But before I go on to that, I must mention briefly my Thursday: I went into my internship like I always do at 9, and after telling Thomas about my lovely day off, I mentioned that I wanted to revisit Grand Palais between my internship and class to see the Renoir exposition. He told me that the expositions can get really crowded and that to make sure I saw it, I should leave earlier. So he let me leave at 11:30 instead of 12! Isn't that so nice? What a great guy. I worked hard for the time I was at IFE and then I left right at 11:30. It's a good thing I left early because I still had to wait in line for a full hour outside at the Palais. There was a man there playing clarinet, as sort of a serenade for the people in line, and it was so nice. It was worth the wait and even though I couldn't get in for free, I was so excited to see the paintings. I don't know if I've mentioned this before but sometimes art from more recently is much more striking to me. When I see an Ancient Egypt exhibit, I already know the artifacts are going to be older than what I can imagine. "This pot is from 475492857485742087044754 b.c.? neat." But art from the early 20th century touches me more because the time period is more tangible and I can imagine what life was like during that time. I saw paintings that I just did not want to walk away from, such as "Jeunes filles au piano." I'm so glad I went :)
After, I strolled around Place Vendome, which is where all the fancy jewelers are. I just liked to window shop and imagine what I would own in another life, haha. It was lovely! Class was ok, and I had a class with Isabelle since we missed last night's. It was ok, and after I just packed for my trip and ate with friends in the foyer. Ok, on to bigger and better things.....
FRIDAY
Friday morning I woke p early and got all ready for my trip, managing to pack all my things into my brown bag again. The Eurostar train leaves from Gare du Nord so I took the metro there and of course arrives ridiculously early. You know how I am. I exchanged some euros into pounds which was downright painful (and don't think it was any better on the way back; it's all around bad). When I went through customs I encountered a small problem on the questionnaire that asks for your address in the UK. I never thought to ask Ben what his address in Oxford was, I'd just thought everything would work itself out, no problems. That's my fault, and the guy in customs was basically like, "Have you ever travelled before?" They need to know where I am, and just for myself, I need to know where I am. Oops! I still got to go through, though. I got a window seat on the train and loved watching the green rolling hills speed by until I fell asleep while in the chunnel. Alors, it was not as exciting as I was expecting. When the train got out of the chunnel, the sky was dark and gray and it was raining. Nothing says "Welcome to England" like that weather! Even more, that was the weather for my entire weekend. It's normally not as bad as it was, but there were damaging, gale-force winds, too.
Anyway, I was so excited to be in another country. The people were so much nicer and more helpful there, and I had to ask a million different people to help me get to where I needed to be. What a change from Paris! Everyone sounds so polite and proper with their accents, it's too much. And OH to speak English and not feel badly about it! I took a small detour on the tube--which I do not prefer to the Paris metro--to a stop that claimed to be the exit for Buckingham Palace. I walked around in the rain and saw no such palace. What I did find was a big red tour guide bus. Being the sucker that I am, I put down 25 pounds for a 2 1/2 hour bus tour of the city. But really, it makes sense because I was only in London for a few hours and this way I got to see as much of the city as possible in a small amount of time. I would love to go back and do a more in-depth visit, but this was great to see all the sights, even though from a distance. I saw Big Ben, the Tower Bridge, the London Eye, and lots of things. My guide's name was Nobby--does it get cuter than that? I also learned a lot about the history of London, which was pretty fascinating. I had bought two macaroons from Paris as small gifts for Ben and Matt, as something from Paris. One was vanilla and one was chocolate and both were giant. I thought it was a nice gesture...until I ate them both on the bus tour. Is that like me, or what? :( Sorry, guys, I got a little hungry. I have concluded that London is beautiful in its own way, though I prefer Paris.
I got myself to Paddington station to take the train to Oxford, all with the help of a guy about my age because I was very confused about the trains. He happened to attend Oxford and was going back for the weekend so he helped me get to where I needed to be to meet Ben. I saw a lot of red telephone booths along the way and vowed to have my photo taken with one before the weekend was up! I was so happy to meet Ben, especially after we had both been standing in the rain and wind, not knowing the other was already where we were supposed to meet, haha. We walked back to his dorm (which, to me, is a luxury palace. Carpeting, there is carpeting!). He has a lot of friends and it was easy to get in touch with them to get together for the night. I love that you can walk anywhere on campus or in the town and run into someone you know. Oxford is a really cool, fun town (city?) with a lot of college students and lively pubs. And of course, it's breathtakingly beautiful.
We called Matt and met up with him for dinner at a pub. It was so great to see him, too! We went to a place called The Eagle and Child, which was frequented by C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. No Shepard's pie for me, as it was not on the menu, but I had another yummy chicken pie instead. Everyone drinks there, too, so I had a glass of red wine and of course could only finish 1/4 of the glass. We went to the University bar after, and were joined by some of Matt's friends. Matt and Ben go to different colleges within the university and so don't live too near to one another. A lot of people showed up at the bar and I met a lot of really great people! It was just so easy to talk and it was comfortable, and everyone was so nice. Really lovely. :) We stayed there for a couple hours until the bar closed and then went back to Ben's room, and a big group of us just hung out and talked for a while. I don't know where the time went, but I didn't go to bed until 3! It was the most comfortable floor I've ever slept on, haha.
Ok, this is a lot of information all at once so I'm going to make another post for the rest of the weekend. Cheers!
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