J'arrive!!!!

It's happened!

I was numb leaving honolulu. Clai and I had the perfect 'going away' meal: pork cutlet with gravy on everything. The mac salad also had way too much mayo! Who could ask for better!

The flight from hawaii to vancouver was packed and I spent a bit of the trip just staring at this guy across the aisle who was asleep before the plane took off and then woke up 15 minutes before we arrived. Man, how do people do that?

Vancouver. Customs. Luggage transfer. I had to grab my bags and then plop then on an unmarked conveyor belt, not unlike the disney madhatter ride. I watched my suitcase and duffle bag disappear with all the other suitcases from other flights waiting to get on other flights...confused? Yeah, me too. I deposited my mes valises wondering..will I see those bags again?

The plane arrived late in Toronto. It was already past the boarding time for my flight to Paris. I quickly exited the plane mumbling my flight number to myself. I located boarding information on the screen. Okay, flight 880, Paris, gate: BUS. I put myself in 'amazing race mode' and looked for someone to ask where this bus could be found. Scooting a distance of 2 city blocks with my perpetually errant backpack which preferred sliding on its side to gliding on its wheels (like my cat Yahoo when I tried to walk her with a leash), I found a very long bus waiting just outside the door. Within seconds of boarding the bus took off. I am going to make this connection!

It wasn't until I started seeing planes to the right and left of the bus that I started worrying. Hey, isn't this the bus that will take me to the terminal that will then allow me to board my plane to Paris? But why is the bus guy turning left..hey I can see the plane that I just got off of..wait a minute, we're headed for the RUNWAY! All the buildings and all the terminals were now BEHIND us! I saw a plane turning to take off. Even the people on the bus started having curious looks on their faces...yikes, why are we so calm when things appear to be going so wrong!? I watched planes taxing all around us and then we disappeared down an underpass. Oh great.

If you ever thought rental car places were far from the airport, I gotta say, this TERMINAL seemed outside of the airport! But finally the bus stopped in front of a building. No sign, no words of instruction from the bus driver, I just got off and followed an unmarked path to my plane. Exhale.

The flight was easy. I had food, room, lots of everything. Almost seven hours later I slipped out of the plane and found my luggage like an effortless delivery. But no one was there to claim me.

Like the first big WAAAAAHHH of a new born, I was forced to speak my first words . "Je voudrais une carte de telephone s'il vous plait."

Yeah, I can do this :)

An hour and a half later, my rendez vous with Laurence was JOYOUS! Leave it to Paris to make coming to the airport a challenge for a local. Out of a sea of unknown faces, I saw a welcoming smile ... "Leona! c'est moi, Laurence. J'arrive!"

I won't go into the details of our journey to the apartment, but here are the ingredients: one suitcase which could not be pulled by the handle because it was jammed and broken (Air Canada had also ripped out the front pocket), one duffle without wheels, and my carry on which prefers side sliding over rolling. Laurence was great, she took the duffle and carry on. That left the handle-less suitcase for me. But there was another malfunction going on. I had bought a new pair of pants for my trip. They were one size too big, perhaps two. Whatever it was, I had to hike them up throughout my trip or wear them SURFER style!

We had to make several connections to get to the apartment. At each connection I faced at least two flight of stairs. Step ,step, slip , slip. I could feel my pants heading south. By the time I got to the top my pants would be in the latter stages of ECLIPSE MODE. Oh my gawd it was awful! LEONA MOONS PARIS..its just the beginning I was hoping for! On my final ascent, a guy, (probably reacting to the the grunting,huffing and puffing ) carried my my suitcase to the top. ok, ok j'arrive!

It was 1pm when we got to the apartment. Can you imagine what I looked like? 18 hours on three different planes, 26 1/2 hours of actual travel, a crash course in baggage handling and then DING DONG...what was that strange noise? The door bell? ooooh no no no not yet! Yes, it's Stephan! My online friend who had helped me find the apt, who had already met Laurence and who was ready to take me to lunch!

hahahahaahahah. Oh where is the mercy? Ouf, I looked like what the cat refused to drag in, but out the door we went. Quick goodbyes to Laurence, I locked the my apt for the very first time, and we were off! J'arrive!

Stephan and I made our way down the street. My first meal. The power of now! If you are chinese, you know how to set aside the fact that you don't look good if you have the opportunity to eat something good!

I won't drag this out. My lunch was exquisite. I ate duck (it's the chinese french connection)...perfectly seasoned and tender (yes there was fat!) and for dessert..creme brule with fresh rasberries. I'm sorry. I don't want to lie. It was incredible. It was the best I have ever had and I wiped up the gravy with the only kind of bread I really enjoy. I'll stop..but it was wonderful.

