Friday: Getting Ready to Travel

So had I had a computer Friday night, this is what I would have posted.

We left Menlo Apartments, where I live, at 10:45 a.m. to drive to Shannon Airport. The weirdest part about it was that I felt like I was leaving Ireland to go home. Especially since I haven't been back in that area since 7 weeks ago, it was really disconcerting and confusing...and to make things more weird, I only had a little carry-on bag, meaning I would be flying home without any of my stuff.

The trip itself was okay, and checking in at the airport wasn't a big deal. After getting through security, we had a bunch of time to spare, so I looked around the duty free shop for a bit and then played Skip-Bo with Alice while we ate some lunch. My friend Miriam bought this huge bag of Taytos (a specific brand of potato chips), so she was running around trying to get everyone to help her eat them before she had to board the plane.

I found some really cute baby clothes in the duty free store, and I wanted to get some for Farrah's baby, but I don't know anything about him/her yet...so I'll wait and maybe pick something up later. I did buy some acupuncture bracelets to try, and they helped a little with the motion sickness on the plane. They're not great, but at least it'll help me not have to keep buying Dramamine. I think I would rather use the medicine for longer trips, though.

Anyway, as we flew in to France, we could tell the difference just by looking out the plane window. In Ireland, the fields are broken up by tons of stone walls so that they're all little square-ish plots of land. In France, they're bigger fields, more like in the U.S. Once we landed, we had to change our watches and phones so that we were an hour ahead (since France is in a different time zone).

We met up with the Cork and Limerick API groups in the airport and drove to the hotel in Paris with them. There were 10 from Limerick and 7 from Cork; I ended up rooming by myself because my Cork roommate never showed up for the trip.

On the drive in to the city (we landed at an airport 1.5 hours away), we had to get used to driving on the right side of the road again. Our hotel, Carlton's, was in the red light district, so we passed by the Moulin Rouge and numerous sex shops on the way. They had names like Pussy's, Sexorama, and Sex Shop. Not so subtle at all. There was also an Irish pub, but our Irish director said that it was really basically a cafe, since French people don't act like Irish people do in pubs.

The driver of our bus, who drove us all three days, must have grown up in the area because the crazy crazy crazy driving didn't seem to faze him. I was so glad that I wasn't driving. If I were to ever go back, I would definitely take the bus and the metro--no car rentals for me!

After checking in at the hotel, I had to walk up a flight of stairs to get to my room. There was an old-fashioned elevator with an open shaft, but it was closed. I was careful to put my passport and electronics in the room's safe and unpack a little, then we headed out to find some supper.

Ideally, the group I was with (Miriam, Jackie, Alice, Courtney, Sarah, and Bethany) was looking for some cheap French food, but we ended up eating at a kebab place. I have never had kebabs before, so it was kind of fun to try the food. The cook told me I had a beautiful name, but he didn't give me enough ketchup for my fries! There was a little mouse running around the restaurant, but we just ate quickly and tried to ignore it. You probably get the idea that it wasn't the cleanest place, but the food was delicious.

Walking back to the hotel, we found a 24-hour bakery and stopped to get some dessert. I got this coconut thing with a cherry on top--very very delicious as well! There were so many choices that I would have liked to try, but that was small and looked good.

I really wanted to buy lunch food for Saturday so I wouldn't have to worry about finding a cafe during the tour, so we stopped at a grocery store right before getting back in to the hotel. I bought what I thought were granola bars, but actually turned out to be fruit-filled stick things; some cheese curls; and two apples. Since I really don't know French, I had to depend on the pictures (hence the granola bar mistake) and any resemblance words had to Spanish.

Once we got back, I finished unpacking and starting to write down everything we did that day and take pictures in the room. The Olympics were on in both German and French, so I watched some curling and hockey before trying to sleep. I didn't get much sleep at all, probably because I was so excited and still used to the Irish time zone.

All right. So that's the basic story of the day. Here's the matching pics:

My lovely little hotel room. It was actually really nice not to have a roommate for a couple days.
I circled our street on the map.
The full map of Paris.
My bathroom. Yeah, I know, it's weird to have a picture of it...
But this is more weird: the light switches are different even from the Irish ones, which are different from American ones.
My temporary journal of what happened that day. I borrowed Courtney's pen and used my itinerary to write.
My list of what to get on Saturday.
The view from my window.
These are all pages from a guide that the hotel left in the room.













Getting ready to sleep.
I'm all unpacked and ready to go!
Those confusing bars. Don't they look like granola bars?
Cheesies. They tasted like macaroni...
And gala apples!
Mmm...my delicious coconut dessert. I saved this half for Saturday.
My pile of museum guides. I really wanted to go to this one, but no one else would go with me.
A chair in my room. It's very low to the ground.
My little safe in the closet.
So that was Friday! I'll keep putting up the other days this week. I'm supposed to be writing a midterm right now, so I should go be productive. I'll write again tonight, so for now, adieu!