After days of waiting and whiling away the remaining days of my endless summer, I have finally arrived in Rouen! It feels surreal to be here and I almost have to pinch myself sporadically to remember that this IS real and that I AM here!

I flew into Charles De Gaulle airport on Monday morning. When we took off, we were running a little behind schedule, but we more than made up the distance and wound up arriving earlier than the scheduled time. We landed at 5.45 am, and I was out of the airport, with my bags, at 6.05 am. I fly several times a year, and I have NEVER disembarked from a plane, gone through immigration AND got my bags within twenty minutes of landing! It was absolutely amazing how fast everything was.

Rouen Business School had organised shuttles to take us from Paris to Rouen. I met my taxi driver, Pierre, in the lobby, and even though he knew English, we spoke in French! Not only did I understand everything he was saying, but I was actually able to hold a decent conversation! I was so ecstatic to discover that I was capable of doing that. Pierre drove me to another terminal in CDG to pick up other students, and it took us more than five minutes to get there- CDG is HUGE! We did this several times, till there were enough students to fill a taxi. It took a couple of hours but we finally left and were on our way to Rouen!

I fell asleep in the taxi for a little while, and when I woke up, we were driving through the countryside in France. All the houses we passed were similar in structure, with big gardens and flowers everywhere (even in the windowsills, which looked so pretty!) They passed by too quickly to take a picture, but I will take some when I go explore.

My dorm is five minutes away from campus. When we reached, we found French students from RBS waiting to greet us and show us our rooms. That’s when I discovered- There are NO elevators in the dorms! And of course, my room is right on the top floor. I had to lug my suitcases all the way up 4 sets of stairs (64 steps, I counted). My arms and back are still sore and it’s been 3 days! Now I know why everyone in France is so skinny- everyone takes the stairs 😉

My room is small, but it’s cosy- I have a little sink and kitchen area in the room, and I share a bathroom with another girl. When I look out my window, I can see broken cars and boats on a lawn, and a parking lot. Beyond that, there are some buildings. It’s not too interesting now, but I know it’ll get better as the fall season comes around and the trees change colours.
      

The main building in Rouen, the administration wing, is a CASTLE! It’s gorgeous!

That’s all for my first update from Rouen, keep reading and I’ll promise to try and write new updates soon!

Location: Mont Saint-Aignan