Vacations That Change Your Life: Day 2

Saturday: Fortunately, I was able to sleep fairly well during the night. I got myself up around 7a to re-pack my things and then it was time to tackle the next phase of Operation Short-Out Samantha's Nervous System: Paris. My second train did not conveniently leave from the same station I arrived in. No, of course not; that's too easy! The station I needed to be at was across the Seine river and was far enough away that some people prefer to take the Métro to get there. Oh great.... I'm in the most touristed city in the world, by myself, so early that it's still dark out, and I might have to take the Métro? You gotta be kidding me. Christine had recommended I walk to the station, that it was very simple but I had no idea where I was. So when I got off the train I went up to the first conductor I could find and asked where Gare de Lyon was. The way she described it, it sounded simple. I had 45 minutes until my next train was going to leave so I decided to gather my courage and do the walk.
It was very cold and foggy outside but I must say, crossing the Seine in Paris, or really just being IN Paris for 15 minutes can truly excite the senses. I suddenly remembered that I was going on a ridiculously cool vacation and I started to perk up a little. I did end up finding the station with no problems- there were signs leading me all the way there. I had a little trouble finding my platform but once there, I realized I still had 20 minutes to kill. So what did I do? Ha ha haa I bought a "mega" Pain au Chocolat of course! It was not my favorite breakfast in the world but the food itself was incredible; definitely worth the 2.50 euros. I was able to board my train soon after that and I realized why my ticket was so expensive: I had been put in first class. Mon Dieu...
I decided to suck it up and I tried to get myself over the traumas of yesterday evening. I found an empty chair in first class and settled into this very comfy spot to enjoy my yummy Parisian pastry. I had been fooled into thinking my bad luck was gone, but no worries, I was reminded of its continued existence in no time at all. Within five minutes a guy came up to me to say I had taken his seat. He had the ticket to prove it so I had to leave. The problem with buying a ticket (like I had to) so close to a train's departure is you are often just given permission to ride and no place on the train. That was me. I spent the next hour and a half sitting on the filthy stairs outside of the train's bathroom waiting for a conductor to come around and give me a sit. I eventually gave up, thinking they weren't going to bother checking tickets and I just went back into the compartment to look for a free seat. There was a very nice Bob Marley-looking guy who told me that the seat next to him was free so I sat there. Well, it turns out that it was sort of free- it was actually his friends' seat but his friend kept getting up so he told me I could sit there. When the friend wanted his seat, we just crammed the three of us into two. The guy who offered me the seat is Joseph Kemgang- a semi-celebrity from Paris. He and his friends were on their way to their next wheelchair basketball match. I noticed pretty quickly that they were all handicapped in some way. Joseph and two other guys were in wheelchairs, one was missing from his left elbow down, another had a cane, etc. I guess they are members of the Parisian wheelchair basketball team but I didn't know who these guys all were until they were leaving. I had been sitting next to very nice Parisian sports stars for five hours and I didn't even know it! Wow. Joseph was really cool too; I had wanted to write in my journal during the 6 hour train ride but he wouldn't let me- he talked and talked and talked... and only in French! It was difficult to communicate at times but I got through it. He was very down-to-earth and talked a lot about the importance of communicating with other people. He mentioned once, "Do you remember earlier when you were sitting over there writing, and I was over here texting. We're sitting right next to each other and we aren't going to pass the time talking? We can't just talk because we're strangers? That's a problem; I think people should talk to each other. People only talk to strangers when they have a problem they need help fixing. French people say 'Bonjour' and 'Pardon' and that's it! What's wrong with talking to people?" Of course, that's not exactly how he said it but that was his point. They got off the train about a half an hour before my stop so I had time to think over the past few hours. And I remember thinking that this was kind of a weird experience, but is probably something I'll never forget. I can picture it now: "You remember that time you were taking a train from Paris to Nice and you sat next to the handicapped wheelchair basketball star and he told you that people should talk to each other? Good times."
When I got off of the train in Nice, I felt soooo much better. What a g o r g e o u s city! The sun was brilliant, the ocean was sparkling, and I was on my way to Rome. Wowzers. I walked from the train station to the beach to meet up with my group and once there, took some great pictures of the coastline. We seven were all reunited in no time and then it was time for lunch. We found a great Italian place that was still making pizzas for the day and we sat down to three large, incredible pizzas. I'm a little sad to say that I was so hungry I forgot to take pictures of the pizzas before we ate them. But I guess it's okay, because they had to have been really good for ME to forget to take pictures. :) After lunch, I bought a creamy coffee and then we got ourselves strapped in and ready for the walk to the bus stop. While waiting for our bus we saw floats coming down the street in celebration of Le Carnival. I actually can't really explain to you what carnivale is because I don't know much about it myself. But it's going on until March 8th so hopefully I'll figure it out soon.

