Goodbye France. Goodbye London. Goodbye Europe!

Today was an amazing last day in Europe! Ahhh that is so sad to say, but I have had a great day! The continental breakfast was amazing as usual. I am in love with the hot chocolate. It is the best hot chocolate I have drank in Europe, and it is too bad my last time drinking it will be tomorrow. Anyway, Hannah and I broke off from our group and did our own thing. When we left the hotel, it was pouring. That was the only downside to the day. We were going to take the bus to King’s Cross Station to see Platform 9 ¾, and we waited for the bus in the rain for forever. We eventually decided, screw it, we will take the Underground and spend four pounds. Things started looking up when we weren’t being rained on inside the Underground, and we decided to ask help about buying a ticket. The man at the counter was super nice, and we decided to spend £6.50 for an all day Underground pass. That’s a huge deal compared to a £4 one way ticket. He told us all we have to do is ask when you are unsure of something, and that is so true. So, we took the metro to King’s Cross. The Underground is so fast compared to the metro in Paris, and it is a lot nicer and newer. We finally got to King’s Cross, and had to ask for directions to Platform 9 ¾ a few times, but we eventually found it! Ahh it was so cool and made my day!

We then took the metro to Regent and Oxford Street, where all the shopping is. We went to H&M, and Hannah bought a lot of clothes, and I bought some hair accessories. We just window shopped for a while and were heading in the direction of the Harry Potter premiere at Trafalger Square. We had lunch nearby Trafalger, and we were done eating by 4pm, which was perfect timing because that’s when the premiere started. Right when we walked outside, we heard the crowds screaming and were fully immersed in a ton of people. We wandered around for a while trying to find a good spot to see the big TV screen and not be yelled at by security. It took us a while, but we eventually found a good spot considering we didn’t camp out for seven days. We had to deal with crowds pushing at us and light poles and things blocking the screen, but I got a good view of the screen and took pictures of all the stars!! It was amazing seeing Daniel Radcliff, J.K. Rowling, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and everyone else! I can’t believe I was at a Harry Potter premiere, let alone the last Harry Potter premiere ever, and I was in London for it! What a way to end my experience in Europe. I can’t even believe it.

Towards the end of the premiere, me and Hannah stepped on a ledge, so we actually got to see with our own eyes Daniel Radcliff and J.K. Rowling. They were pretty small, but I still got to see them! The screen was plenty big to see everyone clearly and take pictures. Overall it was an amazing experience, and I will remember it the rest of my life. I still can’t believe our luck showing up right on time and getting a good seat when people camped out for seven days! Now I know they got a much better spot, but I am not complaining about where I was with the minimal effort I put into it.

Hannah and I headed back to the hotels afterwards and hung out for a little bit. Wittney then came back, and she talked about Harrod’s, which Hannah wanted to go to the whole time we’ve been here, so we decided to go back into the city and go there. It closed at 9pm, and we left at 8:15pm, so we rushed through the Underground as fast as we could. It was stressful, but we got there at 8:40pm. We had to ask a cute guy working there where to find the Harrod’s Arcade (gift shop) because that is where I wanted to go to get some souvenirs. I had to rush through the store, but I found some cute things. I would have liked to spend more time there, though. The whole area near Harrod’s was full of cute stores, and I wish I had gone shopping there today. When I come back to London, I am definitely going back to that area. It was really pretty and had good shopping!

We then took the Underground back and everything went smoothly until we got to the last stop. We exited the station, and the area didn’t look that familiar but we kept walking anyway. We wandered for a while confused because we were at the right stop, but we took the wrong exit. We had to go back to the Underground station and discovered there was a huge train station within the stop as well, and we had to walk the whole length of it to get to our exit. I had no idea our Underground stop was so big, let alone there was a train station in there!

We were hungry too, and Hannah knew there was a Subway nearby, so, with a heavy heart because I knew it would be closed, we tried to find it. I asked this guy for directions about where Subway was, and I kept saying the Subway restaurant because I knew he was confusing that with the Underground, and then he called it the tube, which I thought was funny. He didn’t know where Subway was, but we found it a minute later and it was open! Thank God! I got a turkey sub, and added corn as one of my toppings, which turned out to be yummy. I wish the USA offered that. I also bought potato chips that looked exactly like Lays, but the brand was Walkers.

We got back to the hotel and ate our glorious meal. We then all packed our suitcase for tomorrow morning and got a scale to weigh them. Apparently my suitcase is 77 lbs., which I refuse to believe. It was 50 lbs. coming here, and there is no way I bought 27 lbs. of stuff. I am just gonna pack it as much as possible, so that my duffel bag is light. The duffel bag is the worst part of my luggage because I can’t wheel it around. I then will redistribute the weight when I get to the airport.

I can’t fathom that I am leaving Europe tomorrow. It is just so sad. I have loved my experience here so much. I always knew it would end, but it seemed so far away, and I just put it out of my mind every time I thought about it. I really am sad. There is no other word to describe how I feel. I have put a lot into this trip, and I never thought about what I was going to do for the rest of the summer after I got back, or my life in general. These past weeks have been a great escape from the real world and all the worries I left behind on May 28, so it just sucks that I have to deal with life again! I am just going to take my life day by day and see where it takes me. I have fallen in love with Europe, and I am going back here…soon preferably. I really want to come back after I graduate to go to school, work, or travel. I don’t care which one as long as it takes me back!

