Barcelona Bus Trip: Day 3: Versailles

The Palace of Versailles! This is probably one of the most infamous places in French history and a massive symbol of the inequality that took place before the French Revolution. It was from here where the Royal Family was forced to flee due to angry mobs and crowds of people who came to overthrow the monarchy. They were unhappy with the extravagance of the wealthy while so many others were dying of starvation and hypothermia due to extreme poverty. (I believe they had every right to be outraged.) The extravagance of it all still shows today.

The outside of the gates was all gold! I mean, I think it was real gold, but then I have to wonder why someone hasn't already stolen it if it were real gold. So I don't know if it was real or just redone in gold paint.

Our group started by touring the gardens. [Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France spent hundreds of thousands of Francs on her beautiful gardens, during her reign]. They gave us half an hour to tour the gardens. And the gardens are HUGE! I mean, it's not like there was much to see at this time of the year. No flowers, no greenery. It was all wintery and dead. But still... It's a fricken maze. My friends and I only had enough time to walk down to the big lake and take pictures and then to run back through the maze! I remember I couldn't decide which group I wanted to stick with! I had my group of girls: Leonie, Aarohi, Shivani, Hope and our only guy, Gio. Then there were my two friends Bryan and Camilla with whom I always went with. It was our group of 3! Luckily almost everyone went down to the lake. Great group pictures!

Of course, it's a long way from the lake to the castle! And by the time we had finished taking pictures, our group leaders (who at this point were starting to get on everyone's nerves) started yelling at us to get back to the castle. But we didn't want to walk the long way up we came. It was boring and straight. And so as soon as people started saying "Carima's coming! It's time to go back!" people started asking if they could take the routes through the garden instead of on the trail. She said no and started ushering people up the path. However, Bryan, Camilla and I darted for the nearest garden path. Some of the other guys saw us and came running after us. Carima didn't see Bryan, Camilla and I, but she did see the other guys and she got mad at them (although they got away). Naturally, we kept running too although it was too late anyway. We were already gone and it would waste time for her to come looking for us. We were heading back to the castle anyway. It was free time: they should trust that we would make it back to the checkpoint on time.

As we walked, we realized that it was like a maze. If you've seen the 4th Harry Potter movie [Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire] -> (loooove Harry Potter!) then picture the maze at the end of the movie in the last challenge. It's got high walls of green and long passageways.

Now take away the greenery:

AM I RIGHT?!

And so we were walking, and soon we realized that we were going pretty slowly and so we started to run! And Camilla and I started to think we were lost. Somehow, by just going straight, we ended up walking away from the castle again. (How we figured this out- I'm not sure... I lost all my sense of direction. It was Bryan who noticed.) The other's behind us were long gone at this point and had gone the wrong way- I'm sure. So Bryan pulled out his map and started to lead us down paths (that changed direction!) Camilla and I were sure were wrong! I couldn't make sense of it in my head which direction was the right one or how going right would lead us to the castle. I assumed we would come out on the side of the long, straight walk path that everyone else had taken but instead Bryan lead us right in front of the castle steps. By turning right, instead of coming out to the right of the maze garden, we ended up coming out straight as though we'd never changed direction.

Also to our surprise, we were far ahead of everyone else including Carima! We climbed the steps and waited at the checkpoint a good 5 minutes or so for everyone to arrive. The guys who followed us into the maze came out on-time too but admitted they got really lost and confused!

We then went inside the castle! I don't really know what to write about it.... It used to be someone's home, and now it's a museum. So the first couple rooms had lots of paintings of the Royal family and glass cases showing layouts of the castle grounds or miniature versions of the rooms. There were also a couple informational videos on the history of the castle; how it was built, who lived there, and what happened to the last Royal Family.

History: I think the history of this royal family in particular has to be one of the most interesting stories I've heard. Louis XVI didn't want to be king in the first place. He found the duties of it all boring and uninteresting. How's that for a King? To be totally uninterested in the affairs of his nation! Second, there was Marie Antoinette who was Austrian. She was forced to marry the 16 year old Louis at the age of 15 in order to form an alliance between France and Austria. Young, right? But if you think that is young... Just 4 years later, at the ages of 19 and 20, they inherited the kingdom in a terrible state of poverty (one that even a good king would have trouble handling). Even with his complete and good education, Louis XVI was not prepared to handle a situation this financially grave.

