day 69: thursday
- woke up at 8:30, had some quick breakfast, chatted with johann a bit, and went down to pub au bureau to check into our flights and check our emails one last time before we left dieulefit. i had some trouble checking into my delta flight for tomorrow, which was annoying, but other than that all was well. halfway through, hilary and jean-pierre brought constance down to say goodbye as she was going to visit the bastion grandparents and we would miss her otherwise
- sat with our feet in the pool for about half hour before running upstairs, packing our last things, stripping the beds, and running out the door. grandma made us sandwiches to take with us on the trip, which was quite thoughtful
- arrived at the montélimar station in good time with hilary & jean-pierre. the ticket machine didn’t recognize my bank card to pick up the tickets, but hilary helped us at the desk instead. all four of us sat together at the platform for about half hour until the train arrived, then we found our seats, waved goodbye out the window as we departed, and sat down to our sandwiches in our luscious first class seats (which were cheaper than second, go figure)!
- arrived in lyon st exupery with eons of time to spare, so we printed our boarding cards and sat down at a café in the airport and had our usual croissant/pain au chocolat. i watched pride & prejudice (the kiera knightly one) while victoria finished lord of the rings. about halfway through the film i bought a tuna baguette to split, woooo!
- finally, it was time for us to drop bags and go through security… we then found a café on the other side, i bought a drink (there are no fountains in lyon, grrr!) and we sat down and plugged in our laptops. victoria watched last song and i sat and judged the english/american businessmen filling the café under the guise of writing more of my paper... which turned into playing rollercoaster tycoon
- arrived in london, took the shuttle to the hilton, checked in, and found our room on the hilton honors floor (courtesy of daddy, of course) we felt super special since our floor had a special plaque next to it in the elevator and everything
- we decided we weren't appropriately dressed, so we both found dresses and quickly changed. we then found our way to the restaurant where victoria got a bacon & brie sandwich and i had a delicious (and expensive) burger. i think it's hilarious that we were in england for 13 hours and my vegetarian sister stuffed herself with as much bacon as possible :P
day 70: friday, last friday (night)
- woke up at 6am, left the room by 6:30, walked through the tunnel and had our bags dropped & boarding passes printed by 6:45. we went back to the hilton for our complimentary english breakfast buffet, which was incredibly delicious and filling, and were through security by 8am... we were quite pleased with our planning skillz
- sat at the gate waiting to board for a while and the flight left about half hour late... other than that, the trip to detroit was mind-numbingly uneventful. there weren't even any good movies. i watched 3 shitty comedy movies (starring the likes of vince vaughn, owen wilson & adam sandler), the office, and the adjustment bureau (which was actually decent enough) i also finished my bracelet, yay!
- passports, bags, and customs were the usual... the drug/agriculture beagle did jump at victoria's backpack for a hot second while we were waiting in line for customs, but it turned out to just like her or something cause upon further inspection he walked away completely indifferent
- mama & gubbe picked us up and i got to drive home where we were reunited with heath :)
- had tea & shared stories with mama before heading out to the yard and playing with heath. i created a game with the hose where he chases the water and tries to bite it (and has some struggles) he was jumping all over & it was adorable
- tried to unpack, only to realize that i don't really have much of anywhere to unpack into, so i just took all my clothes to the laundry and decided to figure out the rest tomorrow... particularly since it was dinnertime. while we ate, victoria told us her paris story, which took quite a while though it was only 3 days!
- went on a short walk with heath and victoria before finallyyy going to bed at about 5:30am in my head!
i can't believe i just wrote day 70... day 70 was supposed to always be this super abstract, far off, future hypothetical where i moved back to america and had to get on with living real life. there are so many things i need to tackle now that i'm back, it's just crazy to think that yesterday i was in france, this morning i was in london, and now i'm sitting in my bed at my parents house planning like crazy for work, school, housing... and more travels! i'm not sure what's really going to happen to this blog now... but as the french say, au revoir!
i can't believe i just wrote day 70... day 70 was supposed to always be this super abstract, far off, future hypothetical where i moved back to america and had to get on with living real life. there are so many things i need to tackle now that i'm back, it's just crazy to think that yesterday i was in france, this morning i was in london, and now i'm sitting in my bed at my parents house planning like crazy for work, school, housing... and more travels! i'm not sure what's really going to happen to this blog now... but as the french say, au revoir!