Well my traveling day back to the States was complete hell. I ended up staying for 25 hours, and that is how long it took me to finally get to America and fall asleep in a Charlotte hotel. Let me take you back to the beginning though…

So Wittney and Bryan left the hotel before me and Hannah because Bryan had an earlier flight and Wittney just wanted to get to the airport as soon as possible, so they left around  6:15am-ish I think. I woke up at 5:50am to re-pack my bag and make sure I had ample time to get ready. I decided to pack more into my duffel than I had planned and redistributed the weight at the hotel because I was nervous about my bag being overweight and didn’t want to deal with it at the airport. Hannah and I headed down to breakfast at 6:45am, and I ate way too much. I wanted to take advantage of my last scrumptious breakfast at the hotel and my last European breakfast!

We then went back to our room, got our bags, checked out, and began our journey back home. The Underground was a five minute walk from the hotel, but my arms were already burning pulling my luggage, so we took some breaks. We asked a man under an Assistance booth about what metro ticket we should buy, and he was very nice and helpful and gave us good directions on how to get to Heathrow airport.

Traveling within the Underground was difficult with our luggage. We had to go down escalators, deal with crowds, and deal with getting onto the actual trains. We took an elevator at one point to avoid walking up stairs, which was really handy. At another point, we had to walk down some stairs, and two nice men helped each of us with our heavy bags. I couldn’t believe our luck and how nice people can be; it just really surprised me!

We finally got on the last train to Heathrow and had about a 45 minute ride. We met some people who had been on Africa for several weeks, so they were interesting to talk to. When we got to the airport, we just followed the crowd and eventually found the U.S. Airways counter. I was so nervous about paying an outrageous fee for my overweight bag, but when the lady weighed it, I couldn’t even find where to read the scale, and she didn’t comment on the weight, so I got away with it! I was so excited because I knew my bag was definitely overweight. However when she printed my tickets, she told me my flight to Philadelphia was delayed, and that I would miss my connection to Charlotte; not good news. The flight was delayed from 12:20pm to 2:20pm I think, and that forced my arrival to Charlotte from 7pm to 10:45pm. I was not happy about this, but I wasn’t really thinking about it and was just happy I got another connecting flight.

Hannah and I went through security easily. However, I got randomly selected for a full body scan. I had to step in this machine and lift my arms above my head. I then had to wait for someone to call the security man I was with to confirm my scan was clean. It wasn’t a big deal, but I wish I didn’t have to do it. We then found Wittney, who was waiting for us right outside security. We caught each other up on our mornings, and I then just wanted to go ahead and find our gate, so we could settle down and not deal with our bags. I learned that the Heathrow airport operates differently than airports in America, and is exactly like a train station. You don’t know what gate you will be at until right before you are scheduled to board, which is so inconvenient. We had to wait around in the general area, until 40 minutes before our flight to know where to go. Train stations are the same way, but you never knew until like 15 minutes before your trained left.

So we sat down and waited for a while. I bought a bottle of water and got a free newspaper with it. It had an article about the Harry Potter premiere, which was fun to read, and I kept it if I ever end up making a scrapbook about my European experience. The girls slept for a bit, and I did a Sudoku in the paper to kill time. We then found somewhere to eat and sit down, and I got a hot chocolate and pain au chocolat; had to get one last fix!

I was worried about contacting my mom to let her know about my flight delays. The wifi at the airport wasn’t free; you had to pay £10 for internet access all day, which wasn’t worth it to me. Whenever I turned my computer on, though, my Skype came up and asked if I wanted to link it with the internet, and pay for the internet that way. I already had credit on there because that is what I used to call my family in Europe, so I tried that. It ended up not working, and linking it with the airport internet took away $5, so I only had 11 cents left to call with, and no one answered when  called. I was pretty annoyed about losing $5 of my skype credit because it said it would only cost 19 cents a minute. I then tried a pay phone, but it ate all my coins and didn’t work. I then tried my credit card, and it finally worked, and I ended up leaving a message explaining everything. At 1:30pm we found out which gate we were and headed to it. It took like 15 minutes; the airport was so spread out! You had to have someone check your passport and ticket to even get into the waiting area for the gate, which was different than how America does things. There wasn’t enough seating, so we had to sit on the floor, which was annoying. Of course, our delayed flight wasn’t on time, so we had to wait even more. I don’t even know what time we finally got to board the plane and take off, but we were already pushing into maybe missing our connection, so we were worried.

The plane was really nice, though; A LOT better than the plane to Paris. Me and Hannah had two seats to ourselves, and we got TV screens! Hallelujah! I watched three movies; The Adjustment Bureau, True Grit, and Alice in Wonderland. I have never watched three movies one after the other, but it was good entertainment! You could also play games, watch TV episodes, and track your flight and all sorts of information like how fast you were going and your arrival time. It was nifty. So overall, the flight wasn’t so bad. Watching movies made the time go by very fast. I was ready to get off that plane, though. My back was hurting, and I was worried about missing our connections because we had to go through customs in Philadelphia.

