Je suis arrivée a Rouen!

After a series of flight delays, changes, and cancellations, I made it to Rouen at approximately 4PM local time, yesterday.

The journey was "pas mal" (not bad) though. While the Chicago-London flight was delayed two hours, which of course pushed me back to a different London-Paris flight, I spent the time with my wonderful friend and roommate Missy Frye, who was on her way to Barcelona once she got to London.

I'm pretty sure I slept all but 30 minutes of the flight, just long enough for dinner and breakfast. After we landed, I even slept the 20 minutes it took to get to the terminal. What can I say? J'aime les siestes. (I love naps).

Once I arrived to London, I was promptly told by British Airways (BA) staff that my flight to Paris was cancelled, and they pointed me to a queue that looked about a mile long. Fantastique. It took me about an hour, but once I got to an attendant he explained there were no more flights to Paris that day, and that BA would put me up in the Marriott nearby.

Then, proceeding on my way via on the "Hotel Hoppa", I met a girl from Zionsville! Her name was Ali, studies at Clemson U in South Carolina, and we quickly concluded we would have to explore London together that night.



After a quick nap and a bit of e-mailing, we headed out to the bus stop that would take us to the Picadilly line, on the London Underground. I attempted to show her London the way Renee showed me, but I accidently got off on Embankment instead of Westminster. On our walk up the Seine, we saw a large clock in the distance. Even though I had been to London before, we were both unsure if it was Big Ben. The conversation went something like this:

Ali: Wait, what is that?
Me: It's Big Ben!
Ali: Oh, that's awesome!
Me: Wait, I think it's Big Ben.
Ali: Is there more than one big clock in London?
Me: I don't think so, but I'd be very embarrassed if it wasn't and we thought it was...(this convo about "Is it, or isn't it" went on for some time).

Turns out, it was Big Ben, so no worries there! We strolled around the Parliament, Westminster Abbey area and grabbed sandwiches on the way: We were famished! Shortly thereafter, we headed up to Covent Garden. I'm surprised we made it there safely-even though the street corners were clearly labeled "look right" or "look left"-we got too close for comfort a couple of time with London city buses.

Our first stop was the pub The White Lion, a memorable spot from my first visit to London with Renee. I bought Ali her first legal drink (she's 19), a pint of London-made beer. I completely forgot if you tip bartenders in England, so I asked a woman nearby. Well, she was Australian but she did tell me that you do not, unless it's table service. And even then, you don't have to. She said sometime to the effect of: "Why would you tip someone for getting a glass, pouring beer, and putting it on the counter?!" I guess that's why the bartender was surprised when I handed him a pound.



We hopped into one more pub, where I forced her to buy some fish & chips. I was very amused by a video on the screen titled "Fireplace: The Movie" (in the credits, there was fire control!). Soon thereafter, we headed back to the Marriott, because I had a 5AM wake-up call. I was not about to miss my 9:10 am departure from London!

Getting to the airport, through check-in, even security, was a breeze! Had time for breakfast at a neat restaurant called Safari, where I enjoyed a cup of Earl Grey Tea, of course. I'm honestly surprised my plane flew out. Everyone in England and France is talking about this cold weather. For about 5 minutes on the London news yesterday, all they did was show pictures of snow. In a word, epic.

Once I arrived in Paris, French Customs didn't even look at my visa. Navigating the airport and catching a direct bus downtown was easy. The part that was not easy: I decided to walk the 20 minutes to Gare St. Lazare; keep in mind, I had two 40lb bags, a backpack, and purse. Only Americans use large bags for travel, so I know I stuck out like a sore thumb.

But I got my Carte 12-25 and a ticket to Rouen with no problem. The train ride was relaxing, so relaxing-in fact-that the ticket collector had to poke me to wake me up, saying, "Excusez-moi, madame. Ton billet, s'il vous plait." Whoops!

Once I got to Rouen, I again was stubborn and didn't want to pay for a 2 minute taxi ride to my house. So I decided to walk the 1 kilometer. However, GoogleMaps does not explain that the walk is all uphill. As you may guess, I got a good amount of exercise yesterday!

I arrived at my house, and Harm (the husband) and Hugues (the 9 year old) were just leaving to see Avatar. 3.5 hours later, they returned and poor Hugues had a horrible headache from the 3-D animation. But during that time I set up my room some and visited with a girl, Alicia, who studies at U of Seattle and lives very close to me here in Mont Saint Aignan (very close to Rouen, about a 5-10 minute walk).

Dinner was great, although my host mom was dismayed that I don't even eat fish. However, I had a great mix of salad, cheese, bread, soup, and an apple dessert. Whenever I didn't understand something, which is often, my host mom, Florence, explains it in very basic French. At one point, I got lost in a conversation between Paul (23) and Benoit (19). Apparently, Paul gets upset when Benoit takes his clothes while he is away (he studies at my same school, but I believe he has an apartment near the school).

I finished my first evening in Rouen by sitting near the fireplace, reading, as the fire dwelled. It felt nice too, they keep homes here pretty cold, the thermostat on my alarm clock said 59 degrees.

Well, I promise my blogs in the future will not be as intense! A bientot!