Dear Prune

Dear Prune,

 

So I am here in the Copenhagen airport, about to take my last plane back to San Francisco. A lot of people know that I am on my way home right now and I think a lot of them are worried for me because I had to say goodbye to you. Everyone knows how much you mean to me, I think, or at least they all have an idea. I would always take little videos of you to put on snapchat and after just a month of posting these videos, a good chunk of Northern California had fallen in love with you hahah. I think my friends will miss seeing these videos, and I know I will sure miss taking them.

 

But the whole “missing you” thing is the obvious part, and I wanted to write something about the less obvious things I feel upon moving back to the US and not seeing you every day. One of my hardest feelings to deal with right now is the feeling that I will be missing out on the experience of watching you grow up. I was only with you for ten months, but during those ten months, I watched you loose your first tooth and have your first crazy birthday party. I taught you how to braid and understand English and somewhere along the way you even learned how to use the swings at the playground all by yourself! Watching you grow up is one of the most beautiful things I have ever got to experience, and it kinda kills me that you are going to do so much more growing up and I will have to watch from so far away.

 

Of course, all of these feelings are there in the first place because I love you so much hahaha and how lucky I am to have developed such a close relationship with you in such a short amount of time! You really have become my little sister, and definitely my best five-year-old friend in the world hahah. :)

 

Oh, Prunette. I am crying here in the airport just thinking about everything you have done for me without even realizing it. You have forced me to be patient and taught me many simple ways to be more generous and kind, and for that I could not thank you enough. 

 

You are five years old and you can’t even read in French yet, but I am writing this directly to you because I really believe that someday you will grow up and speak perfect English, and when that day comes you will be able to appreciate this. I promise to remember lots of hilarious stories about cute and sassy things you said to me during this year and all the adventures we had together. I will never forget how much I love you, and you will always be welcome in whatever home I am living in. I think you will grow up and do great things someday, but I want to let you know that at the age of five, you have already done something incredible: you’ve made me feel at home. You have given me enough hugs and kisses to make any other au pair jealous, and you have changed me by making my ability to love even stronger. :)

 

I la-la-love you, Tiny. 

 

Love, 

Sally 

 

The Last Parisian Chapter

About 10 months ago, I was sitting in the Scandanavian Airlines section of an airport bawling my eyes out because I felt heart broken and lonely and weak and exhausted. I was about to embark on my second year abroad, and knowing that millions of other young people would kill for the opportunity I had been presented with, I decided to write the cheeriest blog post I could and focus on the positive feelings I felt; the ones I wanted to remember. 

But the thing is, I remember all of the sadness. I remember trying to surpress my sad feelings because I knew they would pass, but not being able to. I remember arriving in Paris and not unpacking the first three days because THAT is how badly I wanted to go home. I felt I had made a mistake; I had moved around too quickly and I simply wasn’t strong enough to think positively. 

In the begginning of my year in Paris, I did a lot of sugar-coating in my blog posts because I knew complaining wouldn’t make me feel better. If I ever wrote that I was having a bit of a hard time, I can assure you whatever was happening was twice as hard for me as I made it seem in writing. I am not a liar, but I do tend to trick myself into thinking that I can think my way out of my feelings hahaha. 

Why am I telling you this? Well. At this very moment I happen to be sitting in the Scandanavian Airlines section of an airport, tearing up because I feel full of love and happy and hopeful. In the last two days I have said goodbye to people who have become as close as family to me in the past 10 months and whom I will miss dearly. But this time, the strong emotions I have upon leaving and the difficult goodbyes I have had to say have not left me feeling week. I feel strong, actually! I feel like I have gotten through a year that has really tested my spirits and doing so has allowed me to grow and change and see the world in brand new ways. You know, all the stuff they said would happen hahaha. 

 I am about to start a very long and very interesting voyage back home, which involves going from Paris to Oslo, Oslo to Copenhagen, and then finally taking the big flight from Copenhagen to San Francisco! Not the most efficient route (by any means) and all of this will take over 24 hours, but it was the cheapest option! So I am content. 

Also! These past two days have been weird and filled with bitter-sweet goodbyes, but they have been super fun too! 

(I just found out that my flight is delayed until midnight… Hahahah. It is 10pm and everyone is PISSED. Except me hahah. I had a 7 hour lay-over anyways!)

