After spending a weekend in Paris, coming back to Aix for two days, then leaving again for London for a week, my body apparently couldn't handle all of the excitement, so it broke down and got sick. I spent the last day in London with a fever, and the next three days sick in bed in my apartment. No fun.
However.
Paris was a blast! Every other time I've been there, it's been to rush around seeing as much as possible, trying to get in all of the tourist attractions I can. This time around, because we had already done all of the touristy things there, we took it a lot slower. Most of our time was spent eating baguettes, cheese, and sausage and reading on the riverbank or in the parks.
The last day we were there, we found a really awesome castle on the outskirts of the city with a really nice park. It was so far out of the way that it wasn't touristy at all, which was a really nice break from everything else in the city. But it was still beautiful! (It is Paris, after all.)
London/Oxford
Before I get into everything we did in England, I would like to explain how much I love this country, and how much I have looked forward to this trip. I didn't realize until about a month ago quite how much my reading has been based on English literature, but apparently the majority of it has been. Here's the list (off the top of my head):
Harry Potter
Lord of the Rings
Agatha Christie novels
Jane Austen
Jane Eyre
Shakespeare
C.S. Lewis
North & South
and my absolute favorite, which I'm sure almost none of you have heard of: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis.
Anyway. Now that you know that, I'll continue.
We got to London last Thursday night at about midnight. We had decided beforehand that we were going to spend the night at the airport because we thought there wouldn't be a shuttle service running from the airport to downtown London at that time, but, unfortunately for us, there was one. We both got about 2-3 hours of sleep total that night, and it being Good Friday, I couldn't even snack to give myself more energy. Not the best thought-out plan ever. We finally left the airport at about 7am on the shuttle service to the city. The drive takes about an hour and a half, so we napped a little more on the bus, but it wasn't anything very substantial.
London weather was hot, at least it was with all of our jackets and bags we were carrying to the hostel. We got there, changed into new clothes, dropped our bags off, and grabbed a free breakfast (cereal and toast) before heading out into the city. Our hostel was right by the Thames, so we walked there and followed the river up to Parliament, and took pictures, but only on Josh's camera because mine was out of battery and my extra ones were still packed away at the hostel. Anyway. We saw Parliament, Big Ben, and then we crossed the street and made our way into Westminster Abbey (for free) for a Good Friday sermon that was thoroughly British. The Anglican priests are very fond of quoting Shakespeare and Chaucer in their sermons.
Then we went into a tavern, had fish and chips, and then went into Green Park for an afternoon nap because we were both running on empty. Unfortunately, I couldn't really sleep. I have trouble taking naps, apparently even when absolutely exhausted. After that, we went to Buckingham Palace, took pictures, and then decided to head back to the hostel to check in, use their kitchen to cook some pasta, and then sleep in our sixth floor, overcrowded, overheated, hostel room. We shared the room with two Finnish girls, and another mystery couple that never seemed to speak.
The next day we left for Oxford!!!!
In case you didn't know, I was excited about this. We left London at about 11 am via train. The train was overcrowded, but totally worth it. We got to see the beautiful
English countryside as we traveled along the Thames and some minor tributaries to get to "The City of Dreaming Spires". Gorgeous, through and through. Along the way, we kept seeing fields of yellow flowers--literally fields of them. We found out later on that they're called rapeseed, and that they're grown for their oil.Anyway, once we got to Oxford, we found our hostel and deposited our bags there before we explored the city. We decided right off the bat that we were going to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and go punting on the Thames. In case you don't know what punting is--and not in the American football sense of the word--it is basically like powering your own gondola. You are your own gondolier, and it's so much fun! We ended up lunching on the river between shifts. We were told to try a certain type of Ginger Ale that is actually Ale, but we didn't have a bottle opener, so we spent some time staring at the bottle trying to figure out how to open it before giving up and going back to enjoying the river.
After that, we spent some time exploring the city, especially finding areas that I've only ever read about. It was really cool to see them in person--finally.
The next day was Easter, so we woke up early, checked out of our room, and went to Mass in a Dominican brother's church. It was the "Family Mass", which basically meant that there were a lot of kids involved in that Mass, especially in the orchestra. Which also meant that the music was... great! (for a third-grade level) But it was still nice going to church in English for once.
