My Arrival

Paris.

La cite de l'amour, (city of love), snobby French, Baguettes & Croissants, Nutella, Eiffel Tower.

Those are some of the words linked to this wonderful city that I now live in. A week ago I was in San Jose enjoying some BBQ and watching the World Cup match between the United States and England (Woot a tie!). Now I am in one of the most beautiful cities in the world and am interning for one of the most admired pioneers in the tech industry: Microsoft. This sudden change in environment is well, truly mind boggling. 

My journey however was not without its annoyances. Some of you may already know, but my flight to Paris was anything but eventful. 

48 hours earlier, I had departed SFO for JFK. My original flight plan was to transfer at JFK onto the last flight to Paris at 9:50 PM. Due to bad weather, my slated departure from SFO at 11:45 am turned into almost one. Because all flights have a comfortable 1-2 hour cushion between boarding and departure, I didn't put too much thought into the flight change. Fast forward five hours and I arrive in JFK at 9:10 PM. Due to weather conditions, my plane was forced to wait in line to dock. By the time we finally did, it was 9:50 PM. My departure flight was 9:50 PM. Needless to say I was very stressed and anxious to find out when my next available flight was. As I was exiting a representative from American Airlines informed me to go get my luggage then proceed to booking for another flight. 

I'm a pretty optimistic guy, so I assumed everything would be smooth sailing from there on; oh how wrong I was.

I ended up waiting one hour for luggage that never came. Only later did an American Airlines representative explain to me that luggage was not released for flights with layovers and my luggage was already transferred to my flight. What I found more infuriating was my plane for Paris left at 10:30 waiting for a certain Passenger Jimmy. To add insult to injury, American Airlines didn't offer any sort of apology or reimbursement as it was an "ATC" (Air Traffic Condition) and told me to find my own hotel because it wasn't their fault that I got delayed. With no luggage I spent my night in NYC in a hotel with its phone lines and internet down and no towels! The next day, I boarded my flight with no incidents, but just when I thought my luck was starting to turn, the captain informed the passengers that we would be staying in the airport for another hour because of weather conditions. And for the finshing touch, I had a baby right in front of me who was crying his heart out throughout the trip.

Despite my horrible experience with NY weather, the trip was well worth it. I have spent three days in this wonderful city and it still does not cease to amaze me!

The people are so warm (as long as you are polite) the food is delicious - I can also buy a bottle of delicious wine for 1.5 euros :),  the city is extremely clean, and the weather is wonderful. It is hard to not write pages about Paris, so I hope you my readers won't mind waiting until I have time to gather my thoughts - not to mention pictures - and blog more about Paris.
 

Until then, here are some photos for you =)

A bientot!