On Tuesday, I met up with my remaining au pair friends for a goodbye picnic. There were five of us in total: Jess, Marlene, Camila, Chloe, and me! We met up at Parc Monceau and spent some lovely last hours lying in the grass together and telling stories and laughing. The weather was wonderful and we brought along grapes and cakes and sandwiches to enjoy. I was happy to spend my last full day in Paris doing some light picnicking because I think that is one thing that Parisians certainly do best!

 

Before heading off to work, we grabbed one last coffee together! My last over-priced Parisian espresso! We sipped our espressos outside on those little woven chairs, too. So perfect! 

When it was time to say goodbye, the goodbyes didn’t feel real. Especially with Jess. I adore my other au pair friends, but I have to say that Jess has had the biggest impact on me and my time in France. She is the longest and most steady au pair friend I have had, and not seeing her every few days will be so strange. I know I will see Cool Tough Jess again, whether it be in Canada or California or somewhere in between, but saying goodbye still felt super weird and annoyingly early. It didn’t even occur to me while we were in the park that it was a goodbye picnic until the end when we were all hugging! Hahaha. I love all of those girls. I love Chloe’s sense of humor and Marlene’s ability to wonder and I don’t really know Camila that well but she is half chilean and comes from SF so OF COURSE she is awesome!

Later that day at the park after school, I spent my last little bit of time with Anastazja. We had our own little picnic of raw coconut bits and strawberries, and I brought some candy to give to Chloe and Maxime and Prune. Once again, it didn’t feel like the last day. Anastazja and I spoke about casual things as we munched on our summery snacks, and when it was time to leave I almost just called out “Bon! A demain!” 

Chloe and Maxime were sad that I was leaving and they gave me goodbye hugs. Prunette ran around giving everyone goodbye hugs too, clearly misinterpreting the situation hahah. Anastazja began to cry as we hugged goodbye and passed me a letter she had written for me. Seeing her cry like that, just because I was leaving, made me wish that I could cry too because I wanted to show her that I felt the same way, but my tears never seem to fall at the right moments. I told her this, and she said she was happy for me because she knew I had missed home all year, but that I was part of her every day life and now I just wouldn’t be there anymore and that she would miss me a lot. I wished she could read my mind and understand that some days, she was the only reason I stayed in France. 

That evening, after dinner, I decided to give Prune the little polka-dotted stone rock that I had been holding for her as a goodbye present. I told her that it was a magic rock that she had to take verryyyyy good care of. I held out my arm and showed her how the rock held some of my freckles in it, and that I had put them there just for her. I told her that the rock would be there if she was ever sad or lonely or if she ever missed me, and that all she had to do to make it work was hold it and hug a pillow, and that the rock would make her heart happier! 

It was all fun and games until two minutes later, I found her on the couch, holding the rock and hugging a pillow. I asked her why she was doing that, and she told me that she missed me already. I didn’t want her to see me cry, so just sort of took some deep breaths and carried on with the night time routine. Cecile arrived soon after that! We watched a little bit of a movie together, had some dinner, and then I went in my room and stayed up very late packing. 

While I was packing, I ran into Anastazja’s letter and couldn’t help but open it. About half way through I was reading through tears, but when I got to the last sentence I began bawling. She complimented my progress in French (which all due to her and Cecile, really), talked about the freindship we had created, and even drew me a picture at the end of our park family. What really hit me was how beautifully she wrote in French, and how full of meaning all the little simple sentences she wrote were. I sent her messages as I cried after reading her letter and before going to bed. I couldn’t believe I wouldn’t see her for awhile after that and I hated that we had to say goodbye. A week before I had felt like I would be in Paris forever, and in that moment it felt like I wasn’t supposed to leave!

This morning I woke up to Prune’s little footsteps running around upstairs. We had a pretty normal Wednesday morning! We had breakfast together, got dressed, and then walked to her gym class. It was sunny and warm and I let her ride her scooter all the way there! While Prune was at her gym class, I sat outside with my Spanish au pair friend, Sandra, and we read quietly together. We would have talked (she is like my only Spanish practice and a fantastic conversationalist) but I really wanted to finish Cecile’s book before leaving! I ended up being able to finish it by the time the class was over, and when it was time to leave all the moms wished me luck in life and Sandra gave me a big hug goodbye! I am SO visiting her someday! :D

When we got home, Prune took a big nap and I began to do my last little bit of packing before cleaning the heck out of my bedroom. Throughout the year, I cleaned my room at least once a week, but I wanted to make it spotless for my departure. I wanted Cecile to have never seen the room that clean! When Cecile got home later, she said it was soooo impressively clean and that I didn’t have to do that! But I felt good about it. That family had been so good to me, and I wanted to give my final best back. 

