May 28, Day 6

Early early early morning. I was exhausted. Especially since I still wasn't really able to fall asleep in a decent amount of time yet again. We all loaded up into the cars so Johnny and his girlfriend, Ingrid, could drive us to the train station. We took a four hour train ride from Bordeaux to Montpellier. I couldn't sleep on the train. Why I don't know. It could have been that the most adorable little baby has my attention the entire ride. He kept lots of us entertained actually. He was about 1 or so I would guess. It was hilarious to see him walk up and down the aisle and communicate with random strangers. I love babies. I know I got a photo or two of him, so I look forward to printing those. We had a two hour layover in Montpellier, so we chilled and played a cards until we got on our hour and a half train ride to Avignon. By this point I think it should be clear that traveling is what everyone does here in Europe. Everyone travels everywhere by train. I look forward to riding the train to London, because I'll be going to Hogwarts, literally. We'll be visiting the home of Henry Fox Talbot, the inventor / discoverer of the photographic negative, and it's in his estate where scenes from Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies are filmed. hee hee.

One we were finally in Avignon we had internet access for the first time in six days. That was a pretty big deal. I feel like it's taken me forever to catch up on everything. It really feels like I'm living a completely separate life over here in Europe. I'm actually in the future, which is a pretty fun thing to think about. My mom said it's no wonder I was nauseous and sick from that plane ride. Time traveling can't be that easy. I skyped my momma and that was the bomb. Did make me a little teary and homesick though. But I'm over that now. It was 3pm or so in France, but 8am back in Kansas. Craziness. We walked around the small town of Avignon, (and actually the whole town is surrounded by a medieval wall which was neat), and tried to figure a way to visit Nice the next day; a popular tourist location in France. Unfortunately though, it was going to cost 130 euro for a total of 8 hours on the train, to Nice and back, and we would only be there for 5 or so hours. Too bad. So we decided to just chill in Avignon on the next day for our 'free day'. My idea: bike ride. We ended up going shopping at the local H&M, a store I've been to before in St. Louis. I describe it as a more modern and contemporary urban outfitters or american apparel. After shopping we went to a nice outdoor cafe (those are EVERYWHERE in France) and I had probably one of the most incredible salads of my life. I took a photo of it on my international phone it was so good. It was an italian salad: huge pieces of lettuce, huge slices of mozzarella and tomatoes, olives, olive oil, balsamic vinegar... it was to die for. I can't reiterate enough how amazing the food here is. After dinner we had our first little History of Photog meeting, and then it was bedtime, well for me at least. I was so tired and really sick of not staying in one place. This whole stay in one city for a couple of days then drag all of your luggage to a new location has gotten really old very fast. I highly highly highly regret not having a rolling suitcase of some sort. I'm pretty sure by time I have to travel back to the states I won't have a shoulder anymore. Well I do have it better than some- Hanna's rolling suitcase's wheels actually melted only on our very first night abroad, and since then her other wheel has crapped out, so she has literally been dragging her suitcase everywhere. It's gotten to the point where a terrible scraping sound follows her everywhere, has worn a hole through to the inside of the suitcase, and definitely brings stares and giggles from the europeans. She's looking for a replacement hahah.

Honestly, at this point I was kind of discovering that this trip is not at all what I thought it would be in my head, and not necessarily in a bad way. I pictured a very organized, busy, scholarly trip, and what it really is has thus far been a pretty loose and relaxed, go with the flow, you do what you want and I'll do what I want sort of thing. I'm starting to get used to it though and figure out how to enjoy time on my own now though, so that's definitely a plus. And also those first few days were terribly relaxed and vacation-like compared to the rest of the trip... so I look forward to those days.