Welcome to Nice!

I just love that these seagulls flew by right then :)

A shot of the parade.... the floats and balloons were sea creatures

The bus took us all the way to Terminal 2- our terminal. We got there about 2 and a half hours before departure so we took our time eating leftover snacks and drinking water bottles; all the things we would have to throw away before security. We crammed our day bags and purses into our suitcases (Easy Jet only allows one single carry-on per person) and then we got in the security line to just "get it over with." I had thought my bad luck might be gone at this point, but it isn't so. In fact, it wouldn't leave me until I left the country. In security, my toothpaste, make-up remover cream, and my facial moisturizer all got chucked in the trash. After that lovely episode, we got in line to show our boarding passes and I was told my bag was too big. I tried desperately to shove things in my pockets to make it fit in that stupid metal square, but it was to no avail... I had to pay the 36 euros to check it. I asked if I could have my things back since my bag was being checked anyways but no, that's not possible. Needless to say, I think my eye was twitching, my neck tweaking and I was shaking all over when I sat down on the plane. That's right: I had gone crazyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!! :)

Roshanna captured this gem of a photo almost immediately after I sat down in my seat from my security fiascos. So I guess this is my "I've completely lost touch with sanity" face. I told her afterwards that it might also be my "Hi there, I'm going to kill you now" face.

I decided that if I had any chance of getting rid of my bad luck before vacation really started, it had to happen then, on the plane. I was frustrated and beaten down to the point of tears but I absolutely refused to let things take that turn. So I took a giant breath and forced all of my focus and all of my energy into letting everything go. I tried to let the stress flow out of my limbs through my fingertips and toes, and I immediately threw away or ignored every negative thought that entered my mind, no matter how small. I used the hour and a half flight to Rome to flip through my travel book and write down all of the things I wanted to see in Italy. It was a great distraction. By the time Rome came into view through our little plane windows, I was feeling so much better. A little numb, in a way, but much better. I was at that point where if you asked me if I was happy I would have said, "absolutely!" but it would have been in a defiant way. Like I was completely ignoring and paying no mind to anything negative. If you told me that your dog had just died I might have said, "that's too bad" and walked away. But hey, it was better than being the wrecking ball of stress I had been before.
Once in ROME (omg we were in Rome!!) we waited a good 15 minutes for my suitcase then found Allie's friend Ricardo. Allie was going to be staying with Ricardo for most of the week and it was so great that he met her at the airport, because he was able to find us a cheap taxi to our hostel. The taxi ride was rather interesting. Actually, it was more like that Mulholland Madness ride in Disney's California Adventure. Italians drive just the way you would expect them to- the way that makes you want to just close your eyes until it's over. However, I chose to keep my eyes open for this whirlwind adventure to see a little bit of the city. The streets were beautiful; chock-full of little cafés, pizzerias, ristorantes, and chic boutiques. And it was like this for about 20 minutes. We were just driving along, admiring Rome. And as we were, something really strange and very big popped out in front of us. It was gone in an instant but it was burned in our minds as soon as we saw it. And I couldn't believe how close we got to it...

Recognize this? If not, there are about 100 pictures of it in the daylight coming your way ;)

After this dazzling discovery, I knew my bad luck had been left in the dust. I was in Rome... glorious Roma! It was time to check in to our hostel, enjoy my first Italian meal freaking IN Italy, and relax. And so I did! When we got to the hostel we received some bad news: the six of us were spread out all over the place for the first night. There were three of us in the same room but the other three were going to be singles in rooms for four. It was only the first night that would be like that but no one was really happy about it. Except for me; I couldn't be bothered! Anyways, we paid for our rooms, got it all settled who would be where (I was in the room with the two others), dropped off our things, and went... to... DINNER. There was a cute ristorante/pizzeria just on the corner of our street and it had a great (and cheap) menu, so it was an easy decision to eat there. It was nearly impossible to choose what I wanted for my first meal in Italy and I don't remember how I did. All I can do now is show you the pictures and let you have your own little moment over there. ;)

My totally mouth-watering shrimp and artichoke pasta tossed in a buttery, flavorful sauce!

My dessert: You guessed it buddy- that's a freaking Cannoli right there!