Fred’s parents arrived a little bit later. I had tea with Marie and she enjoyed some of the sand castle cake I had made and said it was delicious. :) Cecile and Prune had gone to Prune’s horse backriding lesson and I had stayed home to let the grandparents into the house and it was nice to get to see them one last time.

When everyone was home and it was time to say goodbye, I went around to hug everyone and Cecile started crying and I was shocked. Cecile is someone that I still don’t know where to put into my mind, because she is so fierce yet so kind and so focused and so creative and so critical and so loving all at once. And she cried because she would miss me! ME! I really didn’t see that coming and I hugged her and wished I could cry with her. I told her I would definitely cry on the airplane, and she said she understood. She handed me photos she had printed out of me and the family and even gave me a cute little purse and told me that we now having matching purses! She told me she had been cryng all day whenever she thought of me leaving, and I was overwhelmed with the pride of meaning so much to her. 

Saying goodbye to Prune was a quick and simple. We hugged goodbye and she kissed me on the cheek and I kissed her on the cheek and then I got into the car with Fred. I had been saying goodbye to Prune for the past week, and there was nothing more I could do in that little last moment. I left letters for both Prune and Cecile/Fred at the house and hoped the letters would do a good enough job of explaining how much I adore that family. 

 

Fred and I left for the airport pretty early just in case there was traffic, and there wasn’t hahaha. We arrived about two hours before my flight would leave, but I was happy because that meant there was lots of times for problems to happen and be fixed! Fred helped me all the way he could. When we stopped at the baggage drop, I asked the lady how much it would be to check another bag, and she said it would be 91 Euros! Seeing that I looked a littel discouraged, she advised me to simply pay for one overweight bag so it would be 40 Euros instead! I was thrilled to hear that, and I happily began rearranging my bags in the middle of the airport. This sight must have made her happy, because afterwards when I went to pay she said it was free for me! :D I love people!!!!!! Fred walked me as far as he could, and then offered to buy me dinner since we had so much time. But I was so ready to just sit down and start blogging and I really wasn’t hungry and I knew he probably wanted to get home to his parents and Cecile and Prune, so we said goodbye and I took off to my gate! 

And here I have been, for about three hours now, just blogging away and waiting for my plane! While I have been writing I have eaten a sandwich and some carrots that I packed and I even helped translate for some paramedics who were helping and English man who wasn’t feeling to well and didn’t speak any French! So I have been having a pretty good time at this airport hahaha. My plane will leave in about 45 minutes, so that is cool. 

I might do some blogging tomorrow morning while I am waiting for my last plane in Copenhagen! Until then, I hope you enjoyed the last chapter of my Parisian adventure and that you won’t miss my blogging too much when I get back to a normal life in the States. :D

One Dernier Voyage to Belgica

I really can't believe that this will be my last full-week blog post for my time spent in Europe. It is Monday morning and I am leaving Wednesday night. That means I have only a little over two days left in France! As I write this, I am on a train from Brussels heading back to Paris. I haven't slept much this past week because I have been trying to do so many things, so I am pretty exhausted hahah. This past week has been entertaining and interesting and I have felt so many happy feelings, but everything I've felt has had this somewhat numb undertone that I think is my mind's way of hiding sadness. I'm just trying to prepare for the great change that will be moving home, but I am failing hahah. I don't know how I will feel when I get back and I don't know what I will miss here, and since I am so exhausted I don't have the energy to cling on to all the things around me that I think I might miss next week. Changing countries is a strange thing to do, and this will be my fourth BIG country-changing plane ride in the last three years. I think the best thing I can do is be grateful to have the heart to feel all these feelings and know they come from a good place. Feeling conflicted about leaving means that I have allowed something to matter to me and in doing so, found another way to connect myself to this universe! That HAS to be a good thing. 

So, what did I do my last full week in Europe? 

You already know that I got back from London last Monday after taking a night bus and I was prettyyyy tired. I didn't do much for the rest of that day other than work and try not to fall asleep! 

On Tuesday, something very exciting for me happened. Cecile has been writing a chapter book for 10 year olds over the last nine years and this last week she asked me to do the honor of reading through it and doing some editing. I cannot stress how much this meant to me! CECILE, the brilliant mother/osteopath of Asnieres wanted ME to help edit her story! It is a little over 200 pages long, in French, and incredibly creative. She basically studied Icelandic mythology for 6 years and then decided to write a little novel that would intertwine a lot of the well known characters into one story for children that would both educate and entertain them. And OH MY GOODNESS, it is SO good! Like really Cecile, can you be a little less perfect? You are already brilliant and gorgeous so do you really HAVE to be creative, too? 

