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Bonjour à tous! As I’m writing, Sunday morning is off to a slow start outside my window in Paris. Not a lot of churchgoers apparently; the traffic is pretty slow and nothing’s open yet.

I got here yesterday morning after a long series of flights in. The first one was a close call. I rushed through security because I was late and got on the plane with about five minutes to spare. I started the crossword in the magazine, and I thought I’d get a head start on the electronic devices warning by turning off my cell phone before the announcement. I was fumbling through my bag for it, and then I thought it might be in my coat pocket. My coat. Security checkpoint. Shit.

I ran up to the stewardess, who made me talk to the gate attendant, who let me off the plane but told me I probably wouldn’t make it back. I yelled something incoherent about my boyfriend and Christmas as I began to sprint through the entire airport. I mean that literally. I was at the gate farthest away from security. I grabbed my coat from a bin and ran back to the attendant who said disappointedly that she thought I wouldn’t make it. Thanks for that vote of confidence. But anyway, it turns out that I can run a fair distance pretty quickly. This may come in useful some day, but hopefully won’t because I can’t really imagine a good situation that involves running like hell. Also, it burns my lungs.

The flights were otherwise unremarkable, except for the fact that I sat next to someone on the long stretch reading a book called “Chinese Sexual Astrology”. If Chinese astrology is what they give you on placemats, then I guess it’s about how the different animals can or cannot have sex with each other. This creates a funny mental image. Here are some mix and match ideas: monkey, tiger, rabbit, horse.

One of the inflight movies was Ratatouille; I saw the last fifteen minutes. The lack of buildup didn’t stop me from crying at the end. That was super embarrassing. But I don’t think the sexual astrologist noticed, thank God.

The airport in France gives out smarte cartes for free. It was awesome.

On the taxi into town April March was on the radio. That couldn’t have been more perfect for me.

The dorm is pretty sweet, except that there’s no wifi in the room. So basically I’m going to have go down to the first floor every time I need internet. Also, I can’t even configure it until Monday. On the plus side, I have my own bathroom complete with shower.

There’s a really creepy guy down the hall from me. Why is it that everyone who is friendly is out for something? He invited me to dinner with his friend, which was actually really good, except that he was blasting really bad music complete with video. “Do you want to dance like that?” Umm, no. Also, he wouldn’t stop knocking on my door at 1:30 AM last night and then tried to open the door. I think we need to have a talk. I might also need to have a talk with the administration if this keeps going. Bienvenue à France!