Je suis ici!

That means "I'm here" for all you non-Francophones. And yes, after two amazingly smooth flights, I made it! Didn't sleep too much so I'm a little cracked out right now. I mean, there were so many good movies to choose from (I finally saw The Hangover--yay!), and how was I supposed to sleep when they kept serving food? I even got a snack on the 55-minute flight from Frankfurt! Note to all of you planning trips to visit me: fly Lufthansa. Love them. :)

So yeah, the flights went very smoothly and I got my hugely heavy suitcases without a problem (and without a fee even though one was over the weight limit!). In fact, I really didn't have to go through customs at all. In Frankfurt, a cute German guy asked me what I was teaching before stamping my passport, but that was it. I literally got my luggage at baggage claim in Lyon and walked out through the doors. Très facile. Hung out in the airport for awhile since I couldn't get into the apartment I'm staying at until 6:30 and didn't want to wander around the city with all of my stuff. Had my first pain au chocolat, and it was even better than I remember. If I ever doubted my decision to do this, that first bite of French pastry resolved that for me! I still don't understand why we can't seem to make anything like that in the states. Presumably we have the same ingredients, recipes, etc., right? It just NEVER tastes as good. Too tired to go out and get my first crepe now but that's on the agenda for tomorrow. I might need to take a picture of it to post on here seeing as the crepe theme is pretty prevalent...

As for Lyon, what I saw of it on the shuttle from the airport was sunny and gorgeous and cute. I successfully mastered the metro without taking out too many people with my huge bags and found the apartment no problem. It even has an elevator, which was amazing because I think I might have died if I had had to carry my bags up the three flights of stairs. Damien, the guy who is renting the room in the apartment while his girlfriend is away (just found out his gf is American and is STUCK in the states because some university won't renew her visa--apparently it isn't always as easy as it was for me...), is super nice and his English is amazing. He doesn't seem to want to speak French, which is fine with me for now. And Rachel, the other girl who's doing the program and found this place for us, is great too. I think we're both a little brain dead right now, but we're all about getting phones tomorrow morning and exploring a little and starting to harass people about apartments. I kind of wish I could just stay here though. It's cute and furnished and in a great location and relatively cheap, and the thought of having to move my bags again makes me want to die a little inside, but I guess I probably don't want to share a futon with a relative stranger for the rest of the year... Riiiiiiiiight.

Off to shower and pass out. Vive la France!