I am serious, people. Her book is amazing. The characters are so vivid and there are so many secrets that you have to keep reading to uncover and AHHH it's just too good. When it gets published and then turned into a movie, I am going to force everyone I know to learn French and then buy it and enjoy it as much as I did. :D

The other cool thing that happened on Tuesday was that while I was walking through Paris and running some errands, I ran right into Jess! So I guess Paris really is home now if I run into people I know in public, right? And Jess was showing some of her Canadian friends around and I got to meet them and they were lovely! 

On Wednesday I went grocery shopping with Cecile after work to get all the cake making/decorating supplies for the cake I would make on Friday for a competition at Prune's school. It took us quite awhile to find everything but it was kinda nice spending a Wednesday afternoon with Cecile and Prune because I hadn't done that in awhile. 

On Thursday I met up at my blogging cafe with my Iranian friend, Moein, to say goodbye before he moved to Grenoble. As we drank coffee, he tried to teach me some nursery rhymes in Persian which was very fun hahaha. It was a relatively painless goodbye because over the year we didn't get many chances to meet up, but I know I will see him again someday! He has promised to show me Iran someday and I am pretty excited about that! 

So Friday was the cake making day. The plan was to make a sandcastle cake for a competition at Prune's school. I literally spent six hours alone in the kitchen making that cake hahaha and by the end of those six hours I was soooo tired and it was time to go to work. At the park, Anastazja laughed a lot at how tired I was and I laughed with her because I was so punch drunk. I brought a table cloth to the park and did a little resting while Prune played. It was a beautiful sunny day and you could really feel the Friday-ness of it all. That night before going to sleep, Prunette helped me do a little packing. As I sifted through what I wanted to bring home and what I would donate, Prune picked out a couple things she wanted to keep. I don't know how to blog about how I feel about leaving Prune so I am not going to talk about it. 

But gosh, I love her. 

It could have been wayyyyy prettier hahaha.

On Saturday morning, I got up super early to take  a 7am bus to Brussels for one last European adventure! I arrived in Belgium about noon where Michael was waiting at my bus stop. Together we took a train and a bus for about an hour and a half before we arrived in his hometown! Christophe and Michael had planned the whole weekend and decided not to tell me any of their plans. I told them that was fine as long as it was calm, and they really did an A+ job! 

The first thing we did when we arrived in Hasselt was go back to Michael's place to meet his mom, her boyfriend, and their dog. Walking into their house, was like walking into hundreds of different countries and cities and cultures all at once! I was amazed by all the decorations that were just obviously soaked with the memories of years worth of exploring. Michael's mom had made soup for us and she had even prepared a special vegetarian soup just for me! That, in itself, was incredibly thoughtful, but the soup was also so delicious! As we ate our soup, we talked and I got to get to know Michael's family a bit. His mom's boyfriend, Jo, works for NATO in Germany during the week and comes back to Belgium on the weekends. He speaks flawless English, likes to be healthy, and is a good talker! Michael's mom was less confident about her English, but that was silly because she spoke it so well too. She impressed me with her openness when speaking about the places she had been. I really liked talking to them as a family and hearing what interesting things they had do say!

After the soup, Michael and I left to take his dog on a walk through the nearby forest. It was an absolutely beautiful place to take a walk in, even if it was filled with mud and Mosquitos hahaha! After walking the dog we stopped by Michael's grandma's house to meet his grandma and her boyfriend. At her house, we ate some cake and drank coffees together, and I was surprised that I could actually follow some of their conversation on Dutch! I definitely don't speak Dutch and probably never will, but there are some words that are similar to English, Spanish, and French and that really aided me in being able to guess the context of their conversations! I loved meeting this other part of his family and listening to their language, which I find beautiful. 

Not long after that, we headed back to Michael's house to meet up with Christophe, who had ridden his bike across the little city to hang out with us. Michael and I got out some bikes to ride with Christophe and we took off so I could see the "few interesting things" that there are to see in their home city. We bikes through the center, and I got to see the oldest building on their city. We went up to the top of the tallest building and from above they pointed out where things were. It wasn't a huge impressive city. It wasn't Paris or London or Budapest but it was a small little city in Flanders and I had never been there before and it's where they had grown up and I didn't want to be anywhere else! I was so content to just be hanging out with them and seeing where they came from, I didn't really care what we did. 

