J'arrive

I am in Paris, and I don't know if it's the jet lag, but I feel. . .lonely.

I had a rough time getting to France. First, my JetBlue flight to JFK was put on hold. . .for 7 hours! That's right, my 2:40pm flight didn't get off the ground until 9pm. THEN on top of that, there was one point MID FLIGHT when air traffic control said we couldn't fly anymore. We had to stay put. I have never been so scared in my life. We were just sitting there, suspended in air. Yikes. Of course, because of the delay, I missed my connection to Air France. So, I had to call Student Universe, and pay $225 to get on the next flight, which was scheduled to leave at 7:50am. I got to JFK around 11pm or so and it took another 30 minutes before I could get my luggage. By the time I got everything and hustled to the AF counter, I asked if there was any fligh leaving before 7:50am because I really didn't want to sit in the airport for 7 hours. They told me it would be another $200, but when I explained the situation to them (and probably looked like I would have a nervous breakdown) they kind woman let me on the flight departing at 1:45am. Of course, that flight didn't actually get off the ground until 3am or so, but I was just happy to be on the plane to Paris at that point. So, what was the reason for all the delays? Really bad T-storms in New York. I almost changed my JetBlue flight to the one leaving at 11am because I had a hunch that I needed to give myself some more time. I wish I had spent the $25 dollars because it would have saved me a couple hundred. Well, lesson learned: do NOT get a connecting domestic to international flight (especially with non share airlines) with anything under 4 hours to spare. I can say with certainty I will never fly JetBlue again. Not that it was their fault that Air Traffic control wouldn't let us off the ground, but because the flight attendants were so blase about those of us who had to get connecting flights that had nothing to do with JB. Actually, they didn't even seem all that concerned with the connecting flights with JB.

Anyway the AF flight was smooth. The food was a disappointment. All the breads tasted a bit day old. But, I will probably stick with AF/Delta for my travel needs to Europe from now on. The AF flight attendants were very thorough, very distantly polite, and very French.

So, fast forward to right now. I'm in the hotel lobby typing this using the free wifi, but I may not have a place to sleep tomorrow! Of course! That's about par for the course of this trip so far. . .Anyway, for the sake of my sanity, I really can't go into that right now, but I will explain it later. Wow, this has been a rocky start for this trip. I'm pretty tired, so I'm going to head to bed after I plan tomorrow's itinerary. I really want to attack Paris and have a plan. I think I'll be up around 6am and get going. I'm also going to finally crack open my camera manual. (But I'll bring the backup just in case. . .)