On January 23rd, 2013, I arrived in Paris, France for the first time to study abroad. I remember the anxious/excited feeling at the pit of my stomach the moment my flight from SFO took off. Many thoughts ran through my mind during my flight. I wondered how the experience would be like, who I would meet, and which countries I would travel to. I was eager to embark on such an exciting new chapter of my life. No turning back!
(My stop in the LHR airport in London before boarding my flight to Paris)
My first night in Paris was memorable but not necessarily for the reasons you may think. The flight my new roommate and I had from London to Paris was delayed, which caused us to arrive to Paris later than expected and our shuttle that was suppose to take us to our apartment left us behind. Both of our debit cards were frozen by our American bank, even though we called ahead of time to inform the bank that we will be using our cards in Europe. It was a difficult situation to be in since our landlord was expecting two months rent upfront upon our arrival to the apartment that same night.
I walked to the information desk at the CDG airport in Paris, told the employee about our situation, and politely asked if I could use his phone to call our bank. He was very nice and allowed me to use his phone. I called the bank and told the representative about what was going on. He was able to unfreeze my account and my roommate’s account. We withdrew the money from a currency exchange section in the airport and converted our US dollars into euros.
We then took a cab from the airport to the apartment. Once we were dropped off, we experienced another tricky situation. The landlord’s friend who was suppose to greet us in his absence was not at the entrance and we didn’t know we needed a code to enter the building. We were stuck outside with all of our luggage. Luckily, one of the tenants entered the building less than 15 minutes later. The landlord’s friend was inside of the building and helped us bring our luggage upstairs. She didn’t know the WiFi login but we found it later that night in the apartment and were able to email our families.
(The view from my old apartment)
There were some bumps in the road when I first arrived in Paris but that’s just a apart of life. There will be unexpected surprises sometimes and rolling with the punches is the best thing you can do. I remember looking out of my window the next day and trying to process that this unfamiliar city will soon become my second home. It was surreal and I was really excited. Now, over a year later, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be. I want to take full advantage of my remaining time in this beautiful city.
Pictures of Paris:
