Montpellier & London!

Alright, big couple of weeks down and another one to go! March has absolutely flown by and I don't know that I've actually had a free weekend in a while. School and my social life have been in full motion. Since my last post I've been to Montpellier with Cyril which was AWESOME. The ONLY complaint that I have is that I hardly spent any time in that city dry. It rained the entire time, heavily and that is why in almost all of my pictures I look like I just stepped out of the shower with my clothes on. That aside though, it was really an amazing city and I had the best tour guide who took me to a pretty wonderful fondue restaurant where my age was put into question as seen in the photo- I was shown around the city and taken to a few parties too, and that was awesome. It's always better being shown around a town by someone who actually lives there rather than relying on a map.

This past weekend I went to London to see Meg. This is ridiculous, but one of the most exciting parts about the actual traveling itself was the fact that I finally got my passport stamped by someone. I've wanted my passport stamped for so long! I say the actual traveling because most of my journey was dealing with the public transportation system. From France I had to take a train to Lyon, a shuttle to the airport, a plane to London, a train to Meg, and then the underground to her place. I'm starting to miss the simplicity of having a car. I got there pretty late at night so I just crashed as soon as we got back to her place and then started the adventures the next morning with one of the highlights: WIMBLEDON TOUR! Being a huge tennis fan, this landed itself in the top ten of my "favorite things I did in Europe" list, right next to Roland Garros. The only thing that could have made that better (only two things, actually) would be if 1) my Dad was there, because next to me he's the only one I know that would have appreciated it and 2) if the actual tournament was going on and I had someone scored insanely impossible to get tickets to center court. After that tour, Meg showed me around town a bit and then we had some St. Patty's day festivities that night. I had a fantastic time seeing her. I hit all the big things, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, and Buckingham Palace. God save the queen.

One thing I definitely noticed about this past weekend is how weird it is to hear everyone speaking English again. I actually experienced a little culture shock because I'm just so used to hearing people speak French. I would order something in English and feel wrong because I felt like they couldn't understand the language I was speaking. Coming back to America is probably going to be a lot like that, so go ahead and expect me to be confused and start my sentences with "Je voudrais".

And I mentioned that getting there took a lot of transportation, but I should comment just a bit on getting back. I took a bus to the airport, a plane back to Lyon, and that's where I got stuck. There were no more trains or buses going back to Chambéry that night and I ended up sleeping in the airport again. It was the same airport that Michael Gunther and I slept in before going to Rome and I even had my old sleeping spot on the bench. No matter how long you lay on those benches, they never EVER get warm and I now know by heart the 2 messages that play over the intercom in five minute intervals...in both languages. It took me 14 hours to get back home, but it was worth it.


Up next weekend I have a nice weekend in Paris. I'm going to a Boxer Rebellion concert on Friday which I'm really excited about and spending the whole time with fellow MC-er Shaina Arp. It should be really great, but I think after that I'm going to cool it on the traveling a bit. My wallet and my energy will greatly benefit from it.

Oh, and I just did my first presentation in French in France. It was a nightmare, I did horribly, but I passed. I hate presentations!