parlez vous Anglais?

My roommate, Lindsay, and I decided at the last minute that it would be a great idea to sign up for one of the day trips advertised in the brochures in the lobby of our temporary housing. So Saturday morning, under the cover of darkness (about 4:30am) we ventured out onto the streets of London in search of the St. Pancras International Train Station. We were headed to Paris! Before we arrive on the streets of the "City of Love," though....

I've been known to be wrong a few times in my life, I prefer to call it confused though. And apparently I had misinformed myself as to the whereabouts of the train station. Oops. Thank goodness Lindsay isn't one of those people who freak out! We bumped into a guard somewhere around the gates to parliament 5 minutes before we we'd been told to be at the station. Politely asking him where the station was, he politely told us we were on the wrong side of the city and speculated it would be a 40 minute walk. I felt my jaw hit the pavement and my eyes widen to the size of half-dollars..... The nice thing about spending time around a roommate you've only just met is neither of you know each other well enough to have a full-blown freak out breakdown in front of each other. Or get that mad at each other thankfully. So as I oppressed the desire to scream "WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?!?!", we calmly walked down the street and assessed our options. Buses? No way, too confusing and too slow. Tube? Maybe... but for whatever reason London does all their renovation projects on the weekends and you never know which lines will be open or closed on Saturday. Taxi? If only there were one around... we walked two blocks before finally flagging down a lone black cab on his way around a corner. Desperation must have squeaked through in my voice in my explanation of being lost and late for a train because, boy, that cabby flew through the winding streets! Luckily, the streets are not crowded at 5:35 in the morning. Whipping into the St. Pancras station in 9 minutes flat, we were feeling more relieved about only being 15 minutes late rather than whatever it could have been.

We made it onto the Eurostar on time. The Eurostar is the train that runs frequently between London and Paris through the "chunnel." I was fascinated by this underwater tunnel beneath the English Channel, yet somewhat dissapointed that while on the train, you can't really even tell when you're just in a tunnel or underwater. The wonders of modern technology! We were so excited our plan hadn't fallen apart under the early morning street light :)

Our first steps into Paris were the first time I really realized that I wasn't going to communicate with anyone. And, I learned that I do not have any percieveable ability to be able to spot other Americans. A deep sigh just to check if I was breathing... Yep. Again, I found myself thankful it wasn't ok to have a breakdown in front of people we've just met. We must have looked lost staring at a bus map, attempting to decode it. A kind Parisan stopped and informed us that we probably wanted to take the 31, towards the Arch de Champs... it would get us to the main tourist area and from there things should be easier. Our next question-- where is the bus? Laughing a little, he pointed us in the direction of the closest bus stop and we were on our way again.

The rest of the day was great. We saw the Eiffel tower, went on a boat tour up and down the Seine river, wandered the courtyards of the Louvre, looked for Quasimoto at the Notre Dame Cathedral, ate lunch a French cafe, and enjoyed the sun as we walked the cobblestone paths that line the banks of the Seine. Occasionally we found ourselves staring at signs, puzzled as to their meaning, but we got the hang of the flow of things in time. It was a full day. Needless to say, we crashed immediately when we got back to our London flat. What an experience!

Tomorrow starts our last week of class here in London before heading to Swansea. I'm going to try to pack the week full, attempting to leave no stone untouched-- at least not the stones I really want to see. We have a final paper due and a test on Thursday. My paper is on whether the National Health Service will continue to exist in the UK in the next 10-15 years, through the predicted party change in government, increasing budget and the populations demand for more choices in healthcare.

Until next time... Au Revoir!