Travel Crazy

After waking up at 4:30 a.m. to catch my first flight, I've finally arrived in Lyon! I flew from Green Bay to Chicago, Chicago to Washington D.C., Washington D.C. to Frankfurt, Germany, and Frankfurt to Lyon. The first two flights were fully on time. In Washington D.C., I met up with a couple of other students taking the group flight. Due to economy class being overbooked and the plane being full, practically everyone on the flight had to stop at the counter to get their carry-on bag checked for size and their passports verified. I was only traveling with my backpack and camera bag, so I didn't have to gate check anything. I was in boarding group 6, so after waiting in line for a long time, I finally got to scan my ticket, where I was told I had to return to the counter again because my seat had been changed. At the counter, I received my new boarding pass; I had been upgraded to premium economy!

On this transatlantic flight, I finished the book I had started that morning. For dinner, the options were beef stew and impossible plant protein kofta balls. (Economy had chicken or pasta, which I would have liked better, alas.) I went with the vegetarian option, which was surprisingly okay. The dinner also came with Greek orzo pasta (unfortunately cold), mango mousse, parmesan cheese, crackers, bread, and butter. I had an aisle seat, so I didn't really have anything to lean against to sleep, despite being provided with a pillow, blanket, and mini travel set with an eye mask, earplugs, toothbrush and toothpaste, etc. While I was able to rest a bit, I never really fell asleep. About two hours before the end of the flight, we also received breakfast: Greek yogurt with granola and berries, ham, cheese, lettuce, cream cheese, grapes, butter, strawberry jam, bread (not pictured; there were a couple of bread choices, so they came around another time with the bread, after I'd taken the picture below), and coffee (also not pictured). At various times throughout the flight, they also provided drinks, crackers, and chocolate.

In Frankfurt, we deplaned onto the rainy runway and loaded into very crowded buses. I wasn't seated near any other USAC students on the plane, so I just had to hope all the buses were taking us to the same, correct place. I was able to relocate another USAC student, and we headed for our next gate, easily making it through customs. We rediscovered/met for the first time the other USAC students as everyone trickled to the gate. I had pizza for "lunch" (in quotes because by then it was about 1:30 p.m. in Frankfurt and 6:30 a.m. at home, if I remember right) from the little restaurant pictured below. Our flight was supposed to leave at 12:50, but the plane had had some issues before leaving Geneva for a previous flight and was therefore late. By the time we boarded (also bused out to the plane), taxied, waited for other planes, and finally took off, we were quite behind schedule.

In Lyon, we didn't have to go through customs again. This is because both Germany and France are Schengen countries, meaning freer passage across borders. We found our luggage--no one lost theirs--and met USAC's program director, Stefano Pizzetti. Then we loaded into three vans and headed to the Hotel Campanile Perrache, where we stayed the first night.

Because half the program was on the group flight, there was no real consequence of our final flight delay, aside from having much less time to get settled into our rooms and refresh ourselves. I'd brought a change of clothes in my carry on and changed and brushed my teeth in Frankfurt, so I felt all right. During our first orientation session, we did brief introductions and received a little preliminary information about what to expect in the program. Then, we went to Crêperie Marie Morgane for dinner. I had a smoked salmon, crème fraîche, and lemon galette, and it was incredible. Galettes are like crêpes, but they're made from buckwheat flour, savory, and from the Breton (Brittany) region. For dessert, I had a dark chocolate, crème maison, and chestnut cream crêpe. Afterward, we went back to the hotel, where I was lucky enough to have my own room. I prepared for the next day and, after 30 hours awake, went to bed.