Moreover, his wife, Marie Antoinette, was a terrible queen (although I find her to be fascinating)! Some may say she was selfish and irresponsible with her money although others argue she was young and bored with her royal life. Recognized as one of the ultimate "girly girls" she spent extravagant amounts of money on clothing and jewelry and entertainment in the castle. She also completely redecorated the castle grounds and is responsible for the decor and artwork throughout the castle as well. (I saw a movie on her awhile ago with my aunt in Australia. The movie is called Marie Antoinette and gives us a close up and interesting perspective on her life. After seeing the movie and hearing all of the stories about her... much like other people as well, I can't decide if I like her or not!)

At the beginning of the French Revolution, the castle was raided and the royal family (Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and their 2 children) were forced to evacuate and flee. Later on, both the king and the queen lost their heads to the guillotine. Of the 2 children, there was the eldest Marie-Thérèse Charlotte de France aka Madame Royale and her little brother Louis XVII. During the revolution, they were both imprisoned with their parents. However, Louis XVII died of tuberculosis at the age of 10 while in prison and Madame Royale was exiled (heiress to the throne). She lived in Vienna after that (I assume with her mother's family). After the revolution had ended and monarchy had been restored in France, she was able to return and was given the title Dauphine de France. She maintained her ties to monarchy for the rest of her life.


This is where you can read more about them if you are interested:


And this is the movie, Marie Antoinette, if you want to watch it too! From what I remember, it was good. I has been 6 years since I've seen it though.



However, inside the castle... It was just weird to be there. After knowing the whole history of it all, and then to be there and to see their bedrooms, their dining rooms, the famous Hall of Mirrors, I don't really know how to describe it. This used to be their home and part of their everyday life and there I was in the centre of large passing crowds touring through it.

The Palace Chapel

The King's Bedroom

The Hall of Mirrors

The Queen's Bedroom

We weren't really given much time to explore the castle because we also had to use our free time to eat. It was a shame really because our objective became more about making sure we had at least seen and gotten a picture in each room rather than enjoying our time to look so that we could give ourselves time to eat. We raced through the castle and then we raced out of the castle and up and down some streets until we found a kebab place. We ate our kebabs on the ground in front of the bus! It was so cold! My hands felt so frozen I could barely move my fingers to eat! They were swollen and ugly and bluey purple too. What a pain.

Here are the last pictures I will put up of Versailles because after that, we spent the whole day in the bus. It was time to finally leave the Paris/Versailles area and head down south to Spain and to where my hands wouldn't become frozen and stop working!

On the bus, I sat next to Amit and we talked for a couple hours and then everyone on the bus fell asleep. I'd never heard the bus so quiet in the daytime before. Normally the Latinos were going crazy playing Spanish music and dancing and pretty much having a party in the back of the bus (it did cause a lot of problems, the bus driver wasn't happy with people out of their seats and moving around all the time and we kept getting in trouble.) But I decided to take advantage of the quiet on the bus so Amit went to sit with the girl that he liked and I stretched out over the 2 seats and fell asleep for an hour or so. Then people started to move around in their seats more. I talked with 2 girls behind me, and then my friends from the front of the bus came to sit with me! Soon we were 3 squished into 2 seats and I was so happy because it was all my friends together and we were all having fun.

Then the Latinos woke up and everyone was singing popular songs and dancing and our Autocars leader, Sarah, was filming and getting countries to sing songs to the camera! It was all great until she asked me to sing something, but I couldn't think of what to sing! So I shrugged and said "Je ne sais pas quoi chanter!" And she looked at me and gave me a look like "at least try to join in, come on." And I started asking my friends before she rolled her eyes and walked away. That was when I first noticed the Autocars girls had a problem with me.

