Of long flights and shrieking, time-confused chickens

Well, we made it!  After a 6 1/2 hour flight from New York's JFK airport to Paris, and then an 11 hour flight from Paris to Antanananarivo, I'm one tired puppy.  We left New York at a little after 7 on September 11th, arrived in Paris on the morning of September 12th, and finally (finally) reached Madagascar at around 11 pm local time on the 12th.  It was a long and fairly uninteresting trip, just a lot of sitting and waiting!

The Paris airport really puts any of our nice airports in the US to shame.  It hardly even felt like an airport, it was so fancy!  My pathetic lack of French-speaking-ability became pretty clear while there, but I got around all right, aside from buying far too many sweets at La Duree!  As much as I would like to blame that on a miscommunication between me and the vendor, I really can't....I just like macaroons and had never had them before.

I shamelessly had the pink one for breakfast.  Raspberries, lychee, and rose petal cream.  Yum!!

There are 16 of us in this study abroad group, with most of the students not being from Stony Brook University, which surprised me.  Because there are so few study abroad programs that really focus on science - or go to Madagascar - this one draws many applicants from all around the United States.  We have people in this group ranging from a few Stony Brook students to people from the University of Washington!  It is nice, though, that all of us are getting to know each other at the same time.

We spent a lot of time getting to know one another while we were waiting at the baggage claim at the airport in Tana.  I was very fortunate in that both of my checked bags were unscathed and here; others in our group were not so lucky.  Hopefully they will show up soon...

We stayed in a hotel in Tana last night with 3 of us to a room.  With the luxury of a hot shower available, I think many of us didn't go to bed until quite late!  I went to bed around 2:30, but didn't fall asleep until after 5 (to then get up at 7:15).  I was almost asleep around 4:30, but some roosters next door decided it was time to get up, even though it was still pitch black out!  It's going to be a long day, but we have a big day ahead of us: exchanging money (US dollars to Malagasy ariary), buying phones, going to the zoo, and seeing the Queen's Palace, among other things!  I don't know where we're staying tonight, but if it is somewhere with internet, I will write up another post.

Veloma!

Rooftop view of Tana from our hotel.