Now I have Paris

Disney in Paris!

Finally, my years-long journey getting to Madagascar is complete! The last leg, a 12-hour flight from Paris, went just fine and as the plane landed, I was thinking, “Holy crap, now it starts – what have I done?” I’m just so happy to get this chapter started. 

But let’s not forget I spent about a week in Paris before arriving! I’d been to the City of Lights before, but this time I spent more time than the previous other visits combined. I decided to go all Disney and do bother parks. What can I say, I grew up on Disney. I had a ball, even if I was by myself.

The Studio Park, which has Toy Story Land, had two roller coasters and each had a single riders line. In Florida, these lines move pretty quickly but holy cow, they were 50 minutes each, and it was a solid 50 minutes. I couldn’t believe it, but it was what it was. And Crush’s Coaster was totally worth it. I did it twice. At that park, I saw more shows than I’d ever done, watching 3 or 4 of them in between rides.

Tour Eiffel, from the second platform

The complex there is set with both parks side by side – no monorail or anything between them. Just off that area is their equivalent of Downtown Disney, and it’s possible to head out there and grab lunch, which I did for a break and to sit down for a stretch. I did the same thing the second Disney day, which started out super rainy so there were no lines. I took advantage of that and did the Indiana Jones roller coaster and Pirates twice in the time I spent in the singles line at Crush’s Coaster two days before. The lines were fairly short that day overall, with 35 minutes being the longest. The downside was because the crowd was thin, there was no single rider line. As a result, I only did Star Wars Space Mountain once. But by the late afternoon, I was done – no fireworks for me.

In between, I went to the Palace of Versailles and oh, man, it was phenomenal. There is so much history to absorb in Paris. I spent 3-4 hours in the Louvre, but was too exhausted to also hit the Museum D’Orsay. I didn’t get tickets for the catacombs or Invalides in time, so those will have to happen at a later time, if at all.

I totally did the tourist thing and went up the Eiffel Tower. I hadn’t planned on it, but I wandered over there and somehow found myself in a long and slow-moving line. I’d made the mental decision to go all the way to the top – even putting the cash in my pocket for a quick transaction – but about five minutes before I made it to the window, they shut down tickets all the way up. In the end, I went to the second-level platform and was totally OK with it. As NOT a heights person, as soon as the elevator started, I was like, what was I thinking? But it turned out just fine and happened to be the one gorgeous day I had in Paris.

I learned there's a Little Liberty
in Paris. It faces NY.

I also got to attend a judo event at the Paralympics, which was utterly amazing. The athletes were blind or had low vision and we – I attended with some colleagues who worked there – stayed probably 3-4 hours, although we left when it was still going on. I’d never seen judo before and had a hard time figuring out the scoring, but it was really amazing to see Olympic-level athletes compete – and compete with certain challenges. Christella Garcia won bronze! My friends had a flag, so we were all on the scoreboard (and TV) cheering her on. In front of us, we had a row of Brazilians and holy cow, they excel in judo. I don’t think there was a division that didn’t have at least one Brazilian competing.

Although I didn’t do anything else touristy the day I went to the event (other than a nice lunch), I am really glad I was able to attend. Paris will always be there later, but it’s not likely that I’ll ever be able to witness the Paralympics again. I was really thankful – and awed – by that opportunity.

Napolean in Versailles

Now, though, I am looking at staying in place for a bit, mostly because getting out of Tana is really, really complicated. Plus, I’m ready to just hang out for a bit and get to know my job and my home for the next three years. Early impressions are pretty fantastic. The people are nice and the weather’s been great.

At the moment, I’m in a huge house – six bedrooms – but I’ll move to an apartment in a month or so. It was actually crazy getting in because, first of all, the flight comes in late. Then my bags were among the last tranche off, so I and the embassy employee helping me waited well over an hour to get them. Next was a long ride to the house, followed by an extraordinarily hard time working the keys. Seriously, it took about 20 minutes of two people trying. Finally, I got in, and by that time I was absolutely stupid tired and just wanted to go to bed. The door opens in a little hallway with three exits – a kitchen to one side, a living room to another and a staircase. Coming from an apartment life, I assumed the bedroom was upstairs and climbed them. I found a giant balcony-type space with a couple doors off to the sides. I opened them. One was a bedroom with no furniture and the other was a bathroom. Strike.

There's much more in the Louvre,
but here's the obligatory photo.

I went back down the stairs, again, just stumbling at this point because I was so tired. (I can’t sleep on planes.) I found another hallway with more doors. Like four doors. Empty bedroom, empty bedroom, empty bedroom, bathroom, some weird closet-type room. Strike 2. 

I was pretty much at a loss until I discovered yet another door, which led to four more doors. And yes, although doors No. 1 through 3 were each partial bathrooms, the next one was a bedroom – with a bed! Bases hit - paydirt!

After a couple of days of rest, I looked a little closer and discovered I’d missed a room on the top floor – another empty bedroom. All told, this place has six of them. I’m not counting the bathrooms because I don’t know how – one has a shower, tub and sink and another just has a toilet. Another has a shower and a toilet, no sink. It’s kind of weird. The closet-type room is the weirdest, because it’s more of a mop closet – it’s not like there’s a clothes bar in it. 

But it’s absolutely fine for now. I hit the grocery stores this morning and am settling in as best as I can knowing it’s temporary. I’ve been to two events so far: a meet-and-greet with newbies and some guests and a party for former Peace Corps volunteers, of which there seem to be a bunch.

I'm ready!