I don't like to disappoint people, or to feel left out of something. So I decided to go and find the other Canadian girl. She was at the front of the bus. We were prepared to sing a Hedley song because it's a Canadian band but before I could return to my seat at the back of the bus, Carima was telling everyone to go back to their seats. Since I was sitting down and everytime she called, most people grabbed a seat closest to them and so I thought it would be fine. But then Carima walked down the aisle and told every single person, one at a time, to stay in their seats. I didn't have a problem staying where I was except the Canadian girl was starting to get sick and was falling asleep and then there were just Asians around. The Asians don't talk! Most of the party had settled down now too and so I couldn't easily sneak to the back of the bus.

I asked Carima if I could go back to my original spot and she said no I couldn't because there was no space. I said but it was my spot before and it's where all my friends are. But she wouldn't let me sit in a row of 3. So I waited and I got really bored. I thought about trying to run for the back but every 2 minutes she turned and looked behind her with really mean eyes! I was too scared to try to run.

I tried asking her at one point if I could go to get my phone to give me something to do. At least with my phone I could text and use Facebook and my email. But she didn't want me to go to the back. And so she kept pretending like she couldn't understand me and kept repeating herself "There's no space at the back of the bus!" I kept saying "I know but I just want to go to get my phone." And then she "wouldn't understand" me. Eventually she started saying "Where is your phone?" and I explained to her for the hundredth that it was at the back of the bus and she offered to go and get it for me. But why couldn't she just let me go to get it? So I told her it was in my purse and I didn't know exactly where my purse was. She had to accompany me to the back.

So she came with me and now it had been a good half hour or 45 minutes since I had left. When my friends saw me, they were saying "Courtenay! Where did you go?" And I said I had to sit at the front because there was no space. They were saying "No, here it's okay! We will make room for you!" They were moving over to make room when Carima snapped at them saying it wasn't allowed. I quickly grabbed my phone and I sat at the front of the bus texting everyone at the back and Facebooking. It wasn't nice. Plus, every time Carima looked back, she shot her eyes directly at me and I could tell that she didn't trust me to stay in my seat. That upset me.

That night we all slept in these cabins in Dijon. It was nice :) Lou, Leonie and I had our own cabin as did everyone else and they were all arranged in a square so that in the centre, there was a covered porch with lots of tables and a fire pit. Really, it looked like a summer camp!

If I thought the autocars girls didn't like me at first, I was sure of it after this. Lou, Leonie and I were assigned 2 cabins and we didn't know which one to take. So I went up to Sarah to try to explain to her the problem but she ushered me away saying she'd already given me my cabin number. Then I found Carima and I said to her that we were given 2 cabin numbers but she didn't listen to me either and told me angrily to wait. And so I did. Leonie and Lou were looking at me and wondering what I was doing. I tried talking to Carima again and she played the 'I can't understand her so I won't listen to her' game. I hate that game. Especially when I know that even if I'm speaking in broken French, people can understand me! I tried Sarah one more time who didn't give me a second glance. That's when I found Leonie who then went to talk to the girls.

I was shocked to see that Sarah immediately took the time to listen to Leonie and find the problem. I said that to Lou and then Leonie came back saying that Sarah realized as soon as Leonie explained what the problem was (it hurt a little that Sarah didn't even give me a chance) and then Leonie said that she'd explained to Sarah that that's why I'd come to talk to her earlier but Sarah just rolled her eyes and spun her finger beside her head as if to say "Oh Courtenay, she's crazy" or "She's not right in the head." Of course after she found the problem, Leonie said that she had the "ohhh that's what she was trying to say" expression. Still bothered me but I learned to forgive Sarah.

Later that night after dinner, everyone was sitting in the covered porch talking and listening to music. I was with my girls :3 and it was so nice! Sarah was coming and taking photos of everyone (I still don't know what happened to those photos)! And at 11:00pm Sarah said that we didn't have to go to bed but we did have to go to someone's room and be quiet. Leonie and I went to Shivani's, Aarohi's and Hope's room with Gio. It was lots of fun! Gio did my make up and I think they started straightening my hair too before they gave up! And it was really funny because after about 30 minutes in the room, Leonie noticed that Shivani was sleeping in the bed! Hahahaha and she never saw her! "Oh where's Shivani?" "She's lying right there in the bed..." "WHAT? OHMYGOD WHEN DID YOU GET THERE??????" I just love Shivani so much! All she wanted to do was to sleep and eat and you could barely notice her!

