Who says you can't go home?

Getting home is supposed to be sort of sad, bittersweet, but overall not rocket science. My trip home was supposed to start at 10 am Thursday (the 9^th) and end at 9pm in Detroit. I say supposed, because that isn’t what happened.

Megan's sort of hilarious currency collection

Thursday morning I said my goodbyes to Liana, and later on to Dominique. Chantal drove me to the train at around 9am, and I parted from her there. I found my platform and a little before 10 Megan and I boarded. The train itself was boring and uneventful, and I couldn’t help but nod off a few times. Little did I know that this was the last uncomplicated part of my voyage home. We got through security and all that fun stuff in CDG and managed to grab some lunch before our flight. Once on the flight…I realized it was going to suck. Our plane was huge (think 3 by 4 by 3) and I was in the middle row, between some dudes…that ended up being okay, and apart from severe antsyness (and 3 in flight movies) we landed in Montreal.

my hotel room-Montreal

Heres where the hell began. Before we’re off the plane, our names are being paged, but no one knows where it is we are supposed to go to. So we ask about 3 men before being directed through Canadian customs…and to the airfrance desk. We were told that due to the time we landed, we missed the chance to get through security again before our next flight, and even though it was delayed to take off until 9:45 a.m….we were being forced to stay overnight in one of the airports hotels. Both Megan and I wanted to cry when we heard the man tell us all of this…actually I started laughing..nervous reaction I guess?

Toronto..waiting

We hopped on the airport shuttle, unloaded our bags at the hotel, and managed to connect to the internet to inform our parents of the new time to get us in Detroit. (insert sigh here) delta(airfrance) paid for our hotel. And for our dinner that night, but let me tell you, it wasn’t worth it. At all.

At 3am, we found ourselves back at the airport, waiting to check in to our flight/go through security…well it wasn’t long before we were informed that our flight (set for 5:45) to Detroit…had been canceled, and the next one wouldn’t get us there until 3pm. At this point, I’m not proud of the fact I sort of lost my patience, but I pretty much flipped a nut (but stayed rather calm) and ended up forcing them to reroute us as many times as necessary to get us to Detroit sometime this century. Sigh.

Finally en route to D-town

We were put on a 5:30 am flight to Toronto, (connection to Detroit) and were supposed to land in Detroit at a little after noon. We had to go through security, recheck our bags, and get on the plane to Toronto…once there, we had to collect our luggage (im talking baggage claim) and go through American customs (weird) and then through security. All of that took a while, but initially was fine. We then sat in the Toronto airport….forever..and ever…and ever, and soon the clock changes from our departure time, to our arrival time, and we haven’t boarded yet. Sigh. Our flight crew got stuck in customs, and we ended up leaving an hour late (or more) and we officially landed in Detroit after 1pm. (Friday)

Well, it took a very long time, 1 train, 3 flights, 3 times through baggage claim, and back through security, Canadian and American customs,  and many many hours spent waiting..to finally make it home.

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go.

So the last few days have been quite non-eventful, but still enjoyable. My last days in France were spent much the same way as my first; lazily exploring the city and taking it all in…except this time around it was taking it all in for one last time.

Liana and scallops

Monday we had one last lunch at our favorite pasta takeout, with Leah, and then walked her to her train. Liana and I spent much of the day not doing all that much but still enjoying our time in Angers without having a set schedule of classes to attend. Monday night we went to the movies and saw Tree of Life, with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. I can’t really give an opinion on the movie, because it was very strange, and sort of leaves you questioning a lot of details of the movie. It was really well filmed though, and overall I enjoyed it. 

