Wednesday, February 9, 2011

-Insert title in French here-

I need to learn French. It sooo would have helped me this weekend when I was LOST in France.

Well. Not really lost. More like I had no flipping clue as to where I was going. Sri gave me a little phrase book for my birthday, which was awesome. But you know what I figured out? If you don't know French/any other language when using said phrase book, how are you supposed to understand what the person is saying to you?! Problem.

So I went to Lille, France to visit my awesome friend Meghan. J
ust so you know, Lille is in the Northeast cornerish of France, near the Belgian border. I took at train from Geneva, where the happiest Swiss person I've ever met stamped my Eurail pass for me. He literally kept saying, "You need a stamp-a!" in a sing-song voice. It was cracking me up. Thank you Swiss man, for making my day.

After a quick four hour train ride I was in Lille. The train station along was gorgeous! But Meghan was no where to be found. EEP! So I was like, "Ehh...she's just running late. No biggie!" Thirty minutes later... "Ok, I totally told her when I was a
rriving!" Begins wandering train station looking for someone who speaks English...can't find one...finds map....kinds a place on said map that said 'Librarie,' SCORE! I start heading out to the library but saw a sign for the tourism office and got excited. I mean, tourism offices SHOULD have people that speak English...wandered. First encountered a tourism office-went in. The guy spoke "A little bit" of English. Anyone that I asked if they spoke English replied with "A little bit." Ugh...I asked where the library was because HEL
LO FREE INTERNET! He was like, "What do you need a library for? Internet cafe." Bit me French dude. I don't want to pay for the Internet when I could get it for free at the library where all the pretty book are. Books calm me down.

I find the internet cafe. I send Meghan a facebook message. I go to pay. THEY DON'T TAKE CREDIT CARDS. So I go to an ATM and get some money and go back and pay. I then return to the train station. By now a little over an hour has passed. I just sat down and waited. I figured if she didn't find me by like 7 I would just go home. So I sat and read. All of a sudden I heard a voice I recognized. I looked up and there she was. NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY IN MY LIFE.

We hugged. We cried. We freaked the heck out.

Apparently there are TWO train stations in Lille. Who knew?!

The rest of the weekend was just awesome! We went to dinner and talked and went to the bar (go figure) and I met her new friends. Who are now my friends and I can for real say that I have a British friend which is just about the coolest thing to ever happen to me in my life. We also went to an art museum, which was glorious! (I love my nerdy-ness)

Then travelling home Monday morning. Sunday night I noticed that my second train departed from a DIFFERENT train station in Paris. WHY?! Unfortunately for me the internet at Meghan's dorm was down so I couldn't look up directions. So I figured I would just ask at the station because, I mean, it's Paris. They would speak English in a major tourist spot like Paris, right?

WRONG.

I think I asked about twelve people if they spoke English. They all said no. When I finally learned where I was going, I got on the metro the wrong direction so I had to get off the train and get on another one. So I missed my train.

sejaerwiohstrhsdj'kajlaer!

At least there was another train. That's all I'm happy about. I made it home. PHEW!

The rest of this week has been pretty good. I got to hang out with my new friend Olivia (the bartender) yesterday and it was awesome. She's such a sweetheart! She totally invited me to her house for dinner tomorrow. AHHH!!!! :D

1 comment:

  1. I'm glad you made it back alive and had a fabulous time anyway! Sometimes getting lost is the best way to see a city. (I'm just saying that because I got lost in Chicago this weekend, causing me to miss my bus, but find an awesome church, a zoo, a fun bar, and the Haymarket Square Monument. But at least everything in Chicago is in English. So don't get lost anymore!)

    PS my love, librairie doesn't mean library. Biblioteque means library. A librairie is more like a stationary/bookstore.

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