Lunch was just down the block so I returned ready for a shower. No, I need to unpack, no I need to..and then again..ding dong..the door. Laurence was back from doing errands and ready to take me on a quick walk around my quartier. Everyone has their favorite bakery, and favorite place to buy fruits, or veggies or pastries. First stop, favorite pastry shop. Laurence munched on a chocolate eclair for her late lunch snack and of course I had to try a croissant. I couldn't imagine a more typical activity then walking around with a parisian eating pastries!

If you note the time of this blog, its being posted at 3:30 am in paris, 3:30pm in hawaii. I'm hungry so I'm making an omelette with the ONLY two things in the frig..eggs and habanero chilis. If you know me, its a sign! A sign that I'm home. I love chilis, the habanero is the hottest around, and like me, Laurence had it in the freezer, ready for the next delicious meal. Its snack time for me..comme d'habitude at 3:30 in the morning. J'arrive!

The best beginnings start from perfect endings. Thanks to the 2LiveCrew at the Learning Center, I had a chance to close one door of learning to open another. Mahalo :)

Bon, je suis prete!

ok ok..je suis prete. I'm ready. I have about five days to go. Five days to freak out. Clai is enjoying this. Being left behind is not easy so might as well enjoy the show as I run up and down the stairs with my paints, ohh the brushes..and don't forget emergency meds. All the while I'm feeling out this tooth that was worked on for the last time on wednesday, but who knows, it could flare up again!

I'm going to do this blog in english but its all coming out in french in my head. It works like this, my mouth prefers to speak english,my brain aime les deux, donc my brain is functioning in franglais. Ouf!

Je fais une sieste

J'ai mal aux dents

That just means that I have a toothache.

My toothache has personality. An evil personality. It's tooth number 19, the second to the last tooth on the left side of my mouth. I think it has middle child syndrome. It wants a lot of attention has been very creative about getting it.

Christmas day dinner was difficult when #19 decided to throb. Two days later at the dentist office I was pain free. New Year's Eve was no fun. Guess who showed up. Two days later at the endodontist, again a no show. Then just to prove that it was politically correct, #19 reared its evil ugly head on the weekend of Martin Luther King Day. And for the third time (for me) and the second time for my endodontist, it really wasn't that sore 2 days later. But I had had it by then. I told him, do the root canal! Yeah, that evil genius, #19 got me to request a ROOT CANAL!

Evil, wicked, painful #19 continues to throb even after 4 visits to the endodontist. I'm on antibiotics now. In 19 days I will be on a plane.

I wonder... in 19 days will #19 be grounded?

I wish it were 22 days later.

I figure that at least by then I will have finished my 'list' and checked it twice. I will have finished my taxes and paid them. I would be standing at the airport des que la porte and waiting.

I'm waiting now. But waiting then will be the good kind of waiting. Well, I'm a little stressed about that too. But when Laurence arrives, I figure my waiting will be over and the official life exchange will occur.

Anybody out there believe in destiny? Laurence will be going to NYC for 3 months to live the american life. And guess who will be living in her apt for those months in Paris? Sometimes destiny can be very cool. :)

I made my official 'you better get it done ' list today. But 22 days later it would be done and that would be fun. :)

Je recommence...

Quand j'ai eu 44ans, J'étais née à nouveau à Paris.

In 2001 I was in Germany for five weeks but a 9 hour bus ride to Paris seemed to reset my internal clock. I knew that something was happening for the very first time. Is 'HOMECOMING' too big of a word? Whatever it was, that experiece, tres profond, caused me to make several crazy declarations that would bring me back again. I left four days later with the feeling of having renogtiated my destiny.

In 2002, I was back in Paris fulfilling the first declaration. "I will return for at least a month!" I celebrated my 44th birthday with friends. I had been in the city for 2 days and was anxious to make my mark. Later that night, around 2 in the morning, while walking back to our apartment, I realized that I didn't have my purse. Most people are afraid of losing their wallet. There in the maze of quaint little parisien streets, I had somehow lost my PURSE. We went back to the restaurant..nothing. Our memory of events was nearly nothing. And you guessed it, in that moment I realized I had nothing.

A friend made a very interesting observation. He said, hey Leona, if you have lost everything, and you have to start with nothing, doesn't that mean that you are a nobody beginning again? So Happy Birthday! Now in my applications I note that Paris, France is my place of birth :)

Two months later I was leaving Paris with much to think about. My first month was a fairly forgetable page out of 'Perfect American Vacations', complete with an apartment on Rivoli just a couple blocks from Notre Dame, language classes in the morning, yummy lunches dans la rue , and exploring the city on the best metro system in the world. But the second month was quite different. One apartment, 2 guys (one french and other spanish), my own bedroom but a shared bathroom. Can you picture it? It was a sitcom to say the least. It's also the last time I share an apt with guys!!!!

I returned home already scheming and plotting my return. Two years later and countless hours of french chat on Yahoo France (dodging the nude camera peep shows, blocking the others) and sometimes meeting really great people, I am finally getting a chance to fulfill my second and third declaration, I will return and stay for 3 months and find my fluency.

I think I'm ready.