After getting another coffee, we went to meet up with Michael's parents for dinner. His family had chosen to eat at the only vegetarian restaurant in town for my visit! It was so understanding and thoughtful of them and everything on the menu looked delicious. While we waited for our food, they brought out little appetizer shots of soup and I took a picture because they were so cute hahah. We all talked and laughed as we enjoyed a delicious dinner together, which was followed by an equally delicious dessert! Michael convinced me to get the dessert that was a combination of all the desserts but like, mini versions of them, so I got to try everything! It was all so tasty and the company was even better than the food! 

The rest of that evening was spent in bars with Michael and Christophe. We went to some places they liked and always did our best to find tables where we could hear each other enough to have conversations. I was so tired from my long day of traveling that came right after my long day of cake making, and at two when they seemed to really understand that I was going to fall asleep in public, we got on our bikes and headed home. I stayed in Michael's sister's room that has the most comfortable bed in the world in it and I was very happy about that hahaha. 

He was a bit surprised by the flash...

 

 

The next morning, I got up and showered before heading off to Liege with Michael's family. I had no idea they had planned on taking me to another city, and I was excited to see another part of Belgium! It is a French speaking city so that was a little bit easier for me than Hasselt hahah. Like, I could actually read the signs! In Liege, we walked around in a huge outside market and enjoyed some pancakes in a super old cafe. We walked around in the market for a couple hours before stopping at a tea house that Michael's mom loves. I had some green tea and it was pretty amazing. After that, it was time to head back to Hasselt. Michael and I each took a nap because we hadn't had much sleep after our late night out with Christophe. After the nap, Michael's mom made us a delicious late lunch of eggs and vegetables and bread and cheese before taking us to the train station so we could head back to Brussels with Christophe. When we said goodbye, Michael's family said that maybe we would meet again someday and I told them that I really hoped we would. I think they are some of the loveliest people I have ever met! 

Strange Belgian candy!

It took us a little over an hour to get back to Brussels, and once we got there we decided to go to Michael and Christophe's shared place to drop off our things before going back into the city. We spent some downtime at their place to have a coffee and shake off some of our fatigue and do some talking. When we finally worked up the energy to leave, we headed off to the Atomium because it was the only big touristy thing that Michael hadn't showed me last time we were in Brussels. 

After that, we got dinner at a cute little yummy sushi place. I tried a weird spicy kind of sushi that had mango and coconut and spicy sauce in it and it was really tasty! 

Then, of course, it was time for more coffee. During that time, Belgium was playing against Hungary in the EuroCup and you could hear the soccer fans going mad everywhere. We got coffee on a street filled with sports bars and got to watch all the fans singing and chanting and banging drums and dancing in the street during half-time! It was so lively and watching all those people care so much about something was really nice. 

We were all pretty tired, but we decided to go get one last little drink before heading home, just to enjoy each other's company in public a little longer, you know? 

We sat in a cozy place and I did my best not to fall asleep because I had slept so little the past few days! 

When we got back to their apartments, we had one last important thing to do before bed: Skype Todd Hale. If you don't know Todd, he is a friend of mine in the U.S. and he happens to be the American version of Christophe and I had been wanting for them to meet for a long time! They finally met over Skype and it was pretty wonderful. They seemed to get along quite well and even made plans to visit each other hahaha. 

Not long after the skype call, we decided it was time to go to sleep. Michael made a little bed for me on the floor and it ended up being sooo comfortable! For the first time in four days, I slept more than five hours and I didn't wake up once throughout the night! 

This morning I felt much more refreshed than any of the other mornings. Before going to bed, I said goodbye to Christophe, who has weird sleeping problems and wouldn't be able to get up in the morning to say goodbye before I would leave. Saying goodbye to Christophe was awkward and funny because we really aren't that close at all but the situation felt so serious and he actually does matter to me, at least more than a little bit! But I know I will see him again. I'm positive! He's a cool guy. 

This morning was not very eventful. I bought some chocolate to take home for Charlie and Joan and had a banana for breakfast. Saying goodbye to close friends never feels real, so I said goodbye to Michael very quickly before getting on the train. We had written each other letters and we are both motivated enough so I know I will see him many times in the future. Saying goodbye this time was weird because usually when we say goodbye, we have already planned out another adventure to go on together, and this time we both had adventures planned out, but I am not part of his and is not part of mine. I will see him again, I am sure. I am just glad I got to know him and see him so often this year. Another beautiful thing that is all thanks to Juliana hahah. 