When we got off the plane, we first had to go where they check your passport and ask what you are declaring and all that. I have had to deal with some strict people before, so I was nervous because I didn’t declare the beer I brought over. It went smoothly, though, and he didn’t ask too many questions about the clothes, chocolate, and postcards I declared. We then had to get our checked bags and scan them and go through security, but that wasn’t that bad either. I don’t even know why we had to get our checked luggage. We just did a little scan with it, and handed it back to the people. I feel they could have just done that themselves. I then had to go through another desk and give my declaration form to someone, and she didn’t even glance at it and let me through. Overall, customs was really lax. That was nice, but kind of worrying to me if you think about it. Oh well.

We had a long walk to our terminal and gate, but we made it. It was nice to go straight to our gate, instead of waiting around before they tell you where to go. I was hungry for dinner, so I got a philly cheese steak sandwich; gotta take advantage of being in philly! It was really yummy! I only ate half to save the other half for the plane ride. While eating though, we learn our flight was delayed until 11pm meaning we wouldn’t get to Charlotte until 1am. Ahhh oh my god, I was so frustrated at this point. The weather in Philly was bad, so I think that was the problem. They told us to go to another gate at one point, so we all had to move. We waited for a while there not really knowing what was going on.

 Meanwhile, a lot of flights near Charlotte were getting canceled, so we were worried our flight would be canceled. I slept on the floor for a little bit because all the chairs had bars, so you couldn’t lay down. We then had to move gates again! This gate was so full that we had to sit on the main airport walkway for a while. We just waited, waited, and waited not knowing if our flight would be canceled or not. We finally got  a seat in the gate, and I finished my sandwich. Around 11:30pm, all the sudden, they tell us to start boarding. I was so tired and out of it at this point that I didn’t really have any emotion about this other than I couldn’t wait to sleep on the plane.

And that’s what I did: sleep. I slept on and off the whole ride. When I woke up the first time, it was absolutely freezing, so I couldn’t ever really go to sleep again. It was really cold and miserable. I only had a light sweater and no other layers, so I just curled up as much I could and half slept. We finally landed at 1:15am and headed to the baggage claim. Hannah’s dad was waiting for her right when we walked in, and I had to call my mom to learn she was just waiting in the car outside. We waited for our bags for a while, and they finally came. It was hard saying goodbye to Hannah. I cried. I had been with her since day one and we had traveled together every weekend, so it was hard to finally say bye to her. I think all my emotions about everything surfaced to in that final goodbye. I was just glad to finally be in Charlotte and, at the same time, really sad that I wasn’t in Europe anymore and that my study abroad was over.

I walked outside and found my mom’s car immediately. I was still crying when I finally got to hug her and see her for the first time. I was pretty much dazed about everything. I loaded the car, and we drove five minutes to the hotel. We were in a really nice hotel, and the bed was sooo comfy and soft! I thought I would pass out immediately, but it took me a while to fall asleep, which surprised me a lot. I went to bed around 2:30am, and for some unknown reason, I woke up at 7am and couldn’t go back to sleep. I have no idea how my body is dealing with no sleep for 25 hours and then sleeping for less than five. My sleep schedule is pretty messed up, so I hope I can make it right tonight and go to bed at a normal hour. I can’t believe it took 25 hours to get back yesterday. I just can’t. It didn’t even feel like it took 25 hours.

Well that is my story about getting back to America. I still have to drive three hours to get to Cashiers, and then I will finally be home. I am so sad right now. It is sad that this is my last blog entry. I don’t want to stop writing because that means my experience really is over, and I have no more stories about yet another day in Europe. I know I will go through culture shock being here; I think I already am. The first thing is I hate our money system here. Europe has the right idea having 1 and 2 dollar coins; it makes so much more sense and is so convenient. Our bills here our ugly compared to the Pounds and Euros too. The driving everywhere will suck too. I miss the metro already. It is so convenient, easy, and affordable to use. I think I just like big cities. Everything is so compact and close; it just makes things easier.

Ahh I am rambling too much. I just need to stop writing and finally let go and have closure. I have written this entry over the past few days, and it is now Sunday, so I have been home for a full day. I am slowly getting used to my new life here, but I am still missing France too much. I have made wonderful friends though and looking forward to seeing them soon is the only thing that is not putting me over the edge in sadness. Also, the prospect of once again returning to France is helping me deal with everything. As I said before, I WILL come back. I am making damn sure of that. Hopefully, after I graduate, I will return for a year…or two or three! Thank you all for reading my blog, and I will be sure to create a new one when I return to Europe. I love you all!

London Calling

Today was a big day full of surprises in London. When we finally got our act together and left the hotel, we went to the London Eye to buy combo tickets to that and the London Dungeon (I’ll explain that later). After buying the tickets, we went to check out the Harry Potter 7 premiere! I looked it up online and learned that people could start getting wristbands for it starting at 10am. We showed up around then, and not surprisingly the line was crazy long. We got a spot in line, and then I decided to get some information from a security guard. He said some people had been camping out for seven days (they weren’t allowed to have tents- dedicated fans right there), and that around 7,000 wristbands would be given out. He said we didn’t have a good chance to get in given where we were in line. There was a big TV screen, so we decided to leave and plan on getting as close as possible without the wristband, so we can see the screen. As long as I can see that, I will be happy. Hope it works out. I know it is a long shot, but it is worth a try. I am not willing to spend my little time here camping out.

