PART I: In the beginning...

I can still remember the feeling of getting on that plane: fear and excitement, pride and humbleness, joy and fierceness, all bubbling up inside me and making me weak in the knees.

My whole family was at the airport to see me off… MY ENTIRE FAMILY... my three brothers, my sister, my mom and even my dad who hates public places was there. Even my dad’s oldest friend and his kids had come to see me take that plane to Paris. It was such an incredible moment. I’d never seen my mom cry of joy and sadness at the same time, nor my brothers be all “brother-y” to me (back then my younger siblings still thought me a pain in the butt) and even I felt weird at leaving.

But I had Paris waiting for me and I couldn’t be more excited. I had been one of the 75 candidates selected out of nationwide contest to spend 6 months on a paid internship in one of Mexico’s European Embassies… and I, along with two other lucky girls, had been picked to work at one of the top three sought out locations: PARIS (London and Madrid being the other two).

I had 600 dollars in my jeans' back pocket and I figured this would be enough to be able to settle in while I received my first paycheck. I figured I would share an apartment with the other two girls (whom I had not yet met since they came from different cities) and money wouldn’t be a problem. I had one big suitcase and my backpack with me as sole reminders that I was spending more than just a “brief European tour vacation”. I would be working there! Learning the language, tasting the food, visiting the museums, soaking in the culture, and most importantly of all: TRAVELING! I knew that as interns we only were allowed 4 days off during our 6 month stay, but I was sure I would get plenty of traveling done… after all, what were weekends and holidays for???

When I landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport the plane parked at exactly the right angle where from my cabin window I could actually see the Eiffel Tower (Insert: according to Hubby, that is physically not possible based on the geographic position of CDG airport, but I know what I saw, and it was the Eiffel freakin' Tower I tell you)!!! It is at that moment that I just broke down in tears ! I was actually doing this ! I was in France, without speaking a word of French, not knowing one single human being in this country, no apartment nor hotel reserved and only 600 bucks to my name ! I was an adult! I was an adventurer! I was doing something none of my friends back home would even dream of doing! I WAS DOING IT!

I met A for the first time at the airport. Her plane coming in from Monterrey had landed earlier that day and she had waited for my flight to land figuring it would be better for both of us to take a cab together. My first impression of her was how beautiful she looked. Tall, dark, long smooth black hair, dark eyes à la Eva Longoria, impeccably dressed with a crisp white cotton shirt and perfectly cut jeans holding a piece of paper with my name on it (since we had no idea what the other looked like and had only exchanged a couple of emails before leaving Mexico).

We were complete opposites from the beginning. She being the reasonable and responsible one, me being the impulsive and spontaneous one. Looking back I realize thank goodness A and I met. My plan had been to pick up a taxi at the airport and ask him to drop me off in Paris “downtown” (which no such thing exists, I would soon find out) and buy the local paper in search of an apartment I could afford with 600 USD. I figured by nighttime I would have found a place and if not would have checked into a hotel for the night and try again the next day.

A, on the other hand, had arranged for a bilingual shuttle taxi to pick us up at the airport, big enough for both our luggage and reserved a room for both of us at a youth hostel on rue Mouffetard, right in the middle of the Latin Quarter, to this day still one of my favorite streets in Paris. She had even printed out a small map of Paris where I learned that the city is divided in 20 “arrondissements” (neighborhoods) and are laid out in a clockwise spiral going from the 1st in the center of Paris all the way to the 20th on the outer east side of the city (there is no such thing as Paris downtown). A had even marked with an X where our offices were located (in the 2nd Arrond) and a dotted itinerary from the youth hostel. You would have thought that knowing that I was coming to Paris two months before I would have made the minimum arrangements in terms of housing, getting to know the metro system or even learn how the city was organized... but that's just how I was back then - impuslive, disorganized and above all confident I would learn "on the go" and "take it as it came".

Even so, being as different as A and I were and coming from such different backgrounds as ours, we soon realized we had one thing in common. This new adventure, this new life, this new moment… we were beginning it together and we intended to make the maximum of it. See as much as we could, learn all that was to be learned, taste all that we could possible taste, meet all who were to be met and travel as much as was in our means and possibility.

WE WERE DOING THIS!......

A & Fned (2002)

Fned.

Read Part II.