EVERYTHING IS FINALLY WORKING! I am going to post twice today. The one that follows was written on my arrival here right before my computer broke so that I wasn't able to post it until now:

September 1, 2007

I can say without hesitation that the last 12 hours have easily been the most demanding hours of my life. I don’t know what I was thinking in leaving a family in Munich that I truly fell in love with for an empty bunk in a space “just” big enough to hold me and WAY too much luggage. Trying to sleep in a space that moved and roared much more like the inside of a washing machine (sans water) then a valid bed, with a mind spinning much too rapidly, I think I managed about 3 hours of cat naps in total. My train was to arrive at 6:45 am at the Gare d’Est, once the clock reached 5:15, I felt that my fight for sleep had long been lost. I got ready and sat at the edge of my bunk staring out the window for the remainder of the ride. I don’t know what I expected, bit I didn’t see it. The tracks where lined with old factories and graffiti…nothing near the Paris I’ve held in my mind for so long.

I arrived to a silent platform truly loaded down. 4 bags total: a HUGE suitcase, a duffel balanced on top, a huge purse weighed down with laptop and books, and my favorite—a framed backpack filled entirely with shoes.

Right now I am sitting in the lobby of a “maison” at the Cité Universitaire that will be my home for the next month. It is only 9am and the arranged check in is at noon. It had been my intention to drop my luggage at a locker at the station before grabbing breakfast and wandering a few streets downtown first but after seeing the 40+ stairs leading up to the lockers, I turned to plan B. Gathering blisters on my palms and the top of my feet (don’t ask), I lugged and pulled everything through the Gare d’Est onto the metro to the Gare de Nord onto a regional metro to the CitéU where I solicited more then enough stares while unloading onto the platform. I found the administrative building first…closed—of course. I knew I am supposed to check in at the actual maison that I am staying at (1 of 40) so I decided to make my way here. Believe it or not, I was not the only one trundling suitcases across the cobblestone at the CitéU. Today is move in and move out day for many and at 8:30 on a cool Saturday morning, there was a silent bond between all travelers.

The lobby is slowly growing with more and more students all awaiting the moment when administrators arrive to check us in to our new homes. I know that I am in Paris—the City of Lights, with thousands of years of history…yet right now a stationary bed sounds like heaven.