HOME.

WE MADE IT HOME!!! HURRAY!!! I am currently laying in MY bed writing this blog entry. It's glorious to the extreme. So. Happy.

So yesterday and today were filled with airports. Well only like 3 or 4, some for much longer than others. So yesterday morning we left our hotel on a shuttle for the airport that we had booked the previous night. After picking up some other people at other hotels, we made our way to the airport where we had been hearing people were stuck for days waiting to get out of Paris. But we were keeping a good thought about the whole thing, however what we arrived to was chaos. There were gillions of people EVERYWHERE. I had to leave mom and the luggage and go find someone to ask where the heck we were supposed to go, since we were in France and there weren't any signs.
French attitude (with heavy accent): SIGNS?! HOHN! (nasally sound) We are too good for signs! You figure it out on your own you stupid Americans! Ohn hohn hohn!!
My response: I kill you!

Anyway, after finding someone we realized we were actually in the wrong terminal, so once we got to the right one things went much smoother. There were fewer people where we were, so we checked in and made it through security without a hitch. Our flight had been delayed by 2 hours right off the bat, which was annoying but not exactly surprising. But our flight had also not yet been assigned a gate, which I found to be rather odd but Mom said that happened to her at Heathrow over the summer, so we just had to wait and watch the TV monitor. So we shopped and ate lunch and watched the screen with no avail. FINALLY after probably 2 hours or so, we decide this is just getting ridiculous and we go up to a worker-man who just finished sending off a flight to Seattle at one of the gates, and he actually said that our flight to Boston was going to be leaving from that very gate! Perfect! Then, not 30 seconds later he looks at his computer screen and goes, "Oh wow, they JUST changed it and now it's in another terminal. You have to go out past security, take the train and go back through security to the other side of this building/terminal/thing." I'm sorry.....WHAT?!? We have to LEAVE security and go through it AGAIN?!?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW?!?!? IS THIS ANY WAY TO RUN A HUGE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT??!!? I tell ya. If I ran the world, things would run so much smoother...

So basically I was pissed. Mom can vouch for the angry and racist (would we consider France it's own race? I feel like not, but then what would the correct term be for hating only the French? Frenchist? I have no idea) remarks that I was muttering under my breath the entire walk to the other terminal. Short version: France and I were not friends right then.

Anyway, we went through security AGAIN and found our gate and it turns out that a flight to Washington DC had just been canceled so there were a million people all trying to get on our flight to Boston. So it was a little hectic. Then we sat around and waited as our flight was delayed yet ANOTHER hour, so now we were going on 3 hours late. Then the time approached when we were supposed to be boarding, so people just started gathering and getting in lines (more like mobs, the french don't really do lines. I think they might actually not know what a line is because they're always trying to get ahead of each other) but they never even announced over the speaker that they were boarding! They just started taking people and you had better figure it out or you were gonna miss it! It boggled my mind, yet again. Also, I will never understand why people push to get onto a plane. If it's Southwest, I kind of understand since it's open seating. But if not, you're essentially pushing and shoving to sit and wait in a seat that you will be sitting in the for the next 7 hours. Why are you trying to crush everyone in your path to get a jump start on that? Those seats are NOT comfortable...but I digress.

Anyway, we made it onto the plane, took off, and landed in Boston. PRAISE HEAVEN. I watched 3 movies. It was sweet :) Actually, this is was a huge achievement because we had actually made it out of Paris on the day we had planned to leave Paris. There were people that had been trying to get from Europe to the States for DAYS. One woman we talked to had been traveling all over Europe for 4 days just trying to get to Boston, she started in Germany and had been to Zurich, London, and now Paris in 4 days. So we were incredibly grateful to have gotten out on the first try, even if we did miss our connection to Atlanta and then home last night. We just stayed with my aunt and uncle in Boston, no sweat.

So today, we got up and went BACK to the airport. Weeeeeeee......I love airports....not. So we're waiting in the security line and there's a woman in front of us drinking coffee. As we get closer, one of the workers tells her she's going to have to throw away her coffee before she goes through. Now, we've been talking and she says she's flown to Europe and all over the country, but what is her response to this worker? Wait I can't take my coffee through? What about this unopened bottle of water I just bought????

Um, Hello???! Have you ever been to the airport before? What a dope...

