Journals from Abroad
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Journal: Hong Wei: Dream in France
May 7, 2007
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Thunder crashed in the sky. Heavy storms broke in Bellevue. Eric and I were going to fly from Omaha to Chicago, and we were worried about our flight. True enough, our flight was canceled due to the unfriendly weather. His dad decided to drive us all the way to Chicago. The sky around Chicago was dotted with planes. This made me so excited and kept my eyes busy all the time at O'Hare Airport.
"Flight IB 6274 from Chicago to Madrid, is now ready for boarding". The announcement came and thus we started our journey.
Our flight was delayed for almost 45 minutes. I guess maybe our plane waited in line for departure since there were dozens of aircrafts waiting to depart. Listening to a Spanish song, having a dinner of chicken, I was enjoying my flight to Madrid. At Chicago O'Hare Airport
May 7 (Day 1) Set foot on French soil
We missed the flight from Madrid to Paris because of the delay in Chicago. We ended up taking another flight to Paris Orly Airport instead of Paris Char de Gaul airport.
The design of Madrid airport was interesting. The big poles, which support the building, were painted with rainbow colors and this is used to differentiate the number of gates. Besides that, the smoking area was open at the top. However, we could still smell the smoke in the airport when we got closer to the smoking area.
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 Smoking area at Madrid Airport Colorful Airport |
Two hours later.....
Bonjour!!
I was excited when we touched down at Paris Orly Airport at 2.30pm. It is an old and quiet airport with Air France planes. After contacting Mr. Jean-Marc, a professor in University of Rouen, we headed out to Rouen with our luggage.
It was a gloomy and windy Paris, but I could still feel the romantic and cozy environment of Paris just by looking at all the classical buildings along the way to train station. There were graffiti all along the walls at both sides of the road. French advertisements kept showing up on televisions in the bus located for the purpose of informing travelers of this new and exotic place. Unfortunately, I could not understand one word of what the televisions were saying. I saw the top of the legendary Eiffel Tower! I cannot believe my eyes, it is the real Eiffel Tower!
 Eiffel Tower!!! |
After reaching the train station in Paris, we finally caught the train from Paris to Rouen. Rouen is the capital of Normandy State, which is located an hour northwest of Paris. Finally, we reached Mr. Jean-Marc's house in Rouen. He is my internship advisor in France; I will be working with him for the next two months. My first impression of him is that he is a friendly and enthusiastic person. He has his own unique laugh.
When her daughter came back, she walked towards me and gave me s'embrasser, which is a kiss greeting. This is not a French kiss but a greeting with facial contact and kissing sound. Taken by surprise, I did not know how to react. I just stared at her.
We had dinner with Mr. Jean-Marc and his wife that night. It was a French dinner, started with peanut, mushroom, and fish with wine. The main meal was pork and potato followed by bread and cheese from Normandy. There were three kinds of cheeses; I couldn't remember the name of the cheeses. All the cheeses were unlike the normal cheese I have had before. The dinner ended with dessert, strawberry with sugar on top. It was a fantastic and long French dinner. It was the longest dinner I have ever had. We really enjoyed the dinner and heard a lot of stories from Mr. Jean-Marc.
 Room Key in Anderson |
 My room |
Erick and I checked into a small and classical hotel in downtown Rouen, called Anderson Hotel. Everything here was so different. The room key was like the huge, old treasure box key in movies. The TV channels are in French.
It was a long day for me. First night in France, hopefully I will have a fantastic and memorable dream. Bonne...