We went back to the London Eye to find our other friend, and luckily we found her waiting in line already, so we jumped in line. Apparently, we cut a big portion of the line without  knowing, and while someone was telling us this another guy came up to us offering us to go to the Fast Track Lane and another rotation on the wheel for free. We thought it was a scam, but he assured us it wasn’t, so we went with him and became VIP’s! We wore these green ID necklaces, and we got to use the Fast Track lane, which barely anyone was in. We eventually found our other friend, and she got to join our VIP epicness. We then got to skip people in the Fast Track lane and loaded up on the eye. We then learned we got to do whatever on the first rotation around and then we would participate in a survey the second rotation. I am so glad I paid for the London Eye. It offered an amazing view of the city! It was awesome I got to ride another time too. I definitely got my money’s worth! The capsule we were in had Ipads with information on the skyline you saw, and that’s what we were interviewed about the next rotation around. They are thinking about adding these Ipads on all the capsules.

We then had lunch nearby at a really good restaurant called The Slug and the Lettuce. I had cottage pie, which was similar to shepherd’s pie, and it was only £5.95, which I thought was a good deal. We then took a bus to the London Dungeon. Now I wasn’t very excited about this from the beginning, but I tagged along because everyone else wanted to go. I should have listened to my instincts! The London Dungeon was this horror haunted house ride experience thing. We waited outside for probably an hour and a half to get in, and once we were inside, we had to wait even more. It basically was this corny try to scare you thing where you walked around inside these chambers and you have to wait every time to hear the actors and the story. It had three rides, which were so LAME and stupid. I think we were inside doing everything for like two hours. It was wayyy too long, drawn out, and boring. The last ride was scary because it was a drop down thing, which I don’t like those rides at all. Luckily it wasn’t very tall, but it scared me enough. The ride took a picture of all of us going down, and it is absolutely hilarious. I can’t wait for Hannah to those pictures up on facebook.

I treated myself to a Magnum ice cream bar after the aweful experience, and then we split up. I wanted to go to Platform 9 and ¾, and Hannah wanted to go to Harrod’s. We went to take the metro, and it was freaking 4 pounds. Way too expensive. The Paris metro cost under two euro, so we were pissed. We decided to try a bus instead, but that didn’t work, so we had to resort to use the metro. We just took the metro back to our stop and saw the Westminister Abbey. We randomly ran into our other people, and went to eat dinner at the same restaurant as lunch because it was so good and right by our hotel. It also had 2-4-1 drinks, which we wanted to take advantage of. However, that deal was only on weekends unfortunately. I still had a good meal anyway. We then went back to the hotel and went to the steam room to relax. I am now in bed resting. Excited to have one more day and head home the next!

My London London Bridge Wanna Go Down

I am finally in London! I have been busy since getting here Monday night. The train ride went smoothly, and it went way too quickly; it was only an hour and a half. It was a hassle dealing with all my luggage, but we took a bus to the train station, which made things easier. I think because I could brace myself for the pain my luggage would be, it wasn’t as bad as when I arrived in Paris. There was also a time change getting to London, so we arrived in 30 minutes technically. We took a cab to our hotel, and it turned out to be very cheap; $15 total divided by 4. The cab driver was really nice, and we somehow managed to fit all of our luggage and 4 people in to the cab semi-comfortably. We got to our hotel, and it is SO NICE! Completely luxurious compared to what I have slept in this whole trip. We have a waterfall shower, two big, fluffy beds, modern architecture, and two TV’s. We also get an amazing continental breakfast each morning, and I eat way too much. The hotel is in a prime location too…right by the London Eye.

Yesterday we did a boat tour first thing, although, we had to walk to the company’s office to get tickets with our vouchers, which was a little annoying. Once we were on the boat it was fun. I saw Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, London Bridge, and so many more things that I can’t remember. We then did a bus tour and saw lots of things including where Daniel Radcliff went to school! I am was excited to see that. We also saw Buckingham Palace. Compared to Versaille, the palace seemed not as grand, but I am glad I saw it for sure.

The bus tour then completely sucked. We were trying to get in the blue line, and after three hours, we never managed to get on it. We were on buses for like three hours not really knowing where we were going. I just wanted to fall asleep because I was exhausted for some reason. It started raining eventually, and we just sat in Starbucks for a while and then we went to the M&M museum. That was a lot of fun! It was four stories full of M&M memorabilia. We then headed back to the hotel, and I pretty much just fell asleep. Everyone else went to dinner, but I decided to stay in and sleep because I wasn’t hungry, and I was just really tired.

I think this entire trip finally caught up to me yesterday because I was exhausted. Not gonna lie, I want to go home now. I think it is because I am not in Lille, where I feel at home and I know how to get around. Here, I have no basis for where I am, and that really bothers me. I don’t feel connected or attached to London because I never really know where I am, and I have discovered that is really important to me when I travel. I still am enjoying London, though, and I am happy to be here. For me, it just doesn’t compare to Paris. Paris seems a lot older, and the city appeals to me more. London mixes modern architecture and historic architecture, which is really pretty, but I fell in love with the cute, old buildings of Paris with the balconies and flowers and all.

I am dreading Friday traveling home to the States. It is just going to be an extremely long day, and I am going to crash so hard when I finally get to the hotel in Charlotte with my mom.