So today was chock full of flying and impatience with the general population of this world. Some people just aren't the brightest crayons in the box my friends. Another funny story: We arrived in Atlanta and were waiting in line for the Ladies' room (since there's ALWAYS a line) and this was a hefty line. Quite long, and definitely going out the door. But what happens? A woman just comes walking in and starts passing people in line and then goes, "oh wait, is there a line?" No, didn't you know? Standing in hallways at the airport is the new thing! It's the greatest hobby and you even lose weight too! BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! Join now and you'll get a free bathroom break! OF COURSE THIS IS THE LINE YOU MORON!!!! I tell ya....I even had a girl tap me on the shoulder whilst we were in line and ask if this was the line for the bathroom!! No, I'm waiting in line to look in the mirror....WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE WOMAN?!?! Sweet heavenly porkchops...

So anyway, we finally got to St. Louis, got in the car, grabbed some delicious pizza on the way home, and now we're here. Laundry. Shower. Bed. It's so good to be home. :)

Little Neige, Big Neige!

Bonjour mes amis! Or Bonsoir I guess I should say, because while it's almost 1:30pm in St. Louis right now, it's almost 8:30pm here...bonkers.

Anyway, mom and I decided to stick close to home today. We've both been pretty worn out by all the hoofing around we've been doing the past few days, and we needed to recharge the batteries a bit. So I was looking on our map and found that the Mosquee de Paris is just a short walk from our apartment, so we decided to head over there. We got there, and I wasn't really sure about what the boundaries were about us going inside or whatnot, but when we looked in the door we saw that there was this huge cafe right inside the mosque!! Strange...but I was a little freaked out and didn't really want to stay just because I was really unsure about how to behave in such a place. So mom allowed us to walk around the block of the mosque and look at all the cool architecture before making me go back and have tea :) Fortunately, THIS time she was right. The tea was DELICIOUS and the little cafe was pretty cool. Definitely a highlight. Then we came back and just walked around our neighborhood for a while, bought some chocolate (never a bad idea), grabbed dinner and more mousse chocolat (again, never bad my friends) and came home. Oh there's also this really cool catholic church/cathedral right in the middle of our neighborhood that we were able to go into and walk around. It was no Notre Dame but it was still really pretty.

So now I will go into the hilarity that is my mother's attempts at speaking french. Or frenglish as we like to call it. Today we were at this cafe/bistro for lunch and our waitress' english wasn't very good so we were both trying to work with each other to figure out what was on the menu and then what we wanted to order. So we got our food, which was pretty good, and after we were done the waitress came over to clear our plates and asked how it was. So my mom says "Very good! Tres Bien! Perfectiment! oh and we're ready for our ticket" Oy vey. So then I started laughing at her, duh. To which she responded as she normally does, "shut up!!"

We will now break down the pronunciation of her frenglish. For those of you who don't speak french, "perfectiment" isn't a word. At least not to my knowledge. And apparently it is pronounced perfect-i-mon, with a little nasal action there at the end. So apparently you can just add "i-mon" to any english word and it's automatically french. Well I wish I had known that before I took 7 years of french!! Also, "ticket" was pronounced ti-ket, ket like the beginning of "kettle". Now, to her credit, ticket is a word I believe, but not the right one for your bill after a meal. So at least she hit A target whilst shooting in the dark. Either way, I had a good laugh about it, which meant she had a good laugh about it too. :)

Also, I realized today that I never wrote on here about our hilarious encounter with one of our waiters a few nights ago. This was the night that it snowed and wreaked havoc all over the place, meaning there were sirens galore. Now, I had noticed that there were a plethora of sirens anyway regardless of the snow, but I had attributed this to a hospital that I thought was nearby after looking at the map. So we were chatting with our waiter (who also didn't speak very good english, but enough to get by) and we were commenting on all the sirens. Then we asked if it was because of the hospital nearby, to which he said that there was no hospital nearby. Thoroughly confused, I decided to just drop it and not worry about it, since it really didn't matter. But then he decided it was really important for us to understand why there were so many sirens, so he said it was because of all the neige. (Neige means snow, but only I knew that. Mom was totally clueless, which made it even more hysterical later.) Then he goes, "when there is a little neige, lots of sirens (this was complete with hand gestures to communicate small and then large) When there is big neige, no sirens, no police or ambulance, they don't want to go out!" Now I, who had actually understood what he was trying to say, verbally agreed with him and kind of laughed/smiled my acceptance. Mom just kind of smiled and nodded and I totally forgot that she would have had no idea what neige was. So right after he left, she goes "What the hell is neige??" For some reason this just hit my funny bone and I started cracking up, then I told her it was snow and she seriously went BONKERS she was laughing SO HARD!! We created a major scene in that poor cafe. I really hope the waiter didn't think we were laughing at him. My mom then explained, after composing herself after her fit of hysterics, that for some reason she had thought he meant Santa Claus because there was a little Santa doll behind me that he had been pointing at, when really he had been pointing out the window at the snow. Also she thought maybe neige was somehow related to "St. Nick"....who knows. Either way we were both crying and I felt really bad about disturbing the entire restaurant, but it was too hilarious to pass up.

