Stupid, stupid, stupid

Well, I'm here at the Fiap hotel. I'm significantly poorer than I should be, but I'm here.

The flight was uneventful, except for me spilling ginger ale on my legs. I met a girl, Ndjé, who is also a student at the Sorbonne, though she's in the Finances graduate program.

I landed, went through customs, found Dana and Rachel's arrival gate, waited there for two hours, and met them as they came out. And that's where things went very awry.

I had booked the three of us a shuttle to the hotel online from PariShuttle. Their representative was supposed to meet us at the gate.

But he never showed up. I just now figured out that PariShuttle, like many French businesses, may not operate regularly on a Sunday.

I suggested taking the Metro, but Dana really had too much luggage to make that a feasible option. We headed towards the taxis, only to be intercepted by a well-dressed black man who offered us a ride instead. For some reason, we accepted.

He got us and our luggage here.

And asked for €170 for his trouble. A normal taxi trip would be €50.

We paid, splitting it between ourselves. None of us blamed the others. Stupid. Maybe we should have contested the price, argued him down to something not quite SO exorbitant, but
I guess the jet lag and hunger had addled our thinking. Maybe we just fell into being naïve Americans. In any case, we know what happened, it could have been worse, we'll be vigilant in the future, and it will NOT HAPPEN AGAIN.

So not the best start to the semester, but at least it's started. And it'll get better from here.