Their First Day in Europe

Thursday, December 19, 1991

I got my first chance to show what life was like for me in Europe when my father and sister came to visit. Like me, they had never been to Europe. So I would be able to introduce them to it along with all of my surroundings. They arrived in the morning on an overnight flight from Chicago and were quite worn out the first day. They had the adrenaline of seeing a new environment, but they still were a bit out of it. At the time I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t see more than they could muster. I was so excited to see them there, that I could have covered all of Paris and Versailles in a day. But then again it would have been hard to take any of it in at that pace.

One funny incident on the ride into the city from the airport was that my sister Nancy was a bit out of it and was leaning against the window of the train. Suddenly a train passed inches from the window going in the opposite direction. She jumped and grunted wide-eyed completely startled.

Though looking back we did see quite a few things that first day. We visited the school including the classrooms, the café, and the studios. We saw the Notre Dame church and browsed through the marché to see the variety of food offered. We also saw the outside of the chateau and the parterre section of the gardens directly adjacent to the chateau. We even started goofing around like we always do together. My father remembers that we kept trying to discreetly join in photos (with a big smile) that the Japanese tourists were taking of each other in front of things. Actually I think I always turn and smile now whenever someone it taking pictures of their friends or family.

My sister, Nancy, remembers: “On our first day we arrived in Paris in the early morning and took the train (I thought the fact that you buy a ticket to get in the station was cool) to Versailles. After seeing your apartment we went out exploring the neighborhood. I remember that you stopped in the bank and I was surprised at how good your French was. We then stopped at a little cart or bakery that served on the street and bought a croissant. I thought it was really neat to be eating a croissant in France. I then remember it being around 4pm and I was ready to pass out because we’d pulled an all-nighter because of the flight. We probably crashed early that night.”

They also got to meet both of my roommates: Robin, a fellow student from Illinois who was in the accelerated graduate program; and Clovis, a French secondary school student. One of the odd things about Clovis was that he had a nervous clap. As Nancy explains: “He had this nervous habit of clapping – but not regular clapping – just a single clap. And it would be random. Like, he’d go take a shower and you’d hear a clap. He’d go into his room and you’d hear him clap. I never saw him do it (though you probably did) and it only added to the randomness. I also remember that Dad asked him about French toast and French fries and Clovis had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.”

As far as encountering a new culture and built environment she remembers: “I thought it was odd that the door knobs were in the center of the door instead of by the latch. I found a key on the street in Paris and it was like a cylinder with short protrusions. It was so peculiar and different from our flat keys.” “It was fascinating to see that the streets were not paved in asphalt but were actual bricks. In Rome they had the same thing but the bricks were laid out in a cool fan pattern.” My father remembers: “I recall that walk from the train the first day. It seemed very damp and cold. Not cold by Chicago standards yet kind of eerie cold, maybe the different feelings, architecture and culture of the streets made it feel strange. Versailles grounds also seemed in hibernation with only a few tourists roaming around.

From my journal, we had spaghetti with turkey and cheese and tried to map out the vacation. It’s also noted that we watched Gone with the Wind, which was my sister’s favorite movie, on the small TV in an adjacent sitting room that our landlord let us use once in a while.