Rosetta: The Abridged Version

Hello,
What have I been up to these past couple of days and why haven't I posted for a while? That's a very good question, thank you for asking. Here's why.

As school came to an end for what they call here Christmas Break (and got very confused when I tried to call it Winter Break because they actually have a real 'winter break' in February) the kids began to get more and more antsy in class. As luck would have it, I was to have class on the Friday before break so I showed up at 7:45AM in the teacher's lounge and met up with Elisabeth. While we were sitting around one of her three 8AM students called to tell her that they were going to be late, so finally at 8:20 we all met up in class. Elisabeth had brought us all scones and jam and she went to the teachers lounge and bought us all a coffee. We chatted, mostly in French, for the next 30 minutes and then it was time for the students to leave. I thought it was funny that the reason we were speaking French was because I had asked about French politics and Elisabeth had said 'this will be easier to explain in French' and then she proceeded to explain it. After that we were supposed to have an hour break and then another two hours of class but Elisabeth wasn't sure if we were going to have class today so she went off and asked someone and sure enough all the students had been told they would not need to show up today. So I was free to go. This was convenient for me because it meant that I was up at 9AM on a Friday with the whole day ahead of me to get things done. I made some peanut butter cookies as Christmas presents for my french friends which went over very well and everybody loved (I was especially happy as my recipe was in cups and Fahrenheit and not only do I not have any measuring utensils I also don't have degrees of any kind marked on my oven).

Finally Monday arrived and it was time to head to Paris. Now, I had packed my bag and come to the conclusion that it would be possible to fit my computer in my bag (just barely) however my tiny little laptop has, over the years, seemed to become more and more heavy, especially after the last time I decided to bring it with me on a trip where I had to carry it bodily from train to train. Conveniently, Savannah informed me that she would be bringing her iPad so we would have access to internet for all our planning and possibly emergency needs. On this information I decided reluctantly to leave my computer at home.

I got to Paris around 1:30 and met up with Maria who just happened to be in Paris that day before her flight to the Canary Islands the next day. We went and checked into the hotel and then looked for a restaurant in the area. Unfortunately, all we could find were asian restaurants because apparently we were in the asian part of Paris. We finally settles on a place called Food King and split a 4 cheese pizza. By that time we were very hungry and it tasted delicious.

Savannah arrived at 8:15 the next morning and I had asked the concierge at our hotel how long it would take to get to the airport. He told me it would probably take about 45 minutes so I left a whole hour early the next morning. My trip cost my 12€ and took about an hour and fifteen minutes. By the time I found the arrivals Savannah was very relieved that I was there as she had been waiting about five minutes (I had been hoping to be waiting for her when she got off the plane and I had even brought my book in anticipation of a little wait). We hopped back on the RER and headed back to the hotel. Here's what we did in Paris over the next 4 days:
-Had a Croque Monsieur
-Saw the Catacombs
-Visited the Latin Quarter
-Walked the Champs Elysées
-Saw several Christmas Markets
-Had some chestnuts
-Saw the Arc de Triomphe
-Visited the Pompidou Museum
-Saw the Sacre Coeur
And many more fun and exhausting things.

Our flight to London was the cheapest I could find and this meant it had an 8AM departure time. 8AM minus 2 hours (recommended security check allowance time) equals getting there at 6AM with an hour estimate travel time means getting out of the hotel and being at the bus stop at 5AM. We were a bit stressed because metros do not run that early in the morning so we were scheduled to catch the last night bus and if that didn't work out we would have to wait 45 minutes to catch the first metro and pray that we got to the airport on time. When we got on the night but my first thought was, 'oh good, there are plenty of people onboard, that makes it feel less scary.' However, Savannah's first thought was 'All the people on this bus are very unclean looking men, this could be bad.' Luckily, our bus ride passed without incident and even our transfer went smoother then planned (we had been told to catch the 71 at our transfer by the concierge and after we would have a ten minute walk to the airport. However, once we were at the stop, the bus driver informed us that the 31 would take us straight to the airport. The system our concierge had used to look up our best options had given him the 'quickest' route, which preferred a ten minute walk over a 20 minute wait for the 31 bus. We however, at this point, were definitely more inclined to wait 20 minutes then have no idea which direction to walk to find the airport from the 71 stop). We arrived in plenty of time at the airport and had a very uneventful flight to London were my father was scheduled to meet us at the airport.

We had not written down the address of anywhere we would be staying because dad was supposed to pick us up at the airport and have everything taken care of, and plus, if something went wrong, he had e-mailed me the address of the hotel and so I knew we could find it even without him. However, when we were faced with boarder control they were none too happy that we didn't know where we would be staying. In fact they took it VERY personally and the lady helping me demanded, 'How do you think this looks? You don't even know where you'll be staying.' I tried to explain that I was meeting my dad and trusted those details to him but she angrily informed me that, 'If I tried this in America they would kick me out,' and 'I could send you right back to France for this.' Savannah and I told them that we could step out of line for a minute and find the address of our hotel on her iPad to which they responded, 'You should have done that before,' even though we were the last people off the plane and therefore there was literally no one waiting in line behind us. Finally, the two agents decided to let us pass and gave us one last lecture as they stamped our passports angrily. Later we would find out that my dad had had an even harder time of it since he didn't have a return ticket and apparently England had just had some big flap about boarder security. So we stepped out of our gate and my dad was nowhere to be found. After cooling our heels for a bit we jumped on the DLR to our hotel and as we were checking in dad arrived. He had not slept all night and had decided to go on an early morning walk which had lasted longer than he realized and so he had missed our arrival. Here are some of the things we did in England:
-Crossed the Tower Bridge (four times in a row)
-Saw the Design Museum
-Went to an authentic pub
-Ate fish and chips
-Saw 39 Steps
-Saw Chicago
-Visited Oxford Circus
And many more fun and exhausting things.

We picked up my friend Katie who is another English assistant here in France and we headed to Essex for Christmas as my dad's house. He lived in a very remote town which was difficult to get to but even more difficult to leave two days later after a very enjoyable calm Christmas filled with hot chocolate, yummy food, and a 2000 piece puzzle which we made quite a dent in but were unable to finish. We were trying to travel on December 26th which is known in England as Boxing day and is considered a holiday. We also ran into a train strike and long story short had to call our taxi to come back and give us a ride from the train station he'd just dropped us at to a bus station in a different town. All in all, not the cheapest way I've ever traveled. We spend another day in London, said goodbye to Katie and my dad and caught our flight back to Paris (almost the same exact story with our flight being so early we had to travel on the night bus to make it there in time). We caught a train back to Touquet very near immediately upon our arrival and ended up back home in time to do a little shopping an for me to show at least the main strip of my town to Savannah. Now we are hanging out in my house and calming down after our extremely tiring adventures. We have no plans except for getting Savannah to the train station on Sunday so that she can head home. And there you have it, the abridged version of my Christmas plans.