at the Charles de Gaulle airport outside of Paris.  I found an airport shuttle to the Gare de Lyon, a nearby train station, and managed to squeeze me and my ridiculous amount of luggage on and off the bus.  Finally, the last part of my trip was a taxi ride to my apartment at 8 rue Mahler, in the Marais area of Paris, a very trendy neighbourhood known for shopping (YAY!).  I ran into my only hiccup when me and my crazy luggage got dropped off on the sidewalk... I didn't have a key to the apartment.  My roommate Natalia was supposed to be meeting me at the apartment, but we had no way of contacting each other!  So I grabbed my bags and decided to see if I could find a phone booth to call Tal's mom's cell phone, as she's staying in Paris for the next month for French classes.  This is when I figured out that Parisians are absolutely useless at giving directions.  I asked a few people if they knew where the nearest phone booth was, and they would nonchalantly flap their hand in a random direction and say "Oui, par là...." or "C'est sur la place!"  So I decided after all that I would just sit on a bench by the road and regain arm strength before I figured what to do next.  Luckily, an old Parisian by the name of Jean-Francois decided to take pity on me and struck up a conversation.  Soon we were chatting about Jean-Francois' vacation plans and about his daughter studying in Spain.  When I decided to try the apartment door again, he helped me with my bags, and sure enough, another lady kindly let me in.  I met Michal, my roommate from Portland, Oregon, on the way up, and Jean-Francois and Michal helped me haul my bags upstairs.  Hurray for making friends when you're lost and burdened with baggage on a Parisian sidewalk!  But that was the craziest part of my day.  Tal and I took a power nap in the afternoon, and tonight we went to her mom's apartment for a glass of wine, followed by another at a small pub not too far from our place.  All in all, our apartment is beautiful, the neighbourhood looks lovely, and I'm really excited to explore more!  Tomorrow Tal and I are going to get groceries, a metro pass for me, and hopefully our last roommate Jake will arrive tomorrow morning!