It's funny, just the other day, as I was strolling down the street on a beautiful autumn day, the Eiffel Tower looming ahead of me, cute little French children outside laughing and playing, I thought to myself "I really do not think it is possible for a bad day to happen in France." Yeah, I definitely should not have thought that! Because yesterday, my day was comical, it was so awful!
Our story begins Monday (yesterday) morning. That's a bad sign already. I mean, Mondays are bad enough as it is, I definitely did not need everything to go awry. Anyway, my alarm goes off Monday morning at 6:45 and I pick up my phone and think "NOPE, doing my hair today isn't THAT important" and promptly silence my phone--first making sure I did indeed have another alarm set for 7:00 and quickly fell back asleep. However, it was not the familiar and annoying sound of my cell phone that woke me up....in fact, I just woke up on my own. "I have definitely been asleep for more than 15 minutes...." You all know that feeling of panic shooting through your body when you wake up late, yeah? Well I was FREAKING OUT, especially when I grabbed my phone only to find that it was DEAD! Yeah...it died in the FIFTEEN MINUTES between my alarms...how convenient.... Not having another clock in my room to reference, I scramble to find my watch and jump out of bed realizing that I have to leave for class in less than half an hour. Awesome.
Well, luckily, the metros were running smoothly and I somehow made it to class on time. And really, class was not that bad...well besides being STARVING due to missing breakfast. But my day was turning out pretty well until I got to my religion class. K religion is just rough. It's MONDAY AFTERNOON for one thing. Who can focus on a Monday afternoon? And then it's one of the only times during the week that everyone in the study abroad program is actually together so we don't want to sit still and quiet for two hours...we want to socialize because that's what college students do best! Add in the fact that all 17 of us (plus the teacher) are crammed into a room that really isn't meant for more than probably 10 people MAX plus free wifi compliments of the institute and there's really just no chance of focusing (but I'm trying my best Mom!! ^^)
But as rough as that class is, it really wasn't going too bad until Kailey nudges me and asks what time our train leaves for London in a few weeks. (K side note: I'M GOING TO LONDON AT THE END OF THIS MONTH!!! And so we could have tickets together, I bought my, Kailey's and Spencer's train tickets there, and Kailey bought our tickets back). So I pull up my confirmation email to check the departure time and my heart sinks. We're definitely leaving on the 30th of October, yet for some reason, the tickets that I purchased were for the 23rd....awesome. Oh yeah, and see that "Non-Flexible" there at the top of the confirmation? Yeah that means you're SCREWED!! No big deal....they were just $100 tickets that I bought...for the wrong date....yeah so that was an awesome realization. Alex for the win.
After class, because I don't really feel like socializing anymore, I just head home. PRAYING the whole way that somehow I can fix my stupid, stupid mistake. When I get home I compose an email to the train company explaining what happened and send it off. (I can't call them or talk to them in person because hi, I don't speak French. Awesome.)
Oh yeah, and then there was that issue with my phone dying that I needed to deal with. I have a portable charger so I charged my phone during class but by the time I had arrived home, it was pretty close to dead again. WHY?!?! It's not like I use it during the day! I don't even have service! So I plug it in to charge and NOTHING happens!! Okay, maybe there's a short in the cord. That's fine. I brought an extra. So I switch the cords out aaaaaand NOTHING! Awesome. My phone can just be dead for the next two months. No big deal. Luckily, my amazing roommate Lauren let me borrow her charger and lo and behold, hers will actually charge my phone!
So after all that, Lauren suggests we go for a run. YES! Not only did I need to work off the crap I have been eating here, but I seriously just needed some fresh air. So we change our clothes and head out to the beautiful park by our house for a run. When we are A MILE AND A HALF AWAY FROM OUR HOUSE the heavens open up and it starts POURING RAIN!!! Awesome. So we turn around and run back, getting completely soaked (we probably could have washed our hair in this rain) and basically blind from the water and mascara that were pooling in our eyes. We finally get back to the main road and from there it's a short, easy walk home. About ten minutes later, we realize we had NO IDEA where we were. Awesome. Oh and I didn't think it was possible but it actually started raining HARDER once we realized we were lost!
Finally, we found a street we were familiar with. A street that is about half a mile from our house in the opposite direction. How we ended up there, I have no idea! But alas, we made it home, soaked and freezing. We must have been quite the site. I peeled off my wet clothes and treated myself to a hot bath. The day is almost over, it literally cannot get any worse. I was feeling quite a bit better when I went downstairs for dinner. SHRIMP AND MUSSELS!!! I should have known dinner wasn't going to be any better than anything else.
By the time I climbed into bed, I was beyond ready for the day to end. I was stressed, exhausted and ready for a good night's sleep. My phone was charged and at 90% battery life. All of my apps were closed. My alarm was set. And I welcomed the deep sleep that came over me. I did wake up at about 3:00am with the worst headache and sore throat of my life, but other than that, I slept quite well....until Lauren came into my room at 8:05 to wake me up this morning. MY PHONE WAS DEAD AGAIN!!!
Universe: "Good morning Alex, I hope you enjoyed your rotten day. Now lather, rinse and REPEAT!"
Awesome.
Okay, today was definitely a lot better. I haven't heard back from the London train people yet, but my host mother (bless her heart) is going to call the France office and explain what happened for me tomorrow. Kaylie brought me a cord that will [hopefully] actually charge my phone plus she gave me drugs to help me fight my sore throat and any sickness I may have contracted from running in the rain. And I tasted pure happiness in the form of a chocolate cake thing from this AMAZING chocolate shop I found today. Soooo ça va. Life goes on. France is beautiful. And I will never again think about how bad days aren't possible here.
Bisous.
{Because I obviously didn't feel like taking photos yesterday and I feel awful about my lack of photos lately, here are a few completely unrelated photos from my life as of late}
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| After class at the LOUVRE |
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| We had a picnic at the Eiffel Tower! |
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| Group selfie on the steps of the Madeleine. |
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| SELFIE! |
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| A cute little Parisian man came by and offered to take our photo! He said we were American models...uuhhh duh. Then he asked if Mormons really had more than one wife.... (they don't). |
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