Okay, so I left the day before the bus trip. The meeting time was at 9am which means an early morning for someone with at least a 4 hour train ride. It made sense to go and stay at Mami Colette's house (she lives in a town outside of Paris). I had to switch trains about 4 or 5 times before I got there. At the gare in Rennes, I went to wait for my train at the platform early. After about 10 minutes of waiting and about 10 minutes before my train arrived, I noticed that I was the only person on my platform. And, that there was no train. It's okay... the train just hasn't arrived yet, don't panic! Then, a train started to pull up... but it asn't a passenger train. It was coming by so slowly and carrying resources on it... So at this point I realized I had a problem. I was on Platform 2. I swear that that is what the giant board had said, but when I went to go and check it out again, it said Platform 6! That was on the total other side of the gare! 5 minutes to spare before my train LEFT, I dragged my suuuper heavy black suitcase up the stairs, literally ran across the gare- dragging it behind me because one of the wheels is broken, lugged it down another flight of stairs and pretty much left it bouncing AND dragging along the ground after me as I hurried up to my car and jumped on the train. I wasn't inside the door 20 seconds before the doors closed and the train started to leave the station. I just made it! The only other exciting thing that happened to me was while I was waiting for my train at Le Mans, a disabled guy came up to me and started asking me to play hand clapping games with him, but before we could start, he had to leave for his train. Oh, and I ordered a coffee at a mini café and was extremely dissappointed when the size of the cup they gave me was not much larger than my thumb. I don't even understand the point in drinking a coffee that size. Honestly.
Mami Colette is absolutely adorable. Christophe had told her all of my favourite foods and so for my one night stay, she bought flambies (my favourite dessert!), Nutella, brioche and juice. We had a nice meal together and then she showed me all of her travel pictures. She has been everywhere!!!! And I really enjoyed seeing the pictures of the places. I never realized how beautiful Austria was, nor the French Alps. After about an hour and a half of that, I went up to my room and tried to sleep. Nerves kept me up for most of the night though. It must have been around 2 or 3 in the morning before I dozed off. 6am, bright and early, I woke up, showered and Mami Colette drove me to the gare to catch the train into Paris.
Upon arriving at Montparnasse, I realized that I had no idea where to go. It's the biggest gare I have ever seen and I thought it would be simple enough to find the exit, but it wasn't! There were signs pointing in every direction to an exit. So I did the only thing that I could think of. I put on my Rotary blazer (which I later really, truly regretted bringing) and I followed the crowd. I guess I should be grateful that I had my blazer because other lost and confused students found me. I was waiting alone in the middle of the gare awkwardly not knowing what to do when an Argentinian girl found me. Then at the bottom of the stairs in front of what looked like the main entrance and exit with an Australian boy (from Sydney- woo hoo represent! and an American girl and before long there was a group of about 13 to 18 exchange students going on the bus trip who were lost and not knowing where to go. Eventually, two of them left and came back saying that they had found the rest of the group. We all by accident went downstairs to wait directly in front of the gare instead of staying in front of the cafés and stores in front of the platforms. I didn't know many people who would be on my bus... I mean there were people from my district there but I wouldn't exactly call them my friends. I made it a goal to talk to everyone at least once. The last person to arrive was another Canadian girl. We sat next to each other on the bus for the first day.
After leaving Montparnasse, we picked up the other half of the people on our bus from the other gare and everyone went to eat lunch. The only thing I can remember thinking was Damn... there's a lot of Latinos. It honestly seemed like the whole bus was speaking Spanish. Most people had picnics with them, and so we ate on a floor in the mall. Not really the most glamorous parisian lunch ever but it was really nice to talk to people. Somehow, later on, I found myself stuck in the all Latino group. No idea how it happened but I was left totally alone and abandoned by all English speakers and it sucked!
Once all boarded onto the bus again, we had a guided bus tour of Paris. The tour guide was spectacular! He had everyone's attention and played a contest with us. Whenever we came to a new monument, he would ask us a trivial question about it. Eg: How old is the Notre Dame? I got that one right- 850 years old :) The points was divided by countries. There were only 2 Canadians and both of us were really shy... so that was the only question we got points for. I think the tour guide forgot we were in the running for points by the end of it! Argentina was killing it! Then again, half of the Latinos were Argentinian. The bus tour took up the whole afternoon, pausing only to let us out of the bus to take pictures at the most popular picture spot of the Eiffle Tower. I'm and idiot though and left my camera in my suitcase sooooo I had to get pictures with other peoples' cameras.
We also had an hour of free time to get out and walk down the Champs Elysee. Most people stuck in the big group of people and just walked down the road but I met an Indian girl named Shivani to hang out with. Together we went into the Abrocrombie & Fitch and spent the whole hour there! Gates with security guards in front, controlling the line up to get in (quite seriously), and then after you passed through the gates, there was a long gravel road with green on each side and trees and lights. I felt like I was arriving to some chic and elegant party at a chateau or mansion. It was 5 floors of the most beautiful store ever! It was designed just like a high end nightclub.
These are pictures I took from the internet. I'm sorry, but I could't help myself with the models!
There were even paid models who's only job was to just stand there or dance and be beautiful in the clothing! Most of them were men because lets face it, Abrocrombie is famous for it's men! While Shivani and I were gawking over the gorgeous men and feeling bad about our bodies (even more so with the extra exchange weight), we were also wishing we were rich so we could actually buy something and deciding whether or not we should dare each other to ask one of the models for a kiss. We chickened out. After exploring all 5 floors, we decided it was time to put ourselves out of our misery. We didn't leave empty handed though! There was a shirtless model standing in the entrance. I have never seen a man be more beautiful. I don't know if this is normal for most places in the world but we definitely don't have that in Canada. We were debating whether or not we should ask him for a picture when he tapped me on the shoulder and asked "Est-ce que vous voulez un photo?" [Do you want a picture?] I was so stunned (those beautiful eyes, body, hair, face AGGHHH!!!!!) that I forgot all my French. I just stared at him. I may as well have heard "effsivufoolais__otoo". He looked at me and stuttered out in really bad English with a strong French accent "Do you want.... uhhh uhhh picture?" and he made the camera symbol with his hands. I just started nodding and smiling a huge smile! While Shivani was rushing like mad to get her camera out and ready (and I was trying to figure out how to stand next to him-- do I put my arm around his back? Do I touch his back? He is shirtless.... maybe I just won't touch his back...) He had his arm around me and instantly turned into a model and some woman with a polaroid camera snapped a picture and popped it into a little Abrocrombie & Fitch frame. I just stared at the two of them smiling this huge ass smile and stuttering merci so poorly they probably thought it was the first time I was ever saying the word. Shivani rushed in next for her picture, and then we left the Abrocrombie & Fitch store walking down the long walk way of lights and green fanning the pictures and waiting for them to develope so we could see our treasure! The guards in front of the gates just looked at us and laughed saying things like "Yup, those are two happy girls. Do you like your pictures? He's beautiful, isn't he!?"
By the time we got to the hotel, everyone had been placed into rooms and I was in a room with a German girl, Leonie and and Argentinian girl, Lu. They were really good friends and I remember feeling a little out of place. However, Leonie was good friends with my good friend, Linda, and so I knew that they had to be nice people and they were. The only problem was that Lu didn't speak any English (instantly helps her French) and Leonie was German (automatically has good French)and then there was me, who at the time, spoke mediocre French. I grew to really like the two of them though. The first night, not much happened. Mostly people talked, played some card games and got to know each other. There were a couple "parties" if you'd even call them that in rooms, me and a couple of the other girls checked them all out at one point but in the end, it was just people hanging out talking and getting to know each other.
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