Getting lazy, but doing well!

I figured I owe myself a post, but it's not quite going to be a real post just yet.

But here is part of an e-mail I wrote to a friend. Just know that I made it safely from Paris to Rouen, with SO much thanks to Hannah, Alexis, and Lia, who helped lug all 100 lbs of my luggage down six flights of stairs, onto a bus, and straight to Gare St-Lazare! I had such a nice time in Paris, but I'm excited to get everything set up in Rouen and to get settled into my new school!

- Trains are hard (but cheap and easy to sneak onto)

I took the wrong train from Paris, trying to get to Rouen. I wound up in Courbevoie, where there were no escalators or elevators to get me from the wrong side of the tracks (hehe) to the right side. I wound up hitting my ankle with one of my 50-lb bags and it is still killing me. =/ I finally took a train back to Paris and got on the right train, which was direct to Rouen. No one ever checked my ticket. However, I didn't get a seat because I couldn't lug all of my luggage up the stairs to the second level where the seats lived, and I wound up sitting on one of my bags in the hallway-type thing with two girls with actual seats (who either couldn't or didn't want to climb the stairs to sit in one of the many available seats- they were carrying no luggage).

- No matter where in the world you are, people who have disabilities and the people who love them are always the kindest.

Sylvie, one of my co-teachers, picked me up at the train station today after insisting that I shouldn't be going around by myself and that it would be nicer if I'd let her pick me up. She came with her son, Leonard, who has Down syndrome. She even took us all out to dinner for pasta (when I ordered pesto pasta, she asked several times if I wouldn't be happier with something that had meat in it, and that the expense was no problem), and Leo kept saying "Jamie" and looking at me with googly eyes and giggling until we were all in fits of laughter. It was absolutely priceless, and I will never forget that moment as long as I live.

I'm staying at a hostel now in Rouen for a couple of days, hoping to find housing on my own. I'm rooming with two other French girls, and they seem pretty nice. I'm headed to the school tomorrow with Sylvie to meet everyone, and then I'm hoping to adventure around Rouen a little bit and maybe even contact some people about getting a room somewhere. I have hit or miss internet at the hostel, and it's only available in the common areas, which is kind of a bummer, but that didn't stop me from calling Tara and my family (and consequently getting so frustrated when it kept cutting out or they wanted me to talk louder when I really don't want to disturb the other girl in here. I'll hopefully make it up to them soon with some AWESOME internet connection in my eventual apartment!!! *fingers crossed*).