4th of July in France

Last night the remainder of the group saw movie. At first I didn’t want to go because I wanted to have enough time to pack, but I got convinced. We were going to see Transformers, but the group decided to see Minuit à Paris instead because it was cheaper since it wasn’t in 3D. I wasn’t very thrilled to see a movie that I knew nothing about because I knew Transformers would have been good, but I went a long anyway. I was wrong about the movie, though. It turned out to be really good! It was the perfect movie to see for us because it was set in Paris, so I recognized all the scenery. It brought back a lot of good memories seeing Paris on the movie screen, and I loved remembering everything. Aside from the setting, it was a good story too. I recommend it!

After the movie, some people went to Pizza Hut and out for the night, but I wanted to get back early. I was on edge about packing. I was so worried I wouldn’t be able to fit everything in my bags, so I just wanted to get back to my room and figure everything out. Fortunately, I got everything to fit in my suitcase and duffel bag! I don’t even really need my backpack, so I am very excited about that. I went to bed early (around midnight) to get a full night’s rest.

Today I met up with Bryan at 9:30am to walk to the train station to go ahead and print our train tickets, so I would have one less thing to worry about tonight when we leave for London. Our station was Lille Europe instead of the usual station we go to, Lille Flanders. When we got there, we had to find where Eurostar (our train company) was to get out tickets. After walking around and turning around many times, we find where to go. We get to the counter, and they ask for our passports. I had mine, but Bryan didn’t, so when he tried to follow me they got all pissed off and wouldn’t let him in. I tried to tell the people in limited French and English about how I wanted to print my ticket for my train tonight, and they led me to another guy at the counter. He motioned for me to fill out this form, and when I am halfway done, we knocks on his window for me to go up to him. I hadn’t filled out the address of where I am staying in London, and he gets all pissy asking me how I don’t know where I am going in London since my train is in five minutes. I then explain my train is tonight, and then he tells someone else and he takes my paper with my train code on it and walks away. I wait about ten minutes, and he eventually tells me vaguely to print my tickets somewhere else. I had just wasted a bunch of time doing nothing. We told the people we wanted to print our tickets, not board a train!

We then found where we were actually supposed to go to print our tickets, and waited in line 15 minutes and painlessly printed them out once we got to the counter. Oh well, traveling is never a smooth process. I hope tonight goes well though. At least I experienced all those without my heavy luggage!

I then split up from Bryan and went shopping on my own. I was slightly nervous to be alone, but I had a pleasant time walking around doing my own thing going where I wanted to go. I bought two skirts and a shirt from H&M, a skirt from a store called Cool Cat, and then some pretty sandals. I got a tuna baguette and a pastry for four euro for lunch too. I had a good shopping day. I can’t believe it took me so long to finally go shopping for myself. I have sporadically shopped around, but it has never been a relaxing experience like today. I was on a mission for some cute, grey tennis shoes, but they don’t ever have my size! My feet are too big here; it is annoying haha.

I walked back to the dorm and randomly found Hannah and hung out with her, Rebecca, Bryan, and Wittney for a bit. I am now in my room packed and ready to go pretty much. I am going outside soon to take pics of La Catho and the dorm…my last memories here. It is weird to leave Lille. I wonder if I will ever come back. It is so sad to leave and not know if I will ever come back here! It hasn’t really hit me though. I have travelled so much, and I always come back to Lille again, but this time I won’t. This thought puts me in a blehhh mood. At least I am going to London. London will be an amazing and beautiful city like Paris. I am sure I will fall in love with it. I just can’t believe Europe is drawing to a close for me. I knew it would end, but this went by way too fast. I wished I studied abroad for a semester! I really regret that. I am looking into grad schools, though. Ideally, it would be nice to find an internship or even a real job over here after I graduate. That’s the dream at least.

Oh and Happy 4th of July! It is weird being somewhere where no one cares what day is today. I look forward to celebrating this day in London tonight!

Last Days in Lille...

My last French class was ok. We watched a French movie with French subtitles, but I understood most of it, which was surprising. We then had the closing ceremony and got to watch a presentation full of pictures, which was entertaining. I then had a free afternoon and didn’t know what to do with myself. The boys were doing a cookout, so I just hung out outside all afternoon. The hotdogs were pretty yummy! Hannah, Claire, Stephan, and I went to a Chinese restaurant on Sulferino for dinner, and I got beef, green peppers, and rice. It was pretty good. I tried ordering a une carafe d’eau and the waitress just gave me a weird look, so I had to buy a bottle of water. Later on, I saw two girls with a carafe d’eau, which pissed me off. I don’t know why I couldn’t get one. I then tried to take my bottle of water with me out of the restaurant, and they wouldn’t let me. Complete bs. I was pissed abut that too.

Later that night we were pre-drinking an ended up in my room. My neighbor, who hasn’t been there for weeks, was getting pissed at us for being loud. She knocked on my door three seconds after we got to my room and later on banged on the while for us to shut-up. There were only like five people in my room, and we were only there for like 45 minutes. It was a Friday night, so I don’t understand what her problem was! She left a note on my door and Claire’s door the next day. Claire didn’t even go out that night, so I don’t know why she got a note too! The note said, “Please would you STOP making noise tonight. I’m working for exams which are this week. Would you respect the persons who sleep and their tranquility.” This girl has been gone for three weeks, and now she comes back for exams? I don’t believe her. Someone in my program that their French neighbor said exams were over weeks ago, so the whole situation just makes me mad. I don’t like living in the nerdy dorm.

