Happy Thanksgiving!

24 hours and ~140 pounds of luggage later, I'm sitting in my hotel in Bures-sur-Yvette waiting for my Thanksgiving feast (Chinese takeout) to be delivered.  While I am not able to celebrate with L and the little one, who are still in Portland, I certainly have a lot to be grateful for over the past 24 hours:

- Our friends A & C who volunteered (really, insisted) to take me to the airport at 4:00am so that the little one could keep sleeping
- Easy, on-time flights from Portland to Vancouver to Montreal
- Family supper (with my parents, brother, and sister in law) at the airport in Montreal: ribs, beer, and chicken wings!
- Excellent flight from Montreal to Paris.  My seatmates were nonexistent, so I had an entire row to myself to stretch out, lie down, and even nap a little.

Travel up to this point was easy-peasy.  From the airport in Paris, I took the train (RER-B) south to the town where my hotel was located.  I had used google maps before leaving to map out a walking route from the train station to my hotel: google said it should take me ~10 minutes.  Even with luggage to haul, that seemed manageable.  Unfortunately, the walking path was rocky, pitted, and half-paved... not great for dragging suitcases!  I somehow managed to veer off course and my 10 minute walk turned into a 45 minute sweatfest, at the end of which I found myself on the corner of a street I didn't recognize, with no phone service, no map, and no one around.  This brings me to another thing I am thankful for: the kindness of strangers.  A guy stopped to ask me if I needed help with my bags, helped me find my hotel, and dragged my suitcases all the way to the hotel's lobby.  Turns out he's an assistant professor at the local university, spent some time doing a postdoc in the USA, and is married to an english-speaker.  I am so grateful to him for making today a little easier!

On the docket for tomorrow: open a bank account, visit 3 apartments, and hopefully pick up the keys to my rental car.  Meanwhile, I will enjoy my Chinese take-out feast, watch the French news, unpack my suitcases and try to fall asleep at a reasonable hour. 

- E