Host Family

Tuesday Liana and I wandered the city for a bit, sampled some delicious macarons, I finished up the souvenirs I needed to buy, and ended up finding a Disney comic book from 1982 completely in French…for only 5 euros. WIN! I bought it, and It will be my reading material for tomorrow. =) We spent much of our afternoon in Lianas room watching season 3 of True Blood…That evening, we had our last night with our host parents(they have a dinner party to go to tonight) so we had dinner. Liana and I bought Chantal and Dominique a bottle of cointreau as a parting gift, and when we presented it to them over aperitifs, they quickly cracked it open. We enjoyed a nice cocktail of champage, cointreau, and orange juice with a few appetizers…one of which were scallops…seafood…sigh. I ate it with a fake smile on my face. Oh well. We followed this with a glass of (fake) champagne from Saumur (the only real champagne is actually from the city Champagne..go figure).  Chantal and Dominique also gave Liana and I a gift; we each got a saucer/mug set from Paris, that has hand printed paris/Eiffel tower stuff on them, and they are absolutely beautiful…and fragile.

Mon cadeau

Dinner was a veggie mixture (delish) and pork (also good). Dom kept teasing Chantal about feeding us veggies with the e-coli breakout all over Europe. She simply rolled her eyes and brought out the cheese and baguette course. (Dinner was served with Red Wine) The cheese this time wasn’t strong at all, and I actually enjoyed it …win?! Haha we then had an apple tarte tatin, which was really really good, and made me realize I may be missing Taco Bell like nobody’s business, but in a short while I’ll be missing French pastries. We followed dinner with a coffee (more like espresso) and Dominique decided that Liana and I must take a shot of cointreau with him as a digestif….sure France…did u notice all the alcohol consumed for one meal? Yup, can’t say my life will be like that when I return to America, especially being that I turn 20 on Tuesday, so I have over a year before I will be able to do that again. We ended our night by going to Soft one last time, and then finishing up the season of true blood.

Today we wandered into town and just took pictures of anything and everything we saw fit to. We took in all the sights of this beautiful city one more time and soon were joined by Megan and her friend Collin. The 4 of us headed across the river and lay in the grass enjoying the view of the cathedral and chateau one last time. Our time together ended with a quick stop for some macarons to take home (I hope they don’t break on the plane!)and one last pastry (pain au chocolat aux amandes…yum) Our last night will be spent making dinner and maybe watching one last movie on our laptops.

Everything of mine is packed, my room is clean, and I have left a box of things for Shannon to have in the fall when she will be living in my old room.

Last night at Soft

Highlights of my last few days:

-seeing everything one last time (bittersweet)

-Dominique teasing Chantal every chance he gets (ex: “no, it wasn’t Katie you’re thinking of, it was a different girl, you’re just getting old” “there’s usually more rum in this, but Chantal drank it all”)

-macarons…many many macarons

-getting a buzz with my host parents

-finding Arizona ice tea(green tea…but still) and literally shrieking in the store over it.

-Delta alerting me I have less than 24 hours before I leave, and that I can check in for my flight…

This will be my last post from Angers, I hope you have enjoyed reading about my adventures half as much as I have enjoyed living them.

France me manquera.

Au revoir, mon amour.

And now whatever way our stories end, I know you have re-written mine by being my friend..

Why hello there =)

The end of exam week was a little uneventful; I spent a lot of time worrying about literature and the exam in general and instead she gave us three pieces and we had to analyze them…tres simple. The phonetics exam was time consuming because she has to individually read phrases and you count either the syllables, the sentence breaks, write it phonetically, or write it grammatically correct; ex. She’ll say “chais pas” and we have to write “je ne sais pas” (obv. Those who don’t know French won’t fully understand this) overall it was fairly easy and painless. Which brings me to the exam I was dreading; traduction. For some reason, I can do the homework really well and I understand everything that is going on in the class, but my good ole amazing test taking skills come out full force in this class. (folks, this is sarcasm, I have always been a horrendous test taker) I crammed for this exam all day on Friday and more on Saturday morning, but it just wasn’t enough. It’s the only class I don’t feel I did well in, and it bums me out, but I guess that’s just how life goes.

We had our last dinner at mcdoner the other night with “les filles”, when we left we took a picture with the owner, and he told us his life story. Haha, overall hes a very nice guy and if you’re looking for cheap and sort of greasy food, head there. =) oh and get the tea, it is to die for!