And now I have a little under an hour left until I arrive in Paris, where I will only sleep two more times in the bed I have slept in for the past 10 months. I haven't stayed in one place or in one bed for such a long time since I was 8, and I might end up missing that bed which wasn't particularly spectacular but was, nonetheless, mine. 

I don't know where my thoughts lie on the subject of going home. People keep asking me how I feel, which I am used to of course, but I don't have a genuine or true answer to give. I am so excited to see my family and friends again. I'm excited to start college and enjoy the lovely Californian weather and get used to a new life in a new place. 

My problem with leaving Paris is that it took me so long to feel at home here and to open my heart to such a cold and melancholy city, and now that I love it I am leaving hahaha. And all of this is normal of course. All of this is what the Rotex members told me told me I would feel when leaving my exchange in Chile, but I never felt this way during my exchange. 

I am learning that changing as you grow up doesn't just have to do with developing new opinions or growing into your own skin or understanding more about the world. It also has to do with feeling new feelings and getting comfortable with the idea that sometimes it takes more than a few minutes to recognize those feelings or know what to do with them. 

I knew I still had a lot to learn, but it never really occurred to me until recently that I still have a lot to feel. And I can't prepare myself for what I will feel in the future, really, I just have to trust myself and process my way through them as they come. :) 

The next time I blog will probably be on the airplane, so I hope you all have some great summer days until then. 

Thank you for reading! 

 

Weekend in Angleterre

Happy Monday morning everyone! I hope you all are well rested and ready for a big succesful day hahah because I am definitely NOT. About an hour ago (at 9am) I arrived back to Asnieres after taking an overnight bus from London, and I probably slept a total of three hours which really wasn’t enough hahah and I feel pretty out of it. The good news is that this trip was totally worth the sleep deprivation I am experiencing right now, AND I have a long nap scheduled for after I am done writing this post. 

I have lots to tell you about my weekend in London, but I had such a fantastic work week too so I want to tell you a bit about that first! This past week I worked lots of hours because Prunette got chickenpox. “Lots of hours” never sounds like much fun, but because the French are allowed parade their chickenpoxed children all around and everywhere EXCEPT schools, Prune and I had a fun week filled with Paris outings and Disney movies when she got tired. 

One of the mornings, Prune and I went out to Paris and met up with Maira, Jess, and Cameron to get coffee and then lunch. It was so so so much fun to finally introduce Prune to my au pair friends and show them how cool she is. THey all said she was adorable and too sweet and that I am probably the luckiest au pair in the world. I don’t think meeting my friends was super fun for Prune, for she was feeling a little shy, but she sat in my lap and used excellent manners and didn’t even complain once. Watching Prune behave that way made me so proud to part of the team that has raised her, and as she sat there on my lap she felt even more like a little sister than ever. :)

Another fun thing I did this week was go out to get drinks and desserts with Chloe and Marlene. The EuroCup is taking place in Paris right now, so there are young people from all over Europe here to watch soccer games and route for their favorite teams, and my friends and I wanted to join in the fun just for the heck of it hahaha. So we went to a little street full of sports bars and shared an ice cream Sunday and mostly just watched all the people get super wound-up about the soccer game that was going on. It was a pretty great evening and it felt good to leave the house a bit. Taking care of Prune when she is sick is something I really enjoy doing. I like giving her all her medicine, getting her all cozy and making her feel loved, but having some me-time was nice too. It was a good Wednesday. :D

 

Okay okay okay, now for the London part! Well, on Friday night when Cecile got home from work, I left the house to meet Chloe at the bus station. We both had big backpacks filled with snacks (to make the trip less expensive) and we really couldn’t contain our excitement. On the metro to get to the bus station, I realized that I have always really wanted to go to London. And yes, I have always had that urge to see the world and stuff, but before I really got into traveling, before Juliana and Chile and all that, I really wanted to go to London hahaha and I was finally making that happen! We were absolutely stoked.

It is pretty normal to run into difficulties while traveling, but I don’t think it is normal to run into how many tiny difficulties we ran into and just laugh your way through them. On the 10 hour bus ride from Paris to London, our bus was always either wayyyy too hot or FREEZING cold, we got taken into questioning while trying to cross the border into the UK because I guess we are suspicious looking gals, and we even bought some chocolate covered pretzels that just ended up being pretzel shaped chocolates and I know that doesn’t really qualify as a normal “difficulty” but honestly that was both hilarious and so dissapointing hahahah. Sleeping was a challenge, because there were no comfortable positions to be in and we kept getting woken up for different reasons by the bus driver or the people around us, so I think we slept about four hours that night. But when we arrived in London, our enthusiasm gave us fresh new energy and we took off for our London adventure! 

