The title of this post was completely based upon some line in a movie....which I don't remember.... So, 10 Gello points goes to the one who can tell me where it's from and provides some proof!
My apologies for not having updated in the longest time. It's been extremely hard to find any free time these past few days. Right now I think I have a bit of free time, hence why I'm updating, however it probably won't be anything long. Wednesday, August 31st: All the Americans headed to France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Egypt met in NYC for their respective gateway orientation. We stayed at the DoubleTree Hotel close to JFK airport. We were assigned rooms alphabetically, two in each room. We were told the rules several times and given a presentation from a returnee from France. There was a good amount of free time, which we used to get to know one another and bond.
We left to the airport around 2 pm on Thursday, September 1. We were told that we were only allowed 1 checked luggage no more than 44 pounds and 1 carry-on weighing 22 pounds not to exceed certain dimensions. However, Swiss airlines had different and rather complicated rules posted on its site. Plus, I kept hearing something about a personal item that we could have. All in all, the rules regarding luggage were quite vague to me and I was hoping luck would be on my side at check-in at the airport. Essentially, Swiss allowed 23 kilos for checked luggage and 8 kilos for carry-on. I was overweight by 10 kilos in my carry-on and 3 kilos underweight with my checked one. However, the lady at check-in kindly let me pass so long as I removed 5 kilos from the carry-on. As for the personal item, I took a backpack and had it half full. However, they didn't weigh it. I wish I had known that so I could have packed it to the brim as I left a lot of stuff at home. We flew for about 8 hours from NYC to Zurich. We had a layover in the in-transit area of Zurich airport for 5 hours. Afterwards, we flew less than an hour from Zurich to Paris.
We arrived at Paris at 1 pm local time on Friday, September 2nd. By that time, I had gone a full day without sleeping and was extremely tired. Be that as it was, we were told to stay awake until sunset as to try to adjust to local time. I stayed awake till about 11, making about 40 hours without any sleep. At Paris, we stayed at a hostel called the Résidence Internationale de Paris. We were assigned groups based on the chapter we were going to go to in France. At least, that's how it was supposed to be as none of my roommates went where I was going. My room consisted of 4 twin-sized beds that were put together on the floor. I should mention that there was variation in room layout in both the DoubeTree in NYC and the hostel in Paris.
Friday was reserved for dinner and rest. Accordingly, we used that time to meet everyone and socialise. There were about 300 AFSers from all countries worldwide at the hostel. On Saturday, September 3rd, we were split into two groups, according to our orientation group number. I was assigned in the second major group who got to tour Paris first in the morning by bus. However, seeing how I was sleep-deprived and naturally just not a morning person, I didn't really appreciate the tour as much as I should have. We did get to see all the major monuments and attractions and even got out and saw the Eiffel Tower in person. They made us do an energizer in public to wake us up. To be honest, however, the thing that I was most excited about that I saw was the Lycée Henri IV which I read about in my French textbook. Saturday afternoon was reserved for orientations in small groups and then dinner and a safety presentation. Sunday morning, we all left to our host families (finally got to meet the folks we'll be living with for a while!)
That brings me up to now. Extremely sorry I haven't blogged nearly as much as I intended to originally. Good thing? Bad thing? It's both! (Or so I reasoned it out as such in my head). I have had no free time and further more have been having some technical difficulties. I definitely will attend to this whenever I have quite some time to kill. Rest assured I am having the time of my life! :D
Till the next one!
- Gello