So happy at this point :)

Loving life and living it up!

We were pretty exhausted by the time dinner was done so we headed back to the hostel for bed. I made my bed, got myself already and pretty much crashed. We were lucky to have met our two roommates before bed, too. They seemed perfectly nice (and normal) so it was easy to sleep with them in the room. Although my pillow was hard as a rock, everything else was in order and I was drained enough to sleep through the night. Tomorrow: the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and more!

Vacations That Change Your Life: Day 1

Friday: I can't express to you how I wish I could report on every facet of my trip as being truly fantastic, but alas, honesty really is the best policy and it is just not so that the rest of my friday was any kind of good...
I'm going to call it a bad case of terrible luck, and it started right after I said bye to Roshanna. Like I said before, we were enjoying the sunshine and feeling so excited about vacation, so this buzz was able to push me through the troubles of the next few hours. First of all, I was in a hurry. I had no more than 6 hours to go back to the house, finish my package, take the bus all the way back to the post office, pray that my box would be accepted, go all the way back to the house, turn over all of my laundry, take a shower, look up the carry-on regulations for our first airline, begin packing, talk to my family on Skype for as long as possible, eat dinner, print our airline tickets, and finish any of my blog that might be possible. Phew! I didn't feel too too stressed about it because 6 hours seemed to be a reasonable amount of time for all of this, but this lack of stress caused me to dawdle to my bus and I missed it. I spent (wasted) the next 45 minutes walking to other bus stops that I believed my line stopped at but I was wrong about each one. I could have walked home in that amount of time but for whatever reason (*clears throat* BAD LUCK) I stuck around to wait for the bus. Once at the house, I hurried up to my room and got to work on finishing my package. Naturally, I wasn't able to get very far because one of my friends called me at that exact moment and said something to the effect of, "we still need to book our hostels for the last two nights in Italy, and since I'm right here at my computer, you're out of class, and I have you on the line let's just get it done now." Really? REALLY?! I sat with her on the phone for at least 15 minutes and eventually she hung up with me to make reservations. Christine got back to the house around this time and was able to help me finish the box. She lent me a big shopping back to carry the sucker and I sped-walked to my bus after that. I made it to the post office 14 minutes before it closed, took the box up to the window, handed it over, and crossed my fingers like no tomorrow. Thankfully, the lady there took my box, stamped it, and taped it shut. It was done! I couldn't believe it! It was three days later than I wanted it to be, but it was done! I was able to breathe a little after this but was still a little on-edge if it would actually make it to my family without being damaged or rummaged through. Oh well, I had to get going... there were far too many things that still needed to get done and I had lost way too much time with this box!
I got back to the house and that feeling of "something bad is going to happen soon" or maybe it was "I'm not sure that I'm going to make it" started to kick in. I just ignored it and started flying around the house like a mad person. I flipped all of my laundry over and of course, it wasn't even close to being dry. I got all of my things ready for the shower and naturally, Lionel wanted to casually show me all of the remodeling progress in their bedroom at the same time. I eventually wiggled my way out of that and took an insanely fast shower. I got into my room, turned on Skype, and waited for my mom to log on. I figured out the carry-on restrictions for my suitcase and started packing. I have no idea how I managed to fit everything that I fit into my suitcase but it was miraculous. It was also a curse in disguise, though, because that bag was definitely too big to be a carry-on.
I was able to talk to my mom a little while I packed and I told her all of my stresses. I was too in-the-moment for her to be able to fully calm me down but it did help talking to her. I eventually had to say bye, though, because I was done packing and had no more than an hour before my train left... and I still hadn't been called down for dinner! I went down stairs and Lionel helped me print out our boarding passes. Then, Christine came out with- not dinner- our apéritif that was to be enjoyed with Muscatel by the fire. Reality struck me like one teeny-tiny lightening bolt after another as I sat on the couch trying to enjoy my biscuits topped with fish eggs and my wine: something really bad was really going to happen this evening. I gently reminded the family that my train was leaving in 45 minutes and they got the message. Christine designated chunks of minutes to the rest of the evening: 5 minutes for soup, 10 for the main course, 5 minutes to load the car, etc. If only we were able to stick to this schedule....
After our very rushed dinner of a seafood soup, bread with pâté, and spinach salad, I had my last yogurt and raspberry dessert for the week and I ran upstairs to brush my teeth. I took one last look around my room after that, grabbed my suitcase, and made a dash for the car. I shouted a quick goodbye to Lionel and then Christine drove Guilhem and I to the gare like a mad woman. While on the way, my friend Allie called me to see where I was. Fortunately she said the train was running 10 minutes late; perfect! I would be there in no time! But tragically, the schedule changed while she was on the phone with me and the train was slotted as being on time. Basically, we were blocks away from a train that was going to leave in exactly 2 minutes. I frantically asked my friends to do whatever they could to stall the train and then hung up and hoped for the best. I was barely able to shout goodbye to Christine and Guilhem when we got to the station; I just grabbed my suitcase and ran. When I got to the platform I saw a lovely sight: my train passing in front of me, no less than 15 inches from my face. I had missed it...