Eventually everyone got tired and we heard that the Latinos were having another one of their exclusive Latino-only "parties", who knew where the Asians were: probably in bed sleeping, and the other Americans + one Australian were in their own room. Leonie and I called it a night and we slept :D!

Barcelona Bus Trip: Day Two: Eiffel Tower & Louvre

The next day, we went up the Eiffle Tower and we went into the Louvre. A cold and cloudy day!!! The bus stopped in front of the fields and public gardens in front of the tower and exchange students went crazy. Everyone had their flags out, taking pictures and group photos. The funniest thing, I also noticed it the day before. As soon as someone saw a picture with two people in it, then another friend would run to be in the picture, then so would another friend, and another friend until you literally had people from every group drop everything and bolt to be in the picture and one person standing, holding 10 cameras or so to take the picture for everyone!

It was waiting in line when I met two people who would be good friends of mine on the bus! Bryan from USA- San Francisco I think? And Camilla from Mexico! Going up the elevator was strangely exciting and I honestly can't tell you why but people were cheering and filming videos and it was so squished! We bypassed the first floor and went straight to the second. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't nice at all. We are just lucky it didn't rain. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it a lot more in the sun shine with some heat but it was just miserable and freezing. I got some really beautiful pictures of the city though and there were a lot of group pictures too.

Bryan found the booth where you could buy tickets to go right to the top. I remember one friend telling me that when she went up the Eiffel Tower, they couldn't to go to the top because it was too expensive, so I was preparing myself to say no until Bryan said it was only 5E! That's what happens when you travel in low season :) Of course I bought the ticket and so did most other people too! Bryan, Camilla and I decided we wanted to take the stairs up to the top but after circling the middle level about 5 times without any luck in finding them, we settled for the elevator. Going to the top was.... well now I can say I've been there! In all honesty, I was a little underwhelmed although I think the weather contributed about 40% or 50% to that. It was freezing! I'm so happy I smuggled my Canadian gloves to the top (they confiscated all the flags before we could enter the elevator.... Nationalists these days!)

Hey Mum! I had a growth spurt :D

I can't even remember what I did at the top. Not unfamiliar to the second level, the clouds covered a lot of the city and the city itself was a little tinier. Also there was more railing and netting for protection and because I'm so short I had a little bit of a more difficult time seeing. I imagine it would be so much more beautiful though, even from my point of sight, in the sunshine!

I spent not long outside on the balcony of the Eiffel Tower. It was really cold! And so me, and most other people then went into the interior. I didn't see the house or apartment that's supposedly at the top and where Gustave Eiffel (who's company designed and built the tower and whom the tower is named after) lived. But on the inside, there is this panel or board that circles the ceiling and has the names of cities with their flags and a small picture of their tallest tower and it's height. The idea is that when you stand in front of the name of the place, you are facing in it's direction. The only Canadian city was Calgary.

On the inside, I'm really not sure why but I guess while we were waiting for the elevator to come up, everyone decided to dance. Bryan taught me the waltz! Well he tried to. I can't dance :( and everyone was doing this weird twisty thing with their feet and the latinos were going crazy with Latino dances!

When the elevator came, Bryan, Camilla and I got out at the second floor to buy a couple of Eiffel tower souvenirs, then we went right down to the bottom to go find a place to eat. We circled the block before choosing a restaurant. It was really nice i remember. We poked our heads into and out of souvenir shops, I almost bought a Paris hoodie and I didn't and I really regret it! And we found French burees and played with them in the store but we didn't buy those either. You see I love souvenir shopping! The cheesy little things and all that. Most other people on the other hand think it's stupid and a waste of money and they are probably right. So I tried self control, and didn't buy all my tacky little souvenirs. Mistake every time!

We ended up eating lunch in a restaurant called Gustave's and it was really really good! It wasn't too expensive and I would take people back there again! The pasta was so amazing, I had to take a picture.My first Parisian food!

