Our first couple of days in Paree

Well, the travelling was a lot easier than I anticipated - THANK GOD! So, we got to the airport about 5 hours early. Sounds crazy, I know but we needed all of that time. We were able to walk the dogs and feed them before we checked them in. The checking in wasn't that painful (except for the price - 550 per dog - yikes). But I would still do that rather than getting a service to do it for us. It's about 5 times as much and you don't have the peace of mind of knowing they are really taken care of before you check them and after you land. You should have seen O'luv at the security check point! She was so stressed out - shaking from head to toe with her tongue sticking out. I have NEVER seen her THAT ku-koo before. It was really sad. Onyx was a champ on the front end, but they changed roles when we got to Charles de Gaulle. More about that in a minute!
So we finally get on the plane and into our seats. We were supposed to get a confirmation note off of the dogs kennel letting us know that they were loaded but no one brought it to us. So - what could we do except delay the flight for the rest of the folks until they gave us some assurances!!!! We really did. We told the flight attendant that we couldn't leave until we got the paper and she wasn't happy with us. Finally, the captain came to speak to us and told us he was positive that our dogs were definitely on the plane - he checked himself! So, thanks Captain James Dean - they really were there! :-) And were they ever there! When we got to the special luggage area we could hear Onyx giving them hell in the back. She was HOT! She barked and cried all the way to our temporary apartment! What a brat! O'luv had her halo on - and was perfect the whole time. Oh - and French Customs? Whatever - no one ever stopped us - they didn't even look at the dogs and asked for nothing! I hope they weren't supposed to give us some verification that we will have to go back and get someday!
So - Cindy arranged for us to have a private van pick up. The guy was holding a little sign with our name on it. That was awesome! He helped us load them and brought us here to our humble abode. The place where we are staying is pretty cool. It's very close to Victor Hugo and Trocadero - we can walk to the Eiffel Tower and the Arc pretty easily. It's like a little efficiency apartment with a mini kitchen. Last night Cyn made our first romantic dinner in our little place! You should have seen us in the grocery store - it was funny. We circled it about 4 times before we even got the nerve to pick up a basket. It's funny how everything seems so scary. It really takes two of us together to be able to do anything. I think this adventure is really going to make us the strongest couple ever!
Today was a little bit crazier. We walked back and forth a couple of times down the same road because we couldn't find the dang metro. What we did find though was much better - STARBUCKS :-) The coffee in our hotel was SO STRONG that neither of us could really drink it - we were really happy to find that little piece of home. So we came back to the hotel and finally asked for directions and were able to find the metro. I think we just didn't have our wits about us from the lack of caffeine! On the way to the metro, we did find my favorite view of the Eiffel Tower - so that was a really awesome.
So, finally in the metro, we bought the wrong tickets! We were trying to get to the town of Rueil, where my office is located. So we made it there okay, but because we had the wrong tickets, we couldn't exit the station! Cindy had to actually jump over the turnstiles to exit! So yes - we are here for less than 24 hours and already break the law! So she found a ticket that someone else had used and gave it to me and it actually worked. Thank God because you know my fat ass couldn't jump anything over 3 inches off the ground! So we finally got out and found our way to my office. So our dry run was successfully completed and I should be able to find my way tomorrow.
Our plan was to go to our apartment after the trip to the office, but that part did not work out. We hadn't eaten yet for the day and we were so hungry we didn't have the energy to try to navigate the system any further. So - Cindy will finally see the apartment tomorrow. I am hoping she will take some pictures so that you can see what it's like.
One last funny thing - the dogs have jet lag. They are so tired during the day and wide awake at night. It doesn't help that there are tons of street noises that you can hear from our apartment, but it's really odd to think that they get affected the same way (considering that most of their entire day consists of sleeping anyway).
Well - that's it for now. Thanks for calling us tonight Nicole - it was really awesome to hear from home. Also please everyone, don't forget to download Skype - you can call us for free from your computer. www.skype.com - Once you have it loaded, send us your names so we can add you to our phone book.
Love,
Lola & Cyn