After that, we went and hung out with the people at our hostel at a barbecue that the hostel hosted in this area oustide of Oxford that is basically a no-man's land. In England, they call it common land. This area was really cool because it was surrounded by water full of sailboats, and apparently people let their farm animals (cows, horses, etc.) loose in the middle of this place. So we just hung out at the barbecue for a couple hours, before we caught a bus back to London and checked back into our hostel.
The next day, we headed up to the West End to pick up our tickets for Les Miserables! We lunched in Chinatown at an all-you-can-eat buffet, and then we slowly worked our way back to our hostel before leaving for the musical that night. It was amazing, but both of us were getting pretty short on money, so we didn't even have enough to buy a program, which was a little disappointing, especially because Josh had never seen it before.
The next day, I woke up sick, but I wanted to take advantage of actually being in London, so we saw Platform 9 3/4, although it ended up being under construction, so all we got a picture with was a fake-looking cardboard wall that was glued on top of the scaffolding. We also went to Hyde Park, St Paul's cathedral where we saw a free choral concert, and then made our way across Milennium Bridge to see the Tate Modern, which ended up closing just after we walked in, and then Shakespeare's Theatre. Unfortunately, my fever was so bad at this point that I didn't feel like I could stay awake for very much longer, so we decided to head back after seeing Tower Bridge at night. Apparently, I was getting delirious and clumsy, though, because I misplaced by Underground day pass, so I ended up buying a single voyage, and we went straight back to the hostel instead. And I slept until we woke up to leave for our flight back to France.
Exams and Corsica
The next week was finals, so I had a half-week to study for those. I felt pretty confident about them, but I apparently overestimated how well I had done. I'll just say that my previous 4.0 GPA will no longer be accurate, unfortunately. The last night of finals week, our program hosted a dinner for all the students. At the end, all the year-long students stayed and we took pictures together, and I cried, because that's what I do.
The week after that, I went to Corsica with four of my friends. After catching a train to Nice and then taking a four-hour ferry to Calvi, which is in northwestern Corsica and is absolutely adorable. The city has a population of 5,000 during most of the year, but during the summer, the population spikes to 100,000. Supposedly, Christopher Columbus was born in the tiny town of Calvi, but that's only a claim you'll find in Calvi.
After we got off the ferry, we called the man we rented a little cottage from, and he was nice enough to come pick us up in his SUV. He drove us to the cottage and made sure we felt at home before we turned in for the night. The next morning, I woke up early, and Josh and I walked to the city to go to Mass, which ended up being more of an adventure than I thought it would be. The walk to the city took about 40 minutes, and we walked up to the citadel area of the city because that's where we thought the church was. We found the church, waited until 5 minutes after Mass was supposed to start, and then decided to leave because we were obviously in the wrong place. We had no idea where to go, so we explored the citadel and took in the view of the Mediterranean from the top of the city. Then, as we were heading back to the cottage, we spotted another church steeple and decided to head over to it just to see if it was where we were supposed to be. Luckily for us, Mass started half an hour later than I had thought, so we were only a few minutes late!
Later that day, we all headed to the beautiful beach outside the city, and it was perfect. The rest of the week played out basically the same way. We would wake up late, eat breakfast, pack lunch, and then head to the beach where we covered ourselves in sunscreen, and then relaxed. We would head back to the cottage at about 6:30, relax some more, and then cook dinner before settling down to watch a movie.
The End of It All
Now, it's come down to say goodbye to everyone. While I'm still staying in Aix for another three weeks, my friends have mostly gone. A couple are leaving tomorrow, and then by Saturday night, I'll be the only one left. Fortunately, I'll have a week in Ireland to get over my depression before saying goodbye to Josh and coming back to France to meet my parents.
This year has been amazing. I'm so grateful to have met the people in the program and here in Aix--you have all changed me and taught me new things. I've done my fair share of crying already, but it's only because you've all meant the world to me, and I'm sad to see this year come to a close. We've all got new experiences waiting for us, and I'm lucky to say that we were friends. Thanks everyone.