Next stop: The Louvre. It was my second time going. We all filed into the centre and people went crazy taking pictures then Camilla asked me if I would go with her to the bathroom quickly. We looked around, people were getting into groups for seeing the different sections. We assumed that once everyone was in a group, then they would go and buy the tickets. So we asked one of the group leaders if it was okay to run to the lou quickly. She said yes, but hurry. We ran there and to our surprise we saw a HUGE line. Shivani was already there and some other girls on the bus too. They assured us it was moving quickly and she was going to let us cut in front with her until an older woman had a hissy fit and so we settled for the back. But the line wasn't moving quickly. At all. I really don't know for how long Camilla and I waited but it was too long. We should have just left but for some reason we didn't and assumed the group would wait for us or come to find us if they were going to leave. To our disappointment, they didn't! After our toilet run, there was no one in our group there.

We went up to one of the gates and explained that our group had already gone in and we'd been left behind (we even had our group stickers) but the woman said she couldn't let us in. So we called one of our leaders and she came out with the group pass to get us. She was really mad. Giving us hell for leaving the group, not listening to instructions, saying we were lucky she came for us at all. We felt pretty bad and a little angry since she had given us permission to leave in the first place. It's not our fault they screwed up the counting. Although I understand entirely why they were upset. Lesson learned for sure.

Camilla and I got in finally and took our own tour away from the group through the gallery of paintings. You see, that was our group to begin with, and the supervisor who came to get us was with the Egyptian section. I'd already seen it in Paris the last time, and Camilla was this kind of art freak and so the woman said we could go to the paintings to look for our group. We never found our group. Nor were we able to find the Mona Lisa! After exploring the realistic paintings and loosing interest in them quickly, we found ourselves in Napoleon's apartment! And I have no idea how! It was exquisite though. Golden walls, chandeliers, ceiling paintings, just the extravagance of it all.

After one tour through, we decided to move on. Then we turned a couple corners and found ourselves at the entrance again. Okay, no biggy. Let's walk through it again. At the end, we said Alright, let's pay attention and not go the same way as last time. We've got to get out of here. Guess where we found ourselves. At the entrance again. We contemplated going through a third time before Camilla got a call from Bryan asking where we were and if we wanted to meet up. Then I noticed a corner that I hadn't seen before. How we missed it, I'm not sure. We told Bryan that we would meet him under the huge pyramid and then started to conduct our way out of the maze. It was awful. Well lovely, the Louvre has some beautiful exhibits. But every time we turned a corner following the exit sign, we found ourselves in another room or the beginning of another exhibit!!! I don't know where we went! We walked through some rooms of statues. Up stairs, down stairs, back into the same room of statues! At one point Bryan was calling to ask us where we are and Camilla had just turned the corner into the statue room for the third or fourth time! Finally we found the real exit and we exited. Stupid idea.

When we met Bryan, he was going to show us the Mona Lisa but we couldn't get back in. Same thing as what happened at the beginning. We had the ingenious idea that maybe if we couldn't convince one security person to let us in, we could convince another. And we tried each of the 3 buildings. Didn't work. To our "delight" there were other people who accidentally got locked out as well. With a group of 8 people or so, we had another one of our group supervisors come to get us. She went in with one group but Bryan asked if we could first go outside to get some pictures in front of the Pyramid. The supervisor gave us something that looked like a group ticket and said that the ticket would let us back in. So in the end, a small group of us went outside and got pictures in front of the Louvre!

Once we had our pictures, we went to go back inside. Guess what wasn't really a ticket or a pass. Turns out that was the card to prove that someone was a group supervisor. It couldn't get us in. We tried at each of the 3 doors. And so with almost 2 hours of free time to kill, and locked out of the Louvre, my group of 3 hit up the gift shops, (I bought a poster of a le chat noir) and we found the rest of the group in Starbucks. I wanted to buy a frappachino. I miss those so much! But I wasn't hungry, nor was I thirsty and Starbucks in France is much more expensive than in North America. Bryan convinced me it wasn't a good idea. I guess I don't regret not buying it. After that, we pretty much hung around until everyone else showed up and we finally went back to our hotel for the night.

Barcelona Bus Trip: Day One: Paris

Wow... this is stretching my memory far back!

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.