So now, whenever one of us screws up our french, the other one says "little neige, big neige!" and we die all over again...great times.

Paris, Je t'aime!

Je suis en Paris!!! *nose up* unh hohn hohn!! (that was a sort of nasaly scoff in case that didn't come across)

Wow. It's uber surreal to be here. I mean we went to the Louvre today, the freaking LOUVRE!!! I SAW IT with my own eyes!!! It was so cool...Although SO FRUSTRATING to try and navigate!! Holy crow, I mean it was amazing to see all the of the famous artwork like the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, and Venus de Milo, but I will have no problem never going there again. SO MANY PEOPLE who either go about 1 mile an hour in front of you for no reason, or just stop and you have to get around them or they're constantly pushing you.. BAHH it drove me insane. And the map system is totally wacked out. It was bonkers. Totally awesome in theory and once we found the pieces we were looking for, but totally bonkers...

Anyway, we arrived yesterday morning in a fit of exhaustion, jet lag, and anxiety. Ok, well I think the anxiety was really only on my end, my mom seemed to be doing just fine. See, whenever I go to a new place that's a lot different than what I'm used to, I kind of get super stressed and on edge until I get my bearings. Fortunately, I know this is how I am so I can sort of mentally prepare for it. Unfortunately, knowing that it will eventually get better doesn't really help me at the time...bummer.

So we get to the apartment we're staying in and crash for a few hours before heading out for food. I'm still pretty tired and pretty stressed/nervous about what to expect in the surrounding area. I've heard all types of stories about the french and how they are rude/selfish/will laugh in your face/etc. So the fact that my french is tres sub-par and my mom knows zero has me on a bit on edge you might say. But man was I wrong!! Everyone we came in contact with was so nice!! I was shocked! People were smiling, wanting to please, and those who didn't speak very good english were almost apologetic about it! I was so amazed. So that issue was totally squelched in my book. Stress gone. Katie=happy camper.

Now for a hilarious story from traveling yesterday, the humor may or may not translate so just bear with me: So we were advised to take the metro from the airport to the apartment for financial reasons, as taxis are super expensive. So we get on the train and it gets pretty crowded. It was about 7am and the morning rush was in full effect. Now my mom and I tried to pack light, but it's freezing here so we have a ton of warm clothes. We have two huge suitcases and one other small roller bag (briefcase size). So we make it through the metro and we got off and are going through the turnstiles to get out of the station. Now, my experience with subways/metros is limited to the Washington DC metro system from our 8th grade field trip, so A. that was quite some time ago and B. That was only one city's version of a subway system. Therefore, it didn't even occur to me that I would need to insert my ticket in the machine to get through the turnstile on the way out. I don't recall this being the way it went in DC anyway... So here I am, still paranoid about being seen for what I truly am: an American tourist who speaks hardly any french and is terrified of making a fool of herself in front of a seemingly surly nation of people.

See if you can picture this situation. So I have this huge bag, right? And a backpack. I am now trying to force my way through an unmoving turnstile with all this stuff. Greatest fear: achieved. There were two guys waiting on the other side just watching me, CLEARLY trying to suppress their laughter. Awesome. So I make it through a locked turnstile which probably makes me a fugitive or something. BUT it turns out it's a good thing I didn't use my ticket to go through because then it's my mom's turn. She also has a humongous bag plus her little roller bag plus herself. So her advantage: she knows she needs her ticket to get through. Her disadvantage: she ends up needing both her and my ticket because of all her crap. That's right. One ticket for her bags, and one ticket for herself. Even better. It was hilarious about 5 minutes after we were out of the metro station.

So I think that story was a lot funnier if you could have seen it happening, but hopefully you can visualize it enough to see the hilarity of it all. Needless to say I was mortified for about 10 seconds and then I was just like, well screw it. Who cares...

So that's all for now! Oh, ps after dinner tonight I had Mousse Chocolat (chocolate mousse for those who can't put two and two together) and it was seriously the most amazing thing I've ever eaten. UGGGHH SO GOOD!! And the bread's not too shabby here either if I do say so myself.. :) Au Revoir!!