I'm Home away from Home

This is the one blog post that I have been dreading due to fact that it makes it real: I'm Home. I remember before leaving and I had sooo many conversations about what I was excited for when I returned home. All of the food, the people, the places in Chi City. I got back and had a gyro cheese burger and my stomach literally detested it. I tried to get back into all of my favorite foods but nothing seemed to be as great. I miss being engulfed in a culture that is healthy (even when being unhealthy: fried foods in olive oil).  It surprises me that everyday I walk pass the Sears Tower and it does nothing for me! I try so hard to bring little pieces of Europe back into my life. For example, I went to the beach but could do nothing but stare at the sky and feel the course grains of sand against my skin and try my hardest to pretend I was sitting in a beach off of the coast of Lisbon, Portugal. It's sad that people may be smoking a cigarette and walking behind them I imagine the Parisian air filled with the smell of freshly lit ones and baked bread. And when I here people speaking French on the street now, I literally slow down and try to listen and imagine being back in Paris for as long as I can. It's as if the city of lights made my life so much more amazing. Right now I would give anything for another moment to breathe the French Air, taste French food, or walk miles and miles gazing upon the beautiful architecture. After being there so long it makes me think, I could have stayed! I know I undoubtedly would miss my friends and family (Skype will have to do LBS) but Paris became a place I could call home... a place that one day I will call home. I have decided that upon graduating I am doing all that I can to move and work abroad; Paris or London are my destinations of choice. I look at America as my nest... Abroad will become my home.

My 2 Week Excursion: London, Milan, Venice, Madrid, Porto, Lisbon

Sooo lets just say that considering this post is the summary of 6 cities... I think the bullet points will work best or else I will need to find a publisher for my book LBS.

LONDON
I made my way to Metz to meet Danielle by an extremely early train to make our bus to make our plane from Frankfurt Hahn Airport... Oh the things we do for traveling around the world. Dani and I made it to the airport pretty early which of course gave her spare time to shop some more (honestly I have no idea how she packed all the stuff she had at all) But while in the airport I found the coolest Henessy cover and, no people, I am not an alcoholic but I had to buy it. Although our whole plan of enjoying our little purchases on the plane was shot down when they put them in vacuum sealed bags and said we couldn't open it on the flight. BUMMER (reading that back now makes me sound like an alcoholic, lol)

-started with being beyond afraid that they would not allow my bag on the plane (although this whole frenzy definitely comes back in later because I can't seem to not buy things for myself)
-landed in the airport... and of all the things we needed to do, we had to buy a Coke to see if it tastes like it does in America (because the rest of Europe's coke is stored at a different pressure which makes it taste so much better). Sadly, it tasted like American coke, guess it's back to Pepsi or better yet water when I get back to the states.
-saw one of the coolest things before our bus into the city from the airport: There was a book vending machine chilling outside.
-after getting into the city and trying to figure out what bus to take to our hostel... which also included trying to avoid dying due to the English being the weird ones and driving on the opposite side of the street. I literally almost died like 10 times while in London bc I would assume that no cars were coming from my right when in fact a bus was zooming from my left.
-the first night consisted of a Cinco De Mayo party at our hostel which was pretty darn whack but we did enjoy some good Chocolate Schnapps shots (this is still not helping the "I am not an alcoholic" talk)

-Day 2 was our shopping day in London and we hit the streets pretty early after I was able to force Danielle to roll out of the bed.
-OXFORD street (London's Mich Ave) is banging although London looks at your wallet, grabs it, and says "YOU MY BITCH!!!"... that seems to be an accurate synopsis of the shopping experience. There is one store called PRIMARK which is soooo cheap. (Shoses on deck for like 3 pounds, shirts for like 2 pounds) which is the reason why for the rest of my trip I had to wear 3 pairs of pants, 2 hoodies, a cardigan and stuff my pants with chargers, books, etc so that my bag met the weight requirement for my flights.
-our shopping day also marked the arrival of Kurt in London but unfortunately shopping kept us out about 3 hours later than the time we were supposed to make it back to the hostel.
-our next adventure was trying to go out for the evening and as it always happens I forget my ID because I am an idiot so we had to go to the not so popular club... Although they were playing some decent music and we had some good drinks on deck so the night turned out pretty great
-Let me not forget to mention that somehow between Dani about to open the gates of niggadom and the staff at St. Christopher's Inn messing up the reservation, I had to stay at another hostel for one night.

Day 3
-This was the day of the touristy stuff.... i.e. seeing the Royal Palace, etc, etc This marked the free part of my day... the rest of it London still had my wallet in that chokehold
-I was pretty upset I didn't get to mess with the guards but I must mention the Queen gets a full fledge parade every 3 hours and that's if she is home or not... #BALLIN
-It was also really cool to see the place where the Royal Wedding took place, although the two people that got married I could care less about
-We went to Wimbledon and I thought it was just a Stadium but it actually a little town of some rich ass people because those houses were too nice! Although I found it quite odd that as we were looking for the stadium, people were acting like they didn't know which direction it was... I was thinking Pimpin you live here, you should know where it is because it is the only thing your town is known for! lol
-This is probably the single most important bