After spending the day with my pets and family, my parents drove me to the Newark Airport, which is about an hour away from my home in New Jersey. Even though my flight didn't start boarding until 23:00, I arrived at 18:30 PM because I live by the philosophy that if you're not early, you're late. My parents dropped me off at Terminal B, where Turkish Airlines departs from. I walked up and down the whole level and started getting nervous when I didn't see anything saying "Turkish Airlines." I asked an employee for directions and she sent me to Zone D, but that made me even more confused because even there I didn't see anything about Turkish Airlines. A different employee saw me looking lost and told me that I was in the right place, but check-in didn't start until 7:30. Fortunately they have a waiting area across from the check-in counters. I had to pee reeeeally badly, but I was not going to attempt to maneuver a restroom with all my luggage! I connected to the airport's free WiFi and played Twisted Wonderland and did some Duolingo on my phone while I waited.
The check-in process went smoothly. I was a little nervous that they would tell me I couldn't bring my laptop bag since the website said you can only have one carry-on and a personal item no larger than a camera in the cabin, and the man checking me in did ask if I was bringing anything besides my backpack on the plane, but when I said I also had my laptop and asked if that was okay he just said he would only put a tag on the backpack. I used the bathroom, grabbed some Starbucks, then used the bathroom again. I probably should have skipped the Starbucks, though, because in the short time it took me to finish my drink, the line for security QUADRUPLED from when I first saw it! There was also an "empty liquids" station halfway through the line, so I could have nursed my Starbucks while standing in line.
Even though boarding was supposed to begin at 23:00, at 23:10 the board said the flight was now leaving at 12:30 instead of 23:50. They didn't make an announcement or anything, so I'm glad I checked! At 23:23 they finally made an announcement saying there's a delay due to "extreme weather" and they will update us, but didn't say what time it was delayed to. Then, 5 minutes later, they announced that the flight would be leaving at 12:55, so an hour and 5 minutes later than originally scheduled. But after 5 more minutes, the board said 1:10. To be honest, I forgot to make a note of what time the plane actually departed, but I do know that fortunately, the board was incorrect and it was earlier than 1:10.
9/26: Plane from Istanbul to Paris, then Overnight in hotelF1
Instead of sleeping on this flight, I watched the film Morbius on the plane's entertainment system. (The movie was just as bad as people said it was, but obviously that's not the airline's fault.) There was only about 1 hour and 20 minutes left until landing by the time the movie ended, plus I was too tired to start anything new, so I just listened to music for the remainder of the flight. At some point they served dinner, which was a warm roll with butter, chicken and rice with some sort of yogurt-based sauce, and chocolate mousse for dessert. Once again, totally delicious!
It was about 22:30 (CEST) by the time I got off the plane at Charles de Gaulle Aéroport. The airport was completely empty except for the people from my plane, which was kind of weird. There wasn't a restroom on the connecting flight (or at least I didn't see one, and I didn't feel like searching for it), so I had to pee so badly that I wasn't able to appreciate the artistry airport, since all I could think was "BATHROOM BATHROOM BATHROOM." I'll try to pay better attention when I return home in December.
Since nobody was in the airport except for the people from my plane, the line at customs was super short, and I only waited for maybe two minutes before getting my passport stamped. Then, at the baggage claim, I found both of my suitcases right away, which was a huge relief. I ordered a taxi from the taxi.eu app, but two problems quickly arose: one, I got a notification that the taxi had arrived but I didn't see it anywhere (even though I had described my specific location in a message to the driver), and two, the "pay by card" option was unavailable for some reason, and I hadn't purchased any euros yet. (In retrospect, I should have ordered some from my bank before leaving for France, but my bank required a minimum of 100 euros and at the time I didn't think I would need that many, since a returning assistant in the WhatsApp group had said that they only ended up using maybe 50 euros their entire time in TAPIF). I was worried that an Uber would be much more expensive and complicated, but in fact, it was only 3 euros more than the taxi, and super easy. The driver found me right away and was very friendly. I mentioned to him that French wasn't my first language, and he asked if I was German, which I thought was funny because my German professor in college told me I spoke German with a French accent. Apparently I speak French with a German accent, too! He also taught me the French idiom "Quoi on veut, on peut," and that while there is the option to tip your drivers in France, it's taboo to talk about tips (which I thought might be the case, since tip culture in other countries is very different than America, but I wasn't positive). He drove me to the hotel I had booked a few months in advance: hotelF1 Roissy.
The hotel was.... not great. I knew it was the cheapest option around and that the reviews were pretty bad, but I had somehow missed that there were no toiletries or towels provided, and that the showers and bathrooms were outside the rooms. If I had known that, I would have just booked a hostel! Then, to make things worse, a cleaning lady woke me up at 9:30 the next morning (which isn't super early, I know, but I was tired enough that I could have slept until noon if checkout wasn't at 14:00), and as I stumbled out of bed in my nightgown, she opened the door anyway and I flashed her!!! It was mortifying, but I also have no idea why she would come in a room that wasn't checked out yet. It was better than sleeping out on the streets for the night, but I would definitely not recommend hotelF1.
I had booked a train ticket from Paris to Saint-Quentin for 14:34, and the train station was about an hour from the hotel, so I booked a second Uber for 11:00. (I've never used Uber in my life, so it's kind of funny that I used it twice in 24 hours.) This driver wasn't as friendly as my previous one--in fact, he didn't speak to me the entire time--but I was utterly exhausted, so this was totally fine by me. We arrived at Gare du Nord around 14:00. The station is big, but not as crowded or dirty as New York Penn Station, so I wasn't intimidated. I found my platform pretty quickly, bought a water bottle from a vending machine, and waited for the train. About 10 minutes before departure time, I drifted closer to the train, and realized that the train that was docked there was the one I would be taking. A man approached me and asked me something, but I panicked and said I didn't speak much French; as it turns out, however, he was the train operator, and he was letting me know that I was allowed to get on the train now. I was embarrassed that I had judged him as a potential threat so quickly, but hey, you can't go wrong with practicing stranger danger. I thought you could only start boarding two minutes before departure, so I'm glad that guy found me.
The train ride was nice and relaxing: I caught up on sleep and listened to music. The arrival was delayed by 5 minutes, but that didn't really make any difference. It was just me and one man left on the train by the time it got to Saint-Quentin, and he offered to carry my suitcases for me. I know I just said stranger danger is good, but my bags did weigh 50 pounds each, so I took him up on that. I was especially grateful for his help when the only exit was up a flight of stairs. The teacher from my school that arranged to pick me up from the station found me right away, and drove me right to the school. I'm fortunate enough to have been placed in a school that provides free housing for their assistants, so she showed me to the dorms and introduced me to the Chinese assistant who had moved in before me. The Spanish assistant is moving in tomorrow, the Italian assistant withdrew from the program, and apparently nobody has heard back from the German assistant, so it looks like it's just going to be the three of us. Previous assistants from the past 10 or so years have left behind things for us to use, so the kitchens (there are two of them!), bathrooms (there are two of those, too), and bedrooms have basically everything we need. The only really important thing that was missing is bath towels, but my dormmate and I both brought our own (I technically brought a beach towel, not a bath towel, but it works), so we managed.
I'm still exhausted and a tad bit overwhelmed, but my dorm is much nicer than I expected (especially considering it's free), and I'm just glad I made it here safely and with all my luggage!
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