I have arrived.

9/21/09 2pm (France time)

So I just got to Lyon. It was def an interesting trip. I am jet-lagged, sweaty and gross, sitting in my hotel room, watching a French soap opera, contemplating leaving in order to find some sustenance.
Ugh, I hate overseas travel. My first plane left at 3:10pm from Minneapolis and arrived in Amsterdam at like 10:30 pm, but it was 5:30 am in Amsterdam. So of course, I couldn't sleep at all on the plane. I did sit quietly for a few hours, w/ my eyeshade on, listening to Josh Groban (oh Joshie!) cranked on my iPod (this was after watching The Hangover and Monsters vs Aliens on my own personal little screen). There was beaucoup de turbulance, nothing really worrisome, but enough that it was annoying and was for a long period of time.
Then once I got to Amsterdam, I had to pick my way through the crowds (that should have been lines) to get to Passport Control so I could get to my terminal from which I would leave for Lyon. Of course that took an hour, but my plane had arrived a bit early so I still had like 2 and a half hours before my next plane boarded. So I bought a bottle of water and sat down to read. About 2 hours later, I was crashing big time. I managed to board my plane and fell asleep for the duration of then one and a half hour flight.
Then I was in Lyon. I had been to that airport a lot when I studied over here a couple years ago, so I was able to find the bus to the center of town (centre ville) pretty easily. I asked the driver about how to find my hostel and he gave me really excellent directions to the metro stop from the bus stop, and from there it was pretty easy finding it. The hard part was dragging my jet-lagged ass around and getting my jet-lagged ass to drag my 80lbs of luggage w/ me.
FINALLY, I arrived at my little hole in the wall hotel, where I am now loitering in my room, debating whether or not to take a nap before venturing out in search of food (bread, wine, and chocolate is my plan right now).

Well it’s 3pm, and my internet is wavering so I might catch a little shut-eye and then go get some food. Ooooops, it looks like my internet at the hotel has failed. I’ll have to publish this laters. Oh well.

Catch y’all on the flipside.

09/21/09 8:05 pm (France time)

Yes, I’m lame. I’m back at my hotel at 8pm. I’m tired dude! This afternoon, I ended up leaving the hotel around 4pm and then I made my way to The Phone House and bought a cell phone (I got it half off too, cuz I’m cute and American!) and then went wandering around Lyon. I called my folks and then I continued my journey. I found a mall! I just walked around, then stopped to force myself to eat a sammich (I hadn’t eaten in like 13 hours, but I wasn’t actually hungry, I’m still not, which is weird I think) and then I started wandering back to my hotel. I stopped to browse in some shops, there are some cute (w/ a capital Q) stuff around that is not too spendy. Then I stopped to buy some minutes and then returned to the hotel.

Then I showered (which felt AMAZING after a day and a half of travelling and wandering) and now I’m sitting in my jimmy jams, sipping Orangina, watching American Dad in French. Life is good.