The first thing we did was find a cafe to change our clothes in and grab some coffee. It took us forever to find a cafe because it was like 7:30am and nothing was open, but we eventually succeeded in finding something. We got some super watery coffee and ate it with some banana bread I had prepared for the trip, and then sort of stumbled upon Buckingham Palace on accident so we checked that out and enjoyed our breakfast in the park around it. We were running on the fakest energy, but we really enjoyed ourselves. We took our first touristy pictures before heading off down random streets to find the other touristy stuff. We were not worried about time because by then it was only like 9:00am and we had all the time in the world and no plans. We eventually ran into Trafalgar Square and after that wandered around till we found Big Ben and Westminster and the Eye and we walked a big circle around all of those things. I was in awe because everything was so big and surreal and everyone spoke English and the cars drove on the other side of the street and everything was just SO CLEAN!

 

 

 

We were proud to have already crossed the most touristy things off our mental lists of what we needed to see in London, and since our backpacks were beginning to feel heavy on our shoulders, we decided to find our hostel so we could drop of the majority of our things and continue exploring the city. The hostel took us a bit over an hour to find, but walking down the little streets in SoHo was pretty fun, and when we did find our hostel, we were pleased to discover that the staff was super friendly and helpful, so that was great. After dropping off our big backpacks, we decided that we needed some energy before doing any more walking so we found a cute little restaurant and ordered some fish n’ chips! At that restaurant, a grumpy British man accused me of flicking my hair into his mouth and I discovered that I fear angry British accents, and we changed tables. A bit later during our dining experience, an old American couple sat down next to us, and we ended up having quite the conversation with them. They were very sweet and from St. Louis and they thought our motivation to travel was admirable and had lots of questions about what we do in Paris. We talked to them for a good hour, and when it was time to move on and do more sight-seeing, they told us that they had picked up our check and wanted us to have fun and enjoy our time in England. Getting free food is always nice, but what really touched me about this encounter was how I felt like a protected little child when they did that, and it feels good to be taken care of abroad. You see in their eyes that they thought we were really good kids and had really liked talking to us, and because of this little experience I have decided that someday I will find some au pairs abroad and buy them some lunch and make them feel cared for. :D

After lunch, Chloe and I decided to walk to the very other side of the city to see Platform Nine and Three Quarters! It was a long walk to see a silly little wall, but I was glad we did it, just because now we can say that we did. After that, we decided to walk even further away from the center to check out the Camden Market, which ended up being AMAZING. It was huge and smelled of delicious South American foods and wandering around inside was like being in a maze. We didn’t buy anything, but we got lots of food samples and on our way out, we split a cronut, simply because we found the name entertaining and had run out of energy again. When we had seen lots of the market and it had begun to get dark outside, we walked like two hours back to our hostel and decided to regroupe for a half hour before heading out to get a drink at a pub (because we thought that would be very British of us). When we got to our hostel room, we met the other people who would be staying with us and they were all really cool people! There were two students from Boston, a pair of sisters from Texas (one who will start wroking as a Physical Therapist next week and the other who works for TeenVogue), and a French brother and sister (and engineer and a Med student). We all hung out in the room and talked for awhile before going our own ways for the evening. Chloe and I were sooooooot tired, so we went to the pub for about a half hour before getting back to the hostel to take showers and get in bed early. When we were about to fall asleep, Chloe looked up how far we had walked on her phone and it turns out we had walked over 15 miles! Because we had done so much walking and so little sleeping, it took us very little time to fall asleep that night and boy, did we sleep well! 

The next morning, we got up at 8:30am to get some hostel breakfast before heading out to find the big London Bridge, check out a different market, and see one of Shakespeare’s theaters. The hostel breakfast was yummy and donation based, and with full bellies and renewed energy from our long sleep, we were ready to take on London all over again! The market we wanted to see ended up being closed, but the walk we took to get there ended up being very pretty and I am glad we went. Shakespeare’s Theater was just kind of an old looking building with a lot of expensive Shakespeare-ish souvineers, but I am glad we got to see that too. When we got to the London Bridge, we were really confused and realized that what we actually had been looking for was the Tower Bridge, and then we saw how far away it was and decided that the view was probably better from further away anyhow hahah. 

