The past few days have been a real whirlwind... This might be a longy. Or maybe I'll be too excited to get to RIGHT NOW that I'll speed through everything else.. Impossible. I'm long-winded.
On Friday night, Raffi and I went to the Christmas party of someone in his program. It was great. We had hot wine and snackies and there was a Secret Santa. The lucky recipient of my yo-yo was pumped. Obvi. I won the gift from Viktor! An Eiffel Tower keychain and statue. Since I'm not even from Paris, it was great. I was glad no one stole from me...
Saturday was an incredibly long travel day.. I left Paris on a train at 7am. I took a train to Brest (Yes, it's pronounced the same as breast. And no, I can't say it without snickering.) which is almost five hours from Paris. It's in Brittany, right on the coast. An important WWII town, and quite pretty. Not as pretty as Rennes, but nice to be on the ocean. I slept the entire way, waking up to a breathtaking view of the ocean, all rocky and tempestuous, as Brittany tends to be. The shuttle bus to the airport was waiting for me when I got there.
Since I didn't know how I would get to the airport, and not wanting to miss my flight, I ended up leaving far too much time. I had four hours in the Boob airport, which was tiny. I had a coffee, wrote endlessly, people-watched like it was my j-o-b, and read my book.
I finally boarded. Ryanair is perfect for budget travelers. My flight to London was about $20, everything included. But Ryanair is also very cramped and uncomfortable. For a short flight, this is fine. Anyways, the point is that the flight was delayed for an hour. Apparently, there was one person on the plane who shouldn't have been. So they walked up and down with a clicky thing and then did role call. I was sitting near the back, and knew what the problem was. The teacher doing grade 1 role call wasn't loud enough. Add to that pronouncing English names with a French accent. Disaster. People started getting frustrated. The teacher got frustrated. She asked me what the deal was. Next thing I knew, I was standing with her in the aisle, reading out the English names with my very loud voice. Eventually, with no solution in sight, the pilate got frustrated and we took off. Soooo there may have been a crazyperson on the flight. Weird.
Arriving in London, I took a bus and then a train into the centre of town, where my dear Uncle Doug met me. It was great to see him! We took the tube to meet the rest of the family for dindins. UD's wife, Sheila, and her siblings and mother were there, too. I was starving and ate a giant pizzer. We got back to Birmingham around midnight.
London gave me a culture shock. I had just been in Paris, but London was crazy with people.. So much shopping, so many lights, so much English.. It was weird. I realized how used to France I have become, and how much more peaceful even Paris is. London is cool, but I am in love with Paris. I've never felt this way about a city before. I miss TO, but ... if all of you would move to Paris, I would stay there forever. Say yes for 40 points.
This morning I got up and went to church with my aunt and uncle. It was the nativity play. I realized that the ol' tea towel on the head trick is universal for shepherds. I also remember how mad I was that I never got to be Mary. It brought back many memories. I stole the carol sheet so I can enforce the singing of carols in Paris with Doc and Raffi. Sorry, boyz. I hadn't heard any English Christmas songs this season until today.
We went into the city centre in the afternoon and met Doctor at the train station. I couldn't contain my excitement. I almost peed my pants. It was sooo good to see him. We all wandered around the Christmas market there. Apparently, it's the second biggest in Europe. It was really cool.
We headed back to the Hincks house and had a delicious dindins.. The best I have had in a long, long time. We skyped with my parents. They were both wearing silly Christmas hats. It was fun. This evening, UD was very kind and drove Doc and I to his residence at Warwick University.
Doctor hung a welcome banner and had a wittle package of goodies. Turkish Delight, beer, a poster.. It was great. Most of all, though, it's good to see the land he has been blogging from and living in for months. Now, he's packing and I'm nerd blogging. And purring. I have missed this man.
Tomorrow morning, we head for Manchester and stay at a hostel for a night before going to the airport very early Tuesday morning. We are very excited. I will nerd blog when I can.
Missing you all..
Signing off,
Hincks.
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