Well, well, well. This morning I went to class in good ol’ London. And at night I find myself in Paris, France.
I went straight from class to the train station—actually King’s Cross station—where I caught the Eurostar on platform 10 (very very close to Platform 9 ¾). The Eurostar took Angela and I through the Chunnel—the tunnel under the channel—and into France. We arrived in Paris, tried to figure out the metro, and got to our hotel with little issue.
 |
| At King's Cross St. Pancras station. Celebrating the 2012 London Olympics. |
But all of the sudden, the reality that I’m out of my home country has really hit because I don’t speak French. And many French people don’t speak English. Everyday I’m grateful that I learned on my mission to communicate better with people who don’t speak the same language as me.
We waited for the rest of the group to show up (we were on the earliest train of everyone) and then went out to find dinner. After dinner we decided to walk down to the River Seine after which we would find the metro and take it to the Eiffel Tower. Simple, right?
Well, we walked down to the river and along it for a ways until the metro stop. Closed. Hmmmm . . . okay, I guess we’ll keep walking along the river to the next stop. Closed. We realized that the whole line was probably closed and decided just to finish walking there. It was about 6.5 k, so it took a bit of time. By the time we got a full-on view of the tower, it was 11:00 and the hourly lights were going off (at 10, 11, and 12 the tower starts to sparkle with lights). So, we were happy to see that. At the tower we happened to run into almost all of the rest of our group. I obeyed Jessica’s orders and purchased a nutella with strawberries crepe at the Eiffel Tower—she says they’re the best in Paris and, therefore, the world. It was delicious. And then we went home on the metro, pretty exhausted. It was a long day and a lot of walking, but our first night in Paris was a success.
 |
| Dinner with Catie |
 |
| The Eiffel crepe |
 |
| It was bigger than I expected |
No comments:
Post a Comment