After that, we stopped at a cafe to get some more fuel and think about what we wanted to do next. We decided to walk all the way to Abbey Road because the walk would take us through a pretty park. We began this super super long walk, and when we got to the park there was a food festival going on and it smelled so good that we got overwhelmed and had a lunch in the park. I ordered a veggie-dog, which ended up being just a bunch of vegetables in a hot-dog bun, and so that was exciting hahah. When we were done eating, we continued our strolling and conversating. The park was gigantic and so clean yet so wild looking and I absolutely loved it. I realized that I felt very at home in London, which is something I never would have expected. When we were in the park, we even saw some dudes playing Cricket! Yeah! That is a thing. Who knew?! I am kidding. I am tired. 

A little over an hour later, we arrived to that famous little crosswalk and walked across it twice. We then decided that since it was already 4:00pm, we should probably head back towards the center, so we tried to take a bus, but the bus driver said “no, you don’t have tickets and you can’t buy tickets so get off” and so we got off. As the bus pulled away, however, Chloe spotted a little bike rental station that was only 2 pounds for the first hour, and there were two bikes left! Since it was clearly meant to be, we rented the bikes and took off with the hugest of smiles. As we were riding, we realized that we had made a great decision, and then as we kept riding, we realized we had made a terrible mistake. Bike lanes in London are about three inches wide, and since we weren’t used to driving on the opposite side of the street, this made for a very stressful experience hahah. I mean we were tired so we were laughing, but I also kind of thought we were going to die, so as soon as we could we turned into a park and had a much less stressful riding experience there. WHen we had about 15 minutes left for our bikes, we realized we were close to our hostel, but probably not close enough to make it back to the rental station across the street from the hostel, so we decided to head in that direction and stop at the first rental place we say on the way. While walking around London, we had seen tons of the little rental stations, but for some reason being in a huge hurry made them all disappear! We really didn’t want to be charged more money, so we decided the only solution was to ride as fast as we possibly could to get to the station across from the hostel. But Sally and Chloe riding bikes quickly in England looked much different than it would have in the US. We were yelling at each other to look out for cars, swerving around people, trying to find the right streets, and laughing like maniacs but also like almost crying because we were scared, exhausted, and had way too much adrenaline. As we passed a couple in all of our craziness and excitement, I heard a boy say to his girlfriend “oh my lord, that has to be the most American thing I have ever seen” as he pointed at us and we made eye contact and I just started laughing and shrugged and then kept peddling as fast as I could. We ended up locking up our bikes at the station with ONE MINUTE to spare and it was a miracle. We were dripping in sweat and giggling because that whole ordeal was so stressful but we were so proud of ourselves! We walked arcross the street to grab out backpacks from the hostel, and then began slowly making our way back in the direction of Victoria’s Station so that we would be there early for our bus and get good seats.

On the way, we saw a sign advertising “Cornish Pasties” which sounded like the most unappetizing food ever, but it was so entertaining as a name and they looked just like empanadas so we shared a spicy veggie one as a sort of dinner meal. We then went to a grocery store to get snacks for the bus ride back (ALWAYS BRING SNACKS ON OVERNIGHT BUSSES BECAUSE YOU WILL GET SO HUNGRY). We got sea salt & vinegar flavored gold fish, some fresh coconut, some tea biscuits, and some oranges, and we were set. We stopped at one last pub to change into our comfy bus clothes, and then after about an hour of waiting in line, we were back on the overnight bus! Our bus was supposed to leave at 8:00pm, but when everyone was on it it didn’t start moving. The speakers came on in the bus and we thought we were being adressed by the driver, but we soon discovered that one of the employees had accidentally switched on the microphone and was saying things like “where is the driver? God, he isn’t even here yet. No! I will not be driving this bus tonight. I’m not the driver! I just want to go eat dinner!” and things like that and the entire bus was totally cracking up hahaha. Eventually, the bus started moving and our experience on the way home went much more smoothly. We didn’t get called into questioning going through immigration and on the ferry, we drank hot chocolate and made funny faces back and forth with three adorable little British girls. 

Everything that happened once we got back on the bus is a blur to me. I know I must have slept a lttle bit, or maybe talked to Chloe a little, but I mostly remember the drivers voice telling us we were in Paris, walking to the metro, getting home and showering, and then lying down to write this post. I want to take a nap, but I don’t feel sleepy which is really annoying because I know I need sleep. My eyes can’t focus very well on anything and all of my reactions are a bit delayed hahah but I am having a good day and I think Prune and I will have fun after school today! 

This is my last full week in Paris and I am going to try to make the most out of every single day and I cannot wait! :D

Okay. That is all for now. Bye! :)