I knew I was at least 3.5 hours delayed when I came to the airport, but I figured it would still be best to get here so that I could follow the progress from the ground, if you will. Plus I intentionally had no food in my room since I'm leaving for three weeks, haha.
I got to the airport and it's absolute hell in the check-in area. So clogged that you can't even move in some places. And it sounds really terrible to say, but I'm leaving from terminal 1 (the one that looks like a hamster run), which is where a number of African airlines operate. Ok that's not the terrible part, here's the terrible part: all the people checking in have about a million bags. Nothing against them and their bags, but man, there were a lot of obstacles. And to make the discrimination more even, there were also plenty of dippy American girls with their Longchamps bags who were studying abroad for the semester and "wow, I don't know how it happened, I went shopping and all of a sudden I needed a third suitcase!"
Anyway, once I was able to check in my bags, everything got better because I was told I could go to the VIP lounge, HAHA. Needless to say, I made a beeline here:
Check out all the free food (I'm stuffed):
And booze (sorely tempted..there's even all the ingredients to make a bloody mary from scratch!...but I'm being good):
Before I got here, though, I had a hilarious experience at the passport check. I handed the guy my passport, who looked at my permanent residency card and was super confused. He asked me if I spoke French and I said yes, so then he was like, "where did you get this card?" And I was like, "at the prefecture, in the 11th arrondissement..." And he was like, "why?" And I was like, "well, the ENS told me I had to and made the appointment for me, so I showed up!" And he was like, "wow, it's really interesting, I've never seen one like this before!" Then he proceeded to ask me all about what I had to go through to get it, so I told him about the awkward French topless moment and all the hoops I had to jump through. We were laughing like old buddies by the time I got through. In the end he was like, "wow, I had no idea, I'm still really confused by the whole thing, particularly since your visa is valid for the whole time you're here..." I was like, "yeah, I don't know either, sorry I couldn't tell you more!" Then he wished me a good flight and that was that. haha.
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