I'm in FWANCE

Yep - I'm really here, and thanks for all the posts/comments wondering about me...it's good to know that you guys are behind me on this one :-) I think about y'all already a lot too!

Alrighty - I feel like I already have a lot to report but I don't want to overhwlem everyone with too much boring stuff like the fat travel agent I almost had to share a seat with. So, I'll use bullet points and try to be concise!

* The drive the airport, the check-in, the flight to Madrid - all went smoothly (thanks Mom & Dad!!) I thankfully had a aisle seat and no one annoying near by (well, not too annoying.) I fell alseep through the part where they offer headphones so I ended up watching 2 movies, a History Channel special, a sitcom, and a Travel Channel special - all without sound :-D Oops!

* Arrival in Madrid went well and the airport did look a tiny bit familiar once we were there. We got on the subway at the airport and rode into the city. Michelle wanted to do this and so we figured she knew what was going on - which she did, mostly. We didn't exactly get off where the stuff was but we asked directions and wandered around a lot. Then we realized we were pretty exhuasted so we sat on benches in the park and fell alseep. We got back to the airport and had to WALK to our plane for Lyon. It was mini (14 rows of 4 ppl each).

* On the flight to Lyon I sat in the very last row; ie: the flight attendant sat in the aisle right beside me for take-off/landing. We had a very un-American snack: french bread w/cheese or anchovies and Haagen-Dazs. There were no 1-oz bags of pretzels to be seen! Annnway, the highlight of the flight was this darling Morrocan lady with a little baby and some rather weird guy in the row in front of us who lived about 20 mins from Le Creusot. I tried to start talking to her a few times but I didn't think she wanted to talk. But then she asked me some questions and then Mr. Weird-France-Man got involved too. So we ended up having this conversation about Le Creusot, Lyon, Morroco, life in America, etc etc.

Eventually they asked me what nationality I was. I'm like, "um, american" and they're like, "what? really? we thought you were spanish!" So total French people I've spoken with a lot: 2. Total French people who couldn't tell I was American: also 2. I told them that Americans can't tell what I am either!

* Then we got off at Lyon and I couldn't stop smiling b/c I was so excited to be there. We got through customs easily enough: the little guys left their posts and walked over to see what some other guy had in his bag so everyone just walked by. I'm not sure it's supposed to work like that. Haha - but Weaver's came eventually and we got "home." I'll write another post with photos (hopefully) & tell you about that!