Ca RE-Recommence!

For those of you still keeping up with this blog despite my lack of faithfulness, bless you! Today you will find three blog posts. The first one is the one you are currently reading, the second is Part I of my two week voyage, and the third one is about my trip to Versailles. Each day I post there will be another part of the two week voyage, so there should be quite a bit to read in the near future. There will also be a future post about my trip to Tours in the Loire Valley. Lord willing, I will have all of my trips archived BEFORE I return to the USA. We’ll see how that goes!

As of today there are 25 days left for me in France. I am sad and happy at the same time. I know that once I get home to Amarillo that France will be missing from me like crazy! I will probably also start to use certain French terms like the one you just read. What I meant to say was that I will miss France; however, in France I would say that France will be missing from me. It’s ok; I often speak French using English terms. C’est la vie!

This is my last week of classes and then I will be starting finals. If you think about it, please pray that things go well! Be looking for updates!

Vacances Part I!

Vacation : Finally! I’m sorry that it has taken me so long to write this blog! Cole has been lazy. Instead of going through a day by day replay of what went on, I’ll do like I’ve done before and recount the good stories.

Deutschland (Germany):
As you know, I started off in Germany. In order to get to Germany I took a train from Caen and then caught a connection in Paris to Hanover. I took a sleeper train. It was a fun experience. It wasn’t the most comfortable bed, but I definitely was happy to do something I’ve never done before!

When I got to the train station in Hanover I couldn’t wait to see my friends! I was almost running through the station! When I got down to the ground floor I looked to my right and there they were! Sarah Stanford was walking towards me with that Sarah look and her Old Navy™ Performance Fleece™ rainbow colored beanie! We walked back to the apartment of our friends from Amarillo Sarah Meyers and Sean. It was still very early in the morning so we all just went back to sleep. After a night on a train, I was definitely still tired! We all slept in the same room on a giant cot that was made out of two mattresses from Sarah’s and Sean’s beds. It was one big happy family! Sara Meyer’s friend Laura was there too. She is also studying in Germany.

When we all woke up we went to the Hanover City Museum. It was a nice museum full of German and WWII history. It was a bit depressing, but nice at the same time. Sara, Sean, and Laura’s friend Maurice caught up with us and hung out with us for the remainder of our time in Germany. After the museum we went to eat at a Kebab restaurant near Sara and Sean’s apartment. We then went back to the apartment and hung out all night.

Versailles!

Today was such so much fun! It is Thursday and we had the day off for some reason so my friend Marie asked me to go to Versailles Palace with her. We left this morning for Paris at 11:49 and got to Versailles (right outside of Paris) at around 16:00. It was my second time to ever be at Versailles, but the last time was over five years ago and I really wanted to see it again!

While at Versailles we got to see the inside of the Palace and take some cool photos. I also got in trouble three times. The first time I was looking out of a window and the little kid inside of me said “OPEN IT!” So as I’m in the process of opening this window a woman’s voice says, “NON S’il vous plaît monsieur !” (NO please sir!) The next time was as I saw a sign that said do not enter. I didn’t understand why the sign said do not enter because I saw several people in that room. I therefore entered. I didn’t get very far before a woman signaled me to the entrance. Oh well. The third time was when I saw that a barrier had been slightly moved and followed some other “naughty” people into a forbidden area. Marie came with me and we took some photos of the “forbidden” rooms. Right as we got to the end of the “forbidden” tour a man approached me and asked if I had moved the barrier. I told him that it was already moved and then he kicked us out of the “forbidden”. I wanted to go back into the other parts of the palace and say, “We saw something you didn’t see! Na na na na boo boo!”

After we walked through the palace we went out into the gardens and walked around. It was a beautiful day! We walked for a while before we got too tired and then decided to find a boulangerie and get some baguette. We found our boulangerie and baguette and then walked back to the train station to see if we could exchange our ticket for a later ticket back to Caen. When we looked at the time tables and talked to the lady behind the counter, we discovered that we already had the latest ticket back. We then had to hurry to get back into Paris and to our train. As we were waiting for the train to take us back to Paris we ran into a very nice old lady that insisted that we sit with her on the train. She was SO nice! She talked with us for a while and asked us all sorts of questions. As we got off at the station in Paris she decided to walk us to metro to show us how to get to our train for Caen. As we were walking she decided that we needed to hurry so that we wouldn’t miss our train. She started walking so fast and weaving in and out of people that Marie and I almost lost her. When we got to the Metro she kissed us goodbye (the French always kiss on the cheeks when they say goodbye) and wished us a bon voyage.

We made it to our train on time and enjoyed a nice relaxing ride back to Caen. I was so happy to have gotten to spend the day with Marie and enjoy Versailles! Tomorrow I’m going to the Loire Valley to meet up with my friends from Baylor and see the Châteaux (castles).

For some reason or another this internet is not letting me post photos. I have a lot of things to share with you, but I can't do it right now. PLEASE stay tuned!