Everything slowed down after that. I realized I had been a tense ball of stress and negative energy for the past 5 hours because after I set my bag down and took a deep breath, I felt like I had just been rescued from an avalanche. Guilhem walked out after that and asked me if that train, the one that was now way down the tracks, was mine. Yes; yes it was. He and Christine had also come to the station to pick up Emma who was coming home for the weekend. Christine was furious that my train couldn't wait one extra minute for me. In her words, "they are often an hour and a half late. They couldn't wait one minute?!" We finally saw Emma and then Christine spent a good half hour trying to get me another train to Nice. The only problem was, that was the last direct train for the night. My only option was to buy a rather expensive ticket to Paris, wake up and take another train from Paris to Nice at 7:30a, and arrive in Nice around 1p. Whatever; it had to be done at this point.
*How ya doin' so far? Not too stressed for me yet? Good; it gets better!*
While in the process of waiting for my new train ticket, I had an absolutely catastrophic realization: I had left my passport at the house. Friends, I cannot describe to you the guilt and horror I felt at having to tell this God-awful thing to Christine, this woman who had been nothing short of indescribably generous and kind to me for the past two months. A woman who was spending her evening in a cold train station with a student she wasn't contracted to even care about. But it had to be done, and I did it. She didn't yell, sigh, or even roll her eyes. I think she just went from being in Intense Mom Mode to Maniac Mom Mode. She turned to Guilhem and Emma and told them to hurry up, I had forgotten my passport at the house and we had to hurry. We flew back to the house, I ran inside, found my passport, ran downstairs, thanked as best I could everyone in the house, flew to the car, and we raced back to the station. I apologized profusely to Christine on the way, of course, and then we were there. We lucked out with that because there were only 10 minutes until the train left. While on the platform, I saw two other girls from USAC- the same two who we ran into in San Sebastián. It was a merciful blessing to run into them right then because I was losing my sanity at this point. When it was time to board, Christine walked me to my compartment, helped me buy my ticket for a sleeper car, and then we said goodbye. It's a curious thing- after all of this stress and after all of these events that seemed so catastrophic, Christine got choked up saying goodbye to me. She gave me more of a hug than she ever has before (usually it's the familiar kiss on each cheek) and I stood in the doorway to wave as we pulled out. Once I had my bed, I realized that things might turn a little bit around: I had a room to myself for the night and I had felt a really special connection with Christine at the station. Plus, she had told me when I boarded, "it's all over now. Let it go and just enjoy yourself." Did I not owe it to her to take her advice?

Week 7

Friday: I woke up early again today to hang up the rest of my laundry, but I was really just determined to make it down to breakfast with plenty of extra time to ask Christine and/or Lionel how to fill out my packing forms. Finally my strategy worked! I got all of my laundry hung, had time to ask Christine what I needed to do next in the shipping process, and was able to enjoy a nearly half-hour-long breakfast. It was a great start to the day and things actually continued to get better in when class started. I really stepped up my participation efforts today and asked tons of questions throughout the day. It was the friday right before vacation so nearly half of the class didn't show up at all today; but this ended up working in our favor because we were able to focus on only one or two big topics and take them very slowly. I felt so sure about myself after class and got a lot of clarification on things that I hadn't realized I was confused about. After lunch, class continued to get better when Isabelle- our teacher- handed out the transcript to a simple poem that was full of blanks. A British guy in our class, Liam, and I were assigned to silently acting out the poem so others could try to fill in all of the blanks. We spent the rest of the day rotating pairs so that everyone had a chance to get up and embarrass themselves. Being that there were only 7 of us, it was a no-pressure, really fun kind of day. When our time was finally up, we were let loose for vacation! Roshanna and I walked outside to an absolutely gorgeous, warm, sunny day and I could almost feel my skin tingling with the excitement of where we were heading.... ITALY!!