Day of arrival, September 23, 2020

Today is the day. Today I'm going to Paris, a city that is not far away but I've never been to before, and I will live there for six months! It still feels very surreal. My mom took me to the train station in Trier and we said goodbye, which made me quite sad. I took a regional train to Saarbrücken, where I changed to the TGV bound for 'Paris Est'. My seat was on the lower level by the window in an empty four-seater, and I rarely sat in such a quiet train. I almost felt guilty for making so much noise or opening my biscuit packet. Thanks to good reading material (Erebos - thanks Maren!) and some sleep, time flew by quickly.

I arrived at the East Station at 4:53 PM. There, I got advice at a ticket office on the Pass Navigo and bought a Pass Decouvertes for the first week for €22.80, because I can only get a monthly ticket with a fixed residence in Paris (or something like that). In any case, the lady was very nice and I had to have passport photos taken at the machine afterwards. They turned out great, of course. My destination was an Airbnb apartment in Le Raincy, the place where my school is located. To get there, I had to walk from the East Station to the Magenta Station, which was very, very exhausting with two large suitcases, two backpacks, and a small bag. In addition, there was construction going on on the sidewalks, so the suitcases didn't fit through side by side anywhere, and it suddenly started pouring rain. It was really a lot of fun! After endless 20 minutes, I finally found the station, took the elevator to the platform, only to realize that it was the wrong platform. So I went back up the elevator, carried the suitcases, took the new elevator, and went back down. I had finally made it and was sitting on the RER E to Chelles Gournay.

I reached my destination, the Raincy Villemomble station, after a quick 20 minutes and, after climbing some exhausting stairs, went to the Pass Navigo check-out. It's a bit more difficult to get through with two pieces of luggage, but a kind police officer held the gate open for me so I had a little more time. Unfortunately, during that time, my little bag (not for the first time) fell down, in which I had transported my gifts (2 jars of jam and 1 jar of honey). Unfortunately, one jar of jam didn't make it to the destination.

But finally, a little after 7 PM! After initially standing in front of the wrong house and being asked by a woman who I was looking for. Kindly, Antoine came down to pick me up and carried the heavy suitcase up to the 4th floor. Antoine and Maeva's apartment is really nice, and I have a small but nice room with a comfortable double bed. Since I was still a bit hungry and wanted to eat my first croissant in France, I went out in the pouring rain, only to realize that I had forgotten my mask, went back up, and THEN realized that it was actually in my jacket pocket. Great! Because there is also a mask requirement outdoors here everywhere. Unfortunately, the bakery had closed 5 minutes earlier, so my dinner consisted of trail mix and Leibniz whole grain cookies (Thanks Carmen, Sebastian & Philipp!). Totally exhausted from the day, I went to bed at half past nine, eagerly anticipating exploring Paris tomorrow!