I pretty much think that I have become a terrible traveler since I’ve come to Europe. Firstly, I contributed to missing a flight from London to Paris a few weeks ago (a 45-minute flight, mind you) by 4 hours because I was silly enough not to verify the exact departure time. Now, I am sitting in Paris Orly airport waiting for a flight to Rome after contributing to missing Ricky’s and my earlier flight all because we just assumed it left out of Charles de Gaulle and didn’t even consider the fact that there is another airport in Paris.
Now, we are sitting here on the floor waiting for a flight to Rome that is delayed because of non-existent “snow”. I’m getting angry calls from our hotel in Rome asking when we’re coming, my paper is glaring at me to write, and it’s already 6:50 pm. Awesome. Sometimes, this traveling-thing just gets old. I’ve never appreciated staying in the same place as much as I do now.
Update: Flight to Rome was canceled due to the “snow”, so Easyjet put us in a hotel and we left the next morning (my birthday). *Sigh*
So, since that depressing last entry, I haven’t updated you guys on my last three weeks of travel. I spent one weekend in Bourgogne, the region in central France known in English as Burgundy where the vineyards and caves of wine are abundant. I was there with my good buddy Haley and a tour group of mostly international students. We had a ton of fun exploring little medieval villages like Vézelay, Chablis, and Fontaney as well as spending a full day following little owl markers in Dijon to see all the best sites in the city. The towns were so medieval and provincial that I wanted to sing Beauty and the Beast all the time. I also became obsessed with Taylor Swift that weekend, so all in all a great trip!
Weekend after that was spent with the lovely Ariel as we finally got ourselves to London. Sooooo much fun! It was an incredibly busy weekend, and we were running from site to site like ol’ Londoners. We saw the Tower, the London Eye, had tea and scones, ate at Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant, had amazing Indian food, rocked the Tube, went to the Tate Modern, saw Bloodbrothers in the West End, went to the Globe, visited Westminster Abbey, and a bunch of other little things along the way. It was an exhausting but awesome weekend…let’s just forget about our night spent in Heathrow.
And finally, Ricky, my Uncle Tony, and Susanne just visited me for their Thanksgiving breaks. It was so nice to see bits of home here in my French world, but now that they are all gone and I have 2 major papers, a few small ones, and 2 finals all within the next 2 weeks, I’m slightly bummed out. It’s just so overwhelming to write essays in the French-style (not to mention writing them all in acceptable French grammar!). I feel like I need my tutor’s help at every single step. It is for this reason mostly that I’m writing my blog entry…anything to avoid looking at my paper documents and books. If I could just do all my research in English, that would be a big help, but it’s hard to find books about Parisian boulangeries not in French. Ok, I have to stop being negative and just get through this…only 17 more days til I am in sunny Punta Cana! Ahhh…
The past ten days have been super busy with travel and visitors! As I already said, Ricky came to Europe, and we met in Copenhagen to stay with his Aunt and her family. It was such a nice little break to be with a warm, welcoming family. The Danish have a word which symbolizes this warm feeling of comfort called heugli. In a place that gets dark at this time of year around 4 pm, one really needs to find places to keep the joy alive throughout the dark winter months. For us, this was a warm house with a cozy fire, great food, fantastic people, and a Wii. Nothing better!
Ricky and I then came back to Paris for the week so that I could attend my classes and he could see the city. We did a lot of sightseeing (and hanging around my school), saw HP7 (!!!), and got to visit my Uncle and Susanne on Thursday for a fabulous 2nd dinner after a Thanksgiving dinner with my friends here. It was so cool that we made a whole T-giving meal by ourselves. So proud of everyone! Ali made the turkey, and the rest of us contributed to mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, salad, bread, wine, apple tart, cake and ice cream, and pumpkin pie. It was such a feast and so wonderful to spend it with my little “family” here in France. We all felt so grown up making it ourselves. Bizarre.
And lastly, Ricky and I finally made it to Rome (read above for travel issues in between) to see the sights and eat up the pasta for his last weekend in Europe. Rome was so interesting to me because in a way it felt like I was in Florida. The buildings were colorful, there were palm trees, and the weather was a ton warmer than Paris. Though we got stuck in a few downpours, we had a wonderful time! Gelato was consumed as a meal, so therefore nothing could be bad about Italy.
I was supposed to head on my final trip this weekend to Edinburgh to visit Tom, my friend who studied abroad at Penn last year, but due to major snowstorms in Scotland, it’s been canceled by Easyjet. Oh well. Though it would’ve been super fun, it’s fine that I get one extra weekend in Paris. I only have 2 weekends left to go, so it’ll be nice to spend it with my friends (more likely in the library writing my papers).
I can’t believe the semester is almost over. It’s been long but a lot of fun at the same time. Reflections on the experience are to come later as this entry is already quite long. Sorry if it’s been confusing, but I wrote it in sections from airports, hotels, and home. Enjoy the pictures!
