Bienvenue à Paris!

We arrived in Paris (My mom and I...) a little worse for wear. The instructions from my program as well as the google website recommended taking the main train that makes it way from the airport through the center of Paris. It mentioned it would be far cheaper. The euro is kicking the american dollar ass right now. We are american. We like cheap. 

I wish they (whoever wrote these articles) would have notified at the bottom just how ridiculous this trip is for two women, with two heavy suitcases each, and only one with minimal, I repeat minimal french language skills, to negotiate their way around the city. I wish I had the energy to write it all. Between jet lag, stumbling around blindly, cramming on trains, picking suitcases up and off of the train, it was  less then the exhilarating feeling we thought we would gain from being in Paris. We arrived at our stop and began rolling towards the exit only to find a series of stair going up...-In fact, a nice thing to note, that in the ENTIRE TIME we worked our way towards our destination, there were ramps and moving panels going down with the options of stairs. However, on the way up and out there were stairs, solid, non-moving, concrete, stairs and that was all. We lugged it up the final stairs only to wander a bit up  at the top. Then something beautiful happened, we met somebody, who, somewhere between my broken french and his one word english,  helped to direct us through the park to our hotel. We gave him 20 euro. Pretty steep, but it was all we had and we appreciated the help. ( I know what you are thinking and yes after all the time sweat laborer and confusion it would have been worth it just to have called damn cab.)

So, three hours later and 15 minutes after our plane landed we finally stumbled into the Hotel Arc de Triomphe. We checked our baggage and made our way to our room, tired, sweaty though surprisingly not irritated. Perhaps it was to tiring for that. (Though I am now only speaking for myself)

My mom took a nap as I took to staying awake fearing napping in the day and waking up in the middle of the night. Though my mom made sure to roll over, look at me and say," I am never doing that again. We are taking a taxi next time." I shook my head. I don't know if there would be a next time. I had to agree though, too much of an adventure for the first day.