Anyway we went to Latina when we went out that night, and it was fun. It was my first time going there, but I am glad I did. It was something different. I just danced as always. After that we drunkenly got some food from a stand outside, and me and Hannah split a hamburger. I don’t eat hamburgers, so I don’t know why I ate it. Oh well, it was pretty good.

The next day I got to sleep in! I took advantage of it and woke up at like 12:30. It was so nice. I think that is my first time sleeping in here! It turned out to be a bad idea though because when we went to go out to lunch at 2:30pm all the restaurants were closed. We were in pretty bad moods because we wasted a lot of time wandering around trying to find somewhere to eat. We ran into other people and they said there were food stands at the park, so we headed there. After eating, we went to the zoo. I love the zoo. I like that is free; that’s one good thing about France! Later on we cooked out again and had a family dinner. Me and Claire bought hotdogs, frozen veggies that were really good, and Magnum chocolate ice cream bars. I had an excellent meal! I liked eating together too; we really are a family.

We all went out again. It was some of our group’s last night, so that was my excuse to go out for the 4^th day in a row. I wanted to go to Smile, but we never made it unfortunately. We just went to Latina and 7^th Heaven. The night was ok. I wasn’t expecting my last night in Lille to be what it was, but I had fun with everyone.

I woke up at 11am today and went to the market with Pranj. She was leaving at 1pm for her train, so we went there for like 30 minutes. I just wanted to go one last time. I bought some cheetah print pants and this eye shadow compact for one euro! I then said my goodbyes to some of our group, which was really sad and depressing. I love everyone soooo much! Hannah and I then ate sushi in Vieux Lille and walked around downtown to shop, but all the stores were closed. We will go shopping tomorrow! I got a waffle with nutella and whipped cream, and after holding it 5 seconds, half of my whipped cream falls off. I was a little angry at that haha. I am now gonna go layout an read my book, and just enjoy this nice, summery day outside. We are having a chill night tonight, and I am perfectly ok with that. I have to pack today, so sad to say. Ahhh I can’t believe I am leaving. It hasn’t sunk in. I WILL come back to France one day. That’s the only thing I can say to make leaving this place easier.

Finally Done

I am officially done with classes! That is really nice to say. I had three tests on Wednesday and a presentation on Thursday. So far, I know I made an A- on my French test, and I made a B on my French Literature test. I just hope I end up making A’s in both of my classes, so we will see. Today we had a closing ceremony, so I am also officially done with the European Summer Program, which is sad and nice to say at the same time. I felt like my classes dragged me down this summer, so I am looking forward to my last week in Europe stress free from classes.

Last night, we had a farewell dinner at L’Omnia restaurant. It was one of the better meals of the trip. The restaurant itself had a cool layout, and it used to be a brothel. I had a really good salad with goat cheese and bread, beef stew and fries, and then tiramisu. I have never had tiramisu, but it was really yummy! They also gave each table some rose wine to start with, a few bottles of red wine, and I then had a beer. Overall I had a good meal!

We started early and celebrated class ending last night, and it was a lot of fun! We left the dorm pretty late last night at like 12am to start our night. We first went to La Plage, but we heard they were charging people to get in, so I followed people to Vieux Lille. There was a particular bar they wanted to go to, and Vieux Lille is made up of a maze of streets, so I am surprised we did end up finding it. It was some random and pretty empty bar, but we ended up having a blast anyway and stayed the whole night until we went home. I had this drink made up of beer and orange liquor, and it was really good. At one point someone had found this stuffed animal rabbit and called him Wittle Wabbit. It was probably full of diseases but we were all drunk and in love with it. Eventually someone threw him up on a balcony and we were all pretty emotional and upset. I got attached to that thing!

I am looking forward to spending my weekend in Lille. This is the first weekend that I am not traveling somewhere, so I can relax and do all the things in Lille that I haven’t gotten around too. I want to go to Vieux Lille tomorrow to the Notre Dame, and this coffee shop that is supposed to have a good view of the city. I also want to do some shopping this weekend; France has this month long sale, so I want to take advantage of that. I get to sleep in tomorrow too! I have only been able to do that like once since I have been there, so I am extremely excited for that. I hated waking up at 7:30am every day.

Well not much else has happened this week since I have been tied up studying for my exams. This weekend should be an eventful one, though!

One Hell of a Weekend

I thoroughly enjoyed Marseille, France. The trip was absolutely perfect and everything I expected, although we got to a rough start…

We had a girl’s night the night before, which was a bad idea knowing you had a 6:45am train to catch the next morning. I disregarded this because we said we would be back by a decent hour, but, of course, this didn’t happen. We went to La Plage for a bit, and then me and a few girls left and headed to the dance club, Smile. I had a good night full of dancing. I think I got back around 3am and headed straight for bed.