Yesterday I had lunch with some of the girls at a soufflerie, and we each got a catalon soufflé, and split a dessert soufflé. The catalon was this sort of sausage, tomato, onion….I can’t even remember all that was in it, but it was good. The dessert soufflé was pistachio and raspberry with salted carmel sauce for dipping; now this may sound like a strange combination, but it was ah-may-zing. Soufflerie win.

Today I attended mass at the cathedrale. It was on my bucket list before I left France, and today is the last Sunday, so I went. It felt strange to be sitting in church again, but after it was just about done, I found myself thinking how other than the fact that it was in French….the process and music…even prayers were the same. Religion strangely has affected me while studying abroad, and the more it does, the more it makes me want to sit down and read the bible to get things straight for myself. Those who know me, know that I don’t consider myself religious, sure I’ve made my communion, I’ve gone to church, I know the procedures, but that’s where it ends. For years I’ve struggled with what I believe in and even if I believe at all. So now, after spending a semester in a country where religion is separate from state, but still a very big deal …I find myself curious about it and plan to do some reading when I get home.

After mass, Leah, Liana and I set out to find the Angers cemetery, and it was a long walk. We ended up coming across the Angers prison, and there was a plaque outside about the German occupation during the 2^nd world war, and the 3 of us wondered out loud if it had been used for nazi camps, and I decided to take a picture because the building really was quite cool looking…too bad none of us realized the prison is actually still in use today and as I took my picture, a guard came out telling me “pas de photos”…Oops. Well I put my camera away, but I do have a pretty nice shot on it of the prison…and it now resides in a folder on my desktop.

Once we actually found the cemetery, we explored a bit and were slightly curious of an entire family name being on one plot, but once again..I’ll need to do some further research on this one.  The weirdest part of the cemetery for me, was coming upon an area of crosses, and the plaque told us that all of these crosses were people who died during the german occupation in a working camp…some were soldiers, others were nearly 10 months old. Entire families were there. I was shocked to see so many crosses, and after being at Normandy, it just brought back a lot of somber feelings. In the u.s. (for the most part) we don’t have cemeteries were entire families were knocked out from the same thing, during the same time period. It’s crazy to think about, and even weirder to actually see.  I think today was the quietest day we have had in Angers so far. I could hear every step I took, there weren’t many people out (Sunday) and it is so humid that many are staying indoors to avoid the sticky heat. In fact, that is how I plan on spending the rest of my Sunday.

Highlights of this week:

-done with classes, and most of the exams were easy( if u studied)

-Corn bread.

-souffle

-wandering Angers in search of things we haven’t seen yet

-laying by the pool while studying.

-Cidef goodbye picnic by the Maine

-throwing out notes, worksheets, and papers that I will no longer need( while of course keeping those I will use)

-Mass at Cathedral Sainte Maurice

Bad things:

-Feeling unaccomplished after an exam

-Goodbyes

-the weather; whoever told me angers was a dry heat was sadly mistaken, the way this humidity is I won’t be surprised if I have an afro after walking around for a few minutes. Hot + humid = awful.

-needing to pack but not having the motivation to actually do so.

I find myself pleasantly surprised to be ready to come home. Most of my friends have gone in the past few days, or leave early tomorrow morning. While I am getting slightly nostalgic about this place, I realize that Angers was as great as it was because of the people I spent it with. Coming here I wasn’t thrilled to be in a university in the Loire Valley…I had thoughts of fields, and castles. While we have both of those, that is simply not all it is. But as is the case in many of my life experiences, if you are with the right people, any city, or any experience can be made into something unforgettable. So for all of my amazing friends from this semester, who will now be heading to all corners of the earth, I wish you all the very best, and if you ever find yourselves in Michigan, don’t hesitate to give me a call.

Classes are finished, exams have been taken, and goodbyes are being said. My time in France is coming to a close.