Wow. What a day. Oh my. I count today starting yesterday, waking up early for Mass, eating donuts with the fam, then going to CVS to treat my pink eye that had appeared that morning. Luckily we barely made it out with a prescription before my flight, and off to Detroit I went. Detroit airport: super cool. Wow. $$$. Then onto Paris... Flying by yourself is kinda ******* an overnight flight I found out... No one to snuggle with to distract from the fact that you're on a plane and about to face the longest day of your life. I got maybe 2 hours of sleep. Watched The Intern though, I highly recommend it- made me cry, which didn't help my pink eye. Landed finally and went through the maze that is Charles de Gaulle airport. Passed through customs, pink eye and all then headed down o the trains to meet my friend Gina who is also going to Lille. We scrambled for tickets and finally made it at about 1pm, raining. After trying to figure out the public transportation amidst rain, confusion, hunger, and fatigue, we got a cab. We went to the housing department office to get our keys where we met some very nice friends, if only the staff was as friendly. They were fine, but super slow and mostly unhelpful except for the fact that we got our keys. Then Gina and I walked with all our bags to the apartment, which was pretty challenging on poor sidewalks. ADA would not be happy with France about the state of their sidewalks, but I guess that's why it's France. The brick didn't help much either. We finally made it, where we met an RA who kindly kindly kindly helped carry both of our 50lb suitcases up four flights of stairs. He's American. Gina and I finally parted with out suitcases with great joy, and we headed to ikea to get bedding and towels and other immediate necessities. We took the subway, or the Metro, which is incredible by the way- I think it's honestly the nicest subway system I've ever seen. A kind kind man gave us his subway card to put money on, so we were able to go! We ate dinner at ikea- yes our first meal in France was at ikea. It was so good. Wow were we hungry. We roamed the store for things we needed and went to Carrefour but quickly left due to a lack of motivation and energy. Best feeling of the day- setting down the ikea bags in my room. Now the whole night was mine and I had sheets. I sanitized every surface of my room and put things away, only after rearranging the furniture because it was depressing. Now it's better. Shower- European, handheld, yuck. It was relaxing tonight though, probably because my massive sweater was drenched in sweat from everything I had endured. I got the room put together just in time for bed, great feeling too, and am now snuggled into my new sheets, listening to my neighbor create art with his electric guitar. He asked me earlier if I had a lighter. I said no, and it didn't look like he believed me, and I felt awkward and wanted to say, "no I don't have a lighter because I'm an American and we're gonna outlive all of you" but instead I just said no. I'm right near the door to the outside- aka prime smoking ground. Whoo. Luckily I brought an air freshener. But ya that's pretty much it, I'd say overall today was a win, a win I had to work for. Tomorrow will be nice with orientation and having piece of mind that I have a bed to return to.