Another Bomb, Another Day

Almost 24 hours ago, I boarded American Airlines Flight 48 with non-stop service to Paris, France. Upon boarding the plane, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was no one sitting beside me, which gave me an extra seat to put all my things in. I took my Tylenol Simply Sleep, ate my dinner, read a little, and then promptly fell asleep for two hours. Around 9 pm, Dallas time, the pilot came on and announced that there would be moderate turbulence for the duration of the flight. Fun. The rest of the flight consisted of me almost falling asleep and then having the plane drop, along with my stomach, so I never got much sleep. When I arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport, I was exhausted. I went through passport control, retrieved my luggage, and continued to the RER, the regional train to take me into Paris. After walking 80 gates (Charles de Gaulle is one of the worst planned airports), I was abruptly stopped by a military officer holding an AK-47 and telling me to turn around. So, me and about 200 people, had to wait behind a security line while the officer explained that there was a security threat and they had to clear the area. Charles de Gaulle Airport is notorious for these security threats in which they find an unidentified piece of luggage, suspect that there is a bomb, and then proceed to blow the bag up. Literally. I glanced up at the Airport Monitors to notice that every flight in Terminal 2, from Dubai to Stockholm was delayed because of this security threat. I knew that was an indication that this was going to be a mess. After waiting for almost an hour, the security threat was over and I was able to proceed to the RER where I bought my ticket and got on the train. I arrived at Gare du Nord in Paris (the same train station where the Eurostar is) and caught the Line 5 Metro and then the line 11 Metro and then I finally, finally arrived at my apartment in Belleville. Everything is great. I’ve been able to sleep a few hours but I’m going to go to bed early tonight. Tomorrow, I fly to Nice, in the French Riviera, for orientation for this semester. Since I’ve already been through orientation for the Paris program, it will be like a vacation. Sounds good to me!!!