HI/BONJOUR
I'm here...alive and well. I hope no one was worried. Between all the traveling i've been doing (i'll get to that in a little) and the fact that I haven't had internet in my house (which i will also get to) it's been difficult to post! every time i've had access to internet i've had to spend it cramming in all of my homework and getting done all of my emailing!
Since i started classes almost a month ago i've been traveling almost every weekend!
weekend 1: LONDON
my first trip out of france was to the lovely city of london where i met up with 11 of my friends from wake forest. all of the events of the trip point to it being the worst days of my life.
a) because of the strikes in europe i had to be crammed on a train where i had no seat to get to paris. once in paris i had to take an 80E taxi ride to the airport bc the metros were all shut down, and it took me 2 hours. once i landed in london it was another two hours to get to the bus station in central london, where we (i was traveling with my friend lis) missed the last tube train, and had to get ANOTHER taxi to our friends apartment...which was on a street the taxi driver didnt know.
b) our second night out in london we were traveling home from dinner/pub and my wallet got stolen...containing...my amex, my drivers license, my french debit card, and my university ID. cool.
c) when trying to get the bus to the airport on sunday morning, lis and i got completely lost, no one knew where the bus was coming, and to top it all of it was atrociously expensive.
d) once in Paris, i found out that my train to dijon had been cancelled and instead of the 4 hours i thought i had to get to the train station i only had 2. I had to haul it through a disgusting airport/metro/RER area (sneaking through obviously, i had no money) and finally made it on the train just as it was leaving.
that all being said...it was one of the best weekends ever. it was SO nice to see another country and be toured around by my best friends, and it felt like we were all back at wake together for a little while!
weekend 2: PARIS
doesn't seem so exciting right? i've been to paris, i know paris, but THIS WEEKEND, all of my friends who I had met in London, came to Paris! traveling was so easy (thank the Lord) and lis and i got to spend the weekend being the tour guide and translating for my friends! it was so nice. we took a boat tour down the seine, walked throughout the gardens and by all the monuments, and had a really nice weekend.
weekend 3: DIJON
I was going to go to barcelona for halloween but....thank you ONCE AGAIN French strikes....the plans fell through--which actually turned out for the best! most of my friends were here this weekend and it is the school vacation for all the kids so most of our host families were away for the week. we all got together and made dinner for eachother, watched hocus pocus over pasta and wine, had sleepovers, and even went out to a bar with all the canadians we have class with! after traveling for two weekends straight it has been really really nice to just relax and sleep in and recoop in the dirty dij.
next weekend...i'm jetting off again to FLORENCE (i'll be sure to update after that one)
now that i FINALLY have wifi at my house i'm feeling very happy and not as cut off from the world (although I did just get two new crossword books)
I can't even believe that in 10 days it will only be A MONTH until i come home...and my family will be here in three weeks from this upcoming wednesday! This is all going way too fast, but i'd be lying if i said i wasn't a little excited to get back to the states, and to my loved ones!
Love you all I promise to write again soon!
Caro
