christmas 2007

I have a lot to write.



But before I catch up on the last 8 months I'm going to write about my Europe vacation.

I should have written each day so my memory was more vivid, but I guess now is better than never.



December 14th: The night before we left



Today was mostly uneventful. We left for Salt Lake at about 5:00pm and found out in Malad that I had forgotten my passport. It delayed us for 2 hours. Good thing our flight was the next day.



December 15th: Flying all day.



We decided we needed to hang out with Cassie before we left. Of course. Josh, Cassie, her friend Nate(?) and I went to a pancake house in Sugarhouse. It was packed and the food was horrible, but it was still fun. Josh stole an adorable windmill thingy for me. Aw he's so sweet.

So Justin drove us to the airport about an hour before our flight left. We had forgotten the laptop so Justin had to go back and get it while we checked in and waited. While we were waiting I gave my family a call but I couldn't get a hold of them. Oh well, I guess I've gone longer than 10 days without talking to them.

So we're stuck in a crappy plane for 3 hours while we head towards Cincinatti. It was an old, beat down plane but it was the most comfortable flight I had ever been on. Mainly because the seat next to me was empty so I was able to put my feet up and rest my head in Josh's lap.

We landed in Cincinatti and after getting off the plane went straight for the bar. We had long island ice teas and a bowl of fries. They were the best tasting fries I had ever had. They weren't anything special though, so I don't know why they were.

We took off for the plane and I was a bit tipsy so I tried joking with the employee at the gate. She was pretty funny. She told me how to order in french. "'hamburger, sil vous plait?"

This plane was nicer than the last one, but considerably less comfortable. Delta likes to torture their customers I guess, because all we got to watch were two crappy movies (Stardust and Mr. Bean's Holiday or something) and had a small, very processed meal that I wouldn't have touched had I not been so hungry.

Josh spent a lot of time talking to the contractor next to us. He was on his way to Dubais and then to Afghanistan. Josh didnt see me, but I cried a little when they were talking about Afghanistan and Josh being deployed. I guess its starting to hit me. The only person in the world who truly is and has always been there for me won't be for a whole year. I guess I only have about a month left with him. How extremely depressing.

So while they were playing Stardust I thought the movie was only in French. I went halfway through it before I realized I had the sound on the wrong channel. Silly me.

I don't think I slept once on this whole 8 hour flight.



December 16th: Arrive in Paris



We arrived in Paris at about 10am if I remember correctly. Customs was a joke. The guy barely glanced at my passport and I was given the OK to go into his country. The airport was freezing and very uncomfortable. There were English advertisements everywhere. We took a train to their central station and then looked for directions to our hotel. We asked everyone where it was and noone knew. It wasn't a small or far away area either. We stayed at the Best Western in St. Maurice. We asked as many people as we could find who worked at the train station where St. Maurice was and noone could help us. They basically told us we were screwed. We finally found two helpful people who actually made an effort to help us and sent us in the right direction.

We took a train to the train station in Paris and a guy played an accordian for us. It made me want to learn how to play one.

Little did I know but should have taken into consideration, banks aren't open on sunday in France. Which means we had no money to take the subway to the hotel. (Before we were able to use our credit cards). Not that we knew where our hotel was. We had the address but we were just guessing our way there.

After asking over 10+ people where we were (none of them knew) we finally figured it out and were headed in the right direction. Miles and miles later, we came across a map with a sign pointing towards saint maurice. We stopped to discuss how very lost, tired, cold and hungry we were when a very friendly french man came riding on his bike with his kids. He gave us 10E and took us to his apartment to look up where the hotel was and then drove us there. He was the nicest French man I had ever met. He had lived in Manhattan for four years, had grandparents in Park City and his children's mother was from Eugene, OR. He was almost american to me.

So he dropped us off at the hotel and that was the last we'll ever see of him. I almost wish we had kept contact information to keep in touch, but I wouldn't have kept in touch anyway.

Let me add how FREEZING COLD it was there. It was about 32f or below the whole time.

As soon as we got to the hotel I jumped in the shower. It had been over a day (maybe even two) since my last shower. No conditioner and only the crappiest shampoo. My hair suffered so much from this trip.

So we went in search of food. I can't remember too clearly but I think we ate at Mcdonalds. It was like a resturaunt, not a fast food place.

Dec 18th

I hate that I didn't write everything when it happened. Things are pretty fuzzy to me now. Anyway we went to the Eiffel tower today. My batteries were dead. Typical. Some chicks started speaking spanish to us. They were mexican but one was mexican/american and spoke English to us. We took each other's picture. Well we took hers, but my batteries were dead. So I was starting to be ok with not getting any pictures of it, but we stopped at one of those tourist-trap stands and bought some more. Then we took some self-portriats. We walked all the way to the government building (i forget what its called) and asked some French kid to take our picture. He took like 3 of them, one of us kissing in front of it. They were precious. I started yelling at him in English to take one more and then he looked frightened. Josh told him what I said in french and he took one more then we were on our way.

So we walked through the Trocadero and the Palais de Chaillot and there were some protestors or a rally of some sort. I didn't know what archaic gibberish they were babbling but they seemed angry. There was also some homeless dude who jumped on the subway and started muttering something about "saddam" and "jihad" which really frightened me. I was sure he was going to blow up the train. I asked Josh what he had said and Josh said he wasn't listening but it was something about being hungry. sigh of relief. The subway was nasty but not nearly as nasty as New York's subway. Maybe its because it was winter, but at least it didn't have rats.