Arrival!

It has been a busy week and a half already! The trip over to Nancy went pretty well... Northwest Airlines had definitely one of the best international flights that I'd taken, with a huge selection of movies/tv/music/games to use on relatively large personal screens. They also, amazingly, didn't lose any of our luggage!

Nancy surprised me by being both more urban and more French than I expected it would be. Since the city is so close to the eastern border I thought that there would have been more German influences. But, because this area was just far enough away to never actually have been part of Germany, it remains, besides a few German names here and there, very French. It took a few days to become familiar with the different areas of nancy and where to best look for an apartment. While the Old Town is right in the heart of the city and is arguable the most scenic area, the apartments there are what you'd expect: tiny, expensive, and old. After broadening my search just a little, I found the perfect apartment by the end of my first week here. It's only a couple of blocks to the heart of Old Town and about 5 blocks to Université Nancy 2, where I work. It's facing the largest park in town, le Parc de la Pépinière, and it's about 2 blocks from the canal. With numerous paths in the Parc and a trail along the canal, it should be perfect for running. The apartment itself is large with lots of windows, definitely with room for guests. Right now I'm in the process of assembling my furniture and will post pictures of it as soon as I'm done putting everything together.