The end of Paris.

It has taken me a lot of effort to finish this all. I was exhausted when I got back from Paris, both physically and mentally. I got back from Paris at almost midnight on Sunday, and had to work at 6:30 in the morning. Tuesday I started my German class, which is interesting because it is learning German, and taught in German. Not to mention the fact that it is the German 2 class. I am in that class, not because of my skill level, but because I have work when the German 1 class is going on. Those are my excuses for taking so long to write about Paris. But I am doing it now, and will finally feel caught up with everything.

Sunday started out just like any other Sunday. I got up and got ready for church. Unlike any other Sunday, everything was in French. Everyone at church was very polite and said "Bonjour" to me, which I quickly said Bonjour back and moved on before they decided to strike up a conversation. Which would just confuse me and annoy me that I didn't know what they were saying. Not annoy me because they were speaking French, that was to be expected. I just get annoyed with myself when I can't understand someone. Makes me feel rude (even though I know there is nothing wrong with not knowing every single language in the world. That would be cool though). Church was great even if I didn't catch much. The Spirit was there, and since it doesn't have a language barrier it works.

After church I said goodbye to the Crucy family, and then was dropped off at the train station. I still had a little bit left in Paris and I planned to enjoy it! So here I am. Sitting on yet another train. I am thinking to myself, "Where in the world am I going to change out of this skirt? It is way too cold to even think about walking around in this, and if I am boarding I am not doing it in a skirt today. Hmmm...." I took a quick look around me, realized there wasn't anyone close by, and that the next stop was about 5 minutes away. Why not?

Those of you who know me, know that I have a habit of doing random things while driving. I eat my Captain Crunch, brush my teeth, do my makeup (no worries, all safely, usually at stop lights. Calm yourself). I also have a habit of changing in my car. You can see where this is going right :) Yes, I changed on the train. Using my mad skills nobody noticed. Yes I know nobody noticed cause there was only one person behind me, and they kept chatting away like nothing was happening. All the other people were in front of me facing the other direction. I am just sneaky sneaky like that. I had just done up my belt when the train stopped and a lot of people got on. I couldn't help but smile as I put my skirt away. They never knew. But I will forever remember that!

Fully clothed and ready to go, I FINALLY got to take my board on the streets of Paris. It was fantastic. Everything I dreamed of and more. Well until 5 people would all walk side by side and take up the whole sidewalk. Really people? I thought about just running them over, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. It was Sunday after all.

After looking along the banks of the Seine River looking for a copy of Les Miserables (I found a lot of AWESOME old books but sadly don't have 300 Euro to spend on one book... I wish! There were ones that I know in the early 1800's, girls sat by their windows reading. Passing the time until the rain stopped and they could go and walk in the gardens. Or what not... Active imagination had a hay day with it all.) I got me a crepe from the yummy place right by Notre Dame and sat down at the place I will not call my Paris spot. This is where i was sitting.

I loved it! I know I may not be able to claim claim it, since I have only been there once, but guess what? I will call it my spot anyways. I loved it! It was just off the beaten path a tiny bit, so people weren't close enough to bother me, but I was still right in the middle of everything and got to people watch. I am trying to find exactly where I was on a map, but it is rather difficult, so for now you just get this picture.

After some more aimless wanderings, and a few more books stores, I finally made my way to the meeting point to get my ride home. I used a website called mitfahrgelegenheit.de/ and pretty much what it really is, is hitchhiking the safe way. You go see if anyone is driving from where you are to where you want to be, pitch in for gas (set amount) and join in the ride. People can make pretty decent money off of this, and I think there are quite a few people who do use this as their normal job. So I meet up with them, and shocker, it is me and 4 other guys. You would think with all these guys around me at least one would be cute, or at least not 20+ years older than me. Nope. No such luck. Oh well. We all get into the van, and lucky me, I get the middle row of seats all to myself. I was thinking I was going to talk to the people in the van, get to know some folks, but they all kinda started falling asleep (minus the driver who was dancing along to his mariachi band. No he isn't any form of Latino. He is black and from.... Somewhere not Spanish/French/or German. He was a strange man.). So I decided to sleep, since well, I don't like Mariachi bands all that much. To make the Mariachi music that much worse... It was the only CD he had. Seriously? Who brings ONE CD on a 7 hour drive?!

That was about the excitement for the ride home. No problems, nothing really. So we get to the train station in Frankfurt at 10 Pm. The last train home leaves at 9:45. Suck. Looks like I get to figure out the bus system. I have never taken any of the other trains out to where I need to catch my bus. I have always just taken my train. Can't be that hard right? Well for the first time in my travels of the train system, I got on the wrong train. I at this point I am dead tired and just want to be home in my bed. After some checking of trains and waiting in the cold (oh cause it apparently snowed a ton while I was gone), I made it back to the main train station and onto the correct train and then to my bus.

Usually from this point, it takes my train 10 minutes to get to my stop. The bus, it came so close to my house, then took a lovely detour away from it. My 10 minute commute turned into and hour. Finally I get off the bus, and have to hike home up the huge hill in the snow. I just keep telling myself that my warm bed is waiting for me. Then I realized something rather critical. I turned off my heater before I left, no need to waste now. That wouldn't have been a problem except for one thing. At about 11:30 they shut off the heaters and they don't come back on till 6 in the morning. Usually you are in your nice warm bed by that point so it doesn't matter. This time it did.

I froze. Once I finally made it into my bed, I used my pillows as blankets. Actually worked rather well. The pillows here make better blankets than actual pillows. I think this sums up my whole Paris trip. Only took me what... A month to finish it? Yeah yeah, I know. Slacker. But I figured I should catch up or I would just fall further behind. Cause I can't put up other things before I finish one. That would just make everything so confusing! So now I am caught up, and hopefully next Sunday I will have the energy to write and tell you all about my trip to the castle :) Yup, I am going to the castle of my dreams on Saturday! Happy as a clam!!!