The next morning, while half asleep, I hear my phone ringing, but I didn’t comprehend that it was ringing. On the third call to me, I finally wake up and answer the phone. It was Rebecca asking if I was awake and ready to leave for the station and that she had been banging on Hannah’s door to no avail to wake up. I realize it is 6am, and we had planned to leave then, so I threw on some clothes and got my already (thankfully) packed bag and ran upstairs. I find Rebecca in Hannah’s room, and she is scrambling to pack as well. We leave ten minutes later and start fast walking to the station. It was, of course, drizzling and miserable outside. We half run and walk as fast as possible to the station. We got pretty spread apart, me in the lead, and I was worried we wouldn’t all stay together. At point we are running and these French guys start yelling and encouraging (maybe?) us, and I just ignored them slightly embarrassed. We were pushing the time pretty bad, so when we finally got to the station, I just ran up the escalator leaving Hannah behind with Rebecca close by. I quickly figure out what line our train is on and run towards it to find we have two minutes to get on. I quickly get on and look for Rebecca and Hannah. Rebecca comes down, but she doesn’t know where Hannah is, so we scramble to find her yelling her name, but to no avail. We are freaking out because we don’t want to miss the train, but at the same time we don’t want to leave Hannah. I was worried we would miss the train, so we finally hop on board hoping Hannah made it on somehow. Finally the doors close and the train starts moving, and we sit down at the first seat we can find, and finally everything sets in: Hannah isn’t with us, and we don’t know where she is.

Me and Rebecca were freaking out and gasping for air not knowing what to do. We eventually figure out we need to be in voiture 18, and we were in like voiture 2, so we start heading down the train. I ask a man in some uniform how to get to 18 and he singles and speaks a little English that there are two trains, so we have to get off at the next stop and run ahead to get on the other one because the entire train isn’t connected. At the first stop, we do as we are told and start running for the train ahead, but we didn’t know how long it would be stopped, so we got on the same train we were already on because we didn’t want to stay outside for too long. At the next stop we start running for the next train again, and this conductor guys starts yelling at me, but I ignore him hopping onto the train with Rebecca behind me. He catches Rebecca and I hesitate to turn around, but I do, and he motions for our tickets. He gives is this awful and annoyed look, and I knew he would start yelling in French at us, and I just couldn’t take it. However, he leads us to the snack stand, and I give him all three of our tickets (I had Hannah and Rebecca’s tickets ( Lesson learned to never do that again), and he asks about Hannah. I say she missed the train, and then I tell him we are Loretta and Rebecca. He then gets on his cell phone and starts writing down information about a new train for Hannah, and explains all this to us with the help of a snack stand lady who spoke English.

I am pretty much dumbfounded at this point because this man was pissed at us one minute and then gets a train for Hannah the next minute. We thank him, and finally find our seats utterly exhausted. I call Bryan and Wittney and ask them if they have seen Hannah, and they hadn’t, but I tell them to relay the message about her new train. Hannah calls me on Wittney’s phone a few minutes later an explains her side of the story. She told me that she had got to our train with a few minutes to spare and ran on, but a guy pulled her arm and asked for her ticket. She didn’t have it because I did, and he wouldn’t let her on. She told them her friends had it, but he didn’t believe her. She had to watch the train leave her behind, which must have been completely awful. She said she then threw a huge fit and cried asking for help on what to do, and the guy was a complete asshole and was just laughing and being no help. She said she eventually got help from a man named Philip, who figured everything out for her. She went with him to the train operating room, and they got her a train.

We think the man who found us knew that there were a group of girls who had been split up, and he must have guessed it was me and Rebecca and that’s how he arranged a train so quickly because the train station already knew about the situation. Anyway, Hannah got a train that landed three hours after ours, so we made plans to come get her at the Marseille train station when she got in.

After we had figured everything out, me and Rebecca could finally relax and enjoy the train ride. I just dozed, read, and listened to music the whole way. The ride was very beautiful, and I enjoyed seeing the countryside of France. By 12:30pm, we got to Marseille, and it felt so warm and nice right when we walked out. We walked through the train station, which was pretty and it had trees inside it! I thought that was cool. When we exited the train station, we were up on a hill, so we were above the city. The view was gorgeous. I could see the mountains in the background, some of the city, and this really pretty building up on one of the mountains. We walked down a lot of stairs and were finally in the city. I had written down directions to the hotel, and we figured out how to get there pretty easily. It turns out our hotel was like a 10 minute walk from the station, and I had no idea it would be so close. We stayed at the Hotel Lutetia, which was a nice hotel. Our room had one double bed and a bathroom, and the bed turned out to be extremely comfortable.

After we checked in, our mission was to find food, so we explored the city a little bit and found the main strip to the harbor. We walked up and down it, and eventually found a sandwich place and I got a poulet baguette, which yummy. We then walked to the harbor, and I was trying to find a beach just to look at it. We start walking down this road for probably a mile, and then we turn around because we didn’t really know how long it would take. We decided to head to a tourism office, and I got a free map and directions on how to take the bus to the beach. It was time to go get Hannah at that point, so we headed back to the station and met up with her. We caught up on our crazy mornings and apologized for everything that had happened. We took Hannah to the hotel (which was a little sketch since there were only supposed to be two people in our room), and then head to the beach with the directions we got earlier.

The bus ride was relatively easy. We had done some research on beaches in Marseille and knew la Plage du Prado was the best, so our goal was to find that somehow. We eventually did find it and got off the right bus stop. The beach was in a park, so we crossed over some grassy fields and then found the beach! It didn’t have sand, but instead little, smooth pebbles. I hate sand, so I really liked the pebbles. We got there around 5pm, so we decided to stay until the sun went down. The water was a really pretty aqua greenish color, but it was also a little colder than expected. We didn’t get fully into the ocean until the next day since we weren’t very hot with the setting sun.

We had a few experiences with guys approaching us on the beach. The first guy was dressed up in a Superman costume, wearing bunny ears, and had whiskers painted on his face. He starts talking in French to us kneeling down, and we eventually tell him we speak English. He then tells us he is getting married in three weeks, so he was doing this scavenger hunt type thing , which I guess was a part of his bachelor party. He needed to get a girl to put lipstick on and kiss him on the cheek. We told him we only had chap stick, but he said that was good enough. Rebecca and Hannah volunteered me to do it, so I got to kiss a French guy in a Superman suit! He was cute, so I didn’t mind haha. We then had some awkward guy kneel down to us and start talking in French to himself. I just started laughing because it was so awkward because we weren’t saying anything. Hannah eventually asks what he wants, and we got him to go away. We then had these two French guys approach us and they were excited we spoke English. They were trying to get us to stay in Marseille longer and hang out with them, but we eventually got them to go away too.

At this point we left the beach. I was getting a little sketched out. We saw more beaches and a Ferris wheel in the distance, so we headed over there. We found a cool part of the neighborhood with restaurants and sandy beaches. We decided to ride the Ferris wheel to take some pictures of the beautiful scenery, and I enjoyed that. The area was so pretty. My favorite part were the mountains in the background. I just thought it was cool to have beautiful ocean right next to the mountains. We then took the bus back to Vieux Port (the harbor) and then walked home. We went out again for dinner and got some pizza, and we then called it a night and headed home for bed. I had a good night’s sleep in that bed! It was so comfortable even piling three girls in there!

We headed back to the beach with the Ferris wheel the next morning, and laid out for a while. We got in the water this time, and it was pretty cold, but me and Hannah just dove in. I wanted to say I have swam in the Mediterranean! The water was so cold that my feet went numb, so I took a quick dip and went to lay in the sun again. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant, and I had a quesadilla with salmon and cream cheese. I have never heard of that before, but I enjoyed it. We went back to the pebble beach, and by the time we got out there it was mid-afternoon, so it was extremely hot. We ended up sitting in the water most of the time, so we could cool down. By the time it was 3:30pm, we had to leave, so we could have enough time to catch the train at 5pm. Our journey back to the station went smoothly. I got some postcards and dinner for later along the way.

Boarding the train went smoothly as well. I was thankful to take my time loading onto the train with Hannah. It was nice not been stressed out and running around! Our train ride went well too. I relaxed, dozed, listened to music, and read again. However, at one point there were these two French guys being very loud and obnoxious and drinking beer behind us. They were making farting noises and laughing hysterically. We went to the snack bar to get dinner with Hannah and were gone for 45 minutes. I headed back to our seats before the other girls to get some sweat pants, and the lady sitting with us starts talking in French to me. I said I spoke English and then she hands me a small piece of paper with phone numbers on it. I first thought the train station was trying to contact me about something because of all that had happened yesterday. I then realize it’s the numbers of those guys behind us. I run back to Rebecca and Hannah and tell them what happened. I didn’t really know what to think, except really? How many guys have bombarded us this trip? We go back to our seats a few minutes later, and we have a broken conversation with the French lady. She asks where we study and what we study, and I managed to say a few things to her! I was proud. At one point, we didn’t understand what she was saying, and one of the guys translated for us. This gave him an excuse to start talking to us, and he said he had been to L.A. and Vegas, and he showed us random videos of it. We had a little conversation, but we eventually go back to talk amongst ourselves. The guys then start being extremely obnoxious and loud again. After a while, we all just leave and find new seats in a new voiture. After that, our ride was uneventful. We get to Lille at 10:40pm, and I expected it to be cold when we got outside, but it was actually pleasant and warm. We took the metro back, which was a nice and easy ride. I wish we had been using the metro more instead of on our last week! We made it home safely, and I pretty much unpacked and went to bed.

Now it is Monday and I am on my lunch break. The weather is gorgeous today, and it is so nice to have this weather in Lille! I absolutely love it, and it puts me in a good mood!

Now back to the previous week. We went out Thursday night to le Network, which was an awesome club! It cost 7 euro to get in, but I really liked going somewhere other than Smile for once. I hope I can go back sometime this weekend. It was bigger than Smile, and had a stage with really steep stairs, so it was scary walking up and down them. I had lost my group for a few hours and was worried I would have to go home alone, but I eventually found Bryan and was so happy to know I didn’t get left behind. We all walked back at some early morning hour. I woke up for my alarm the next day, but decided to skip class. We are allowed to miss two classes, so I just decided screw it, I am sleeping in! I had a relaxing morning of pure nothing and took a nice, long shower. I loved having the morning to myself. I am always so rushed here and busy! We didn’t have an afternoon class, so I pretty much got the whole day off, which was nice. We then went out the night, which really was a bad idea considering what happened with the train. This weekend has been an experience, though! I always knew I would learn a lot about traveling while in France, and this past weekend proves that point.

Another random thing I want to mention. I went to a Modern Art Museum on Thursday afternoon in place of my French Arts class. I really don’t like museums, but I really enjoyed this one. The museum was in the suburbs of Lille, so I loved seeing a different part of town. It also had an outside portion with sculptures, so we just sat on a bench outside along the river some of the time in the nice, warm sun. It was a very pleasant experience overall. We then had a workshop where we made artwork, and I felt like I was in elementary school again. It was a lot of fun actually.

I am so sad this is my last week in Lille. I have three tests and a presentation, but once Thursday afternoon rolls around, I am going to live it up and have an amazing last weekend in Lille!! I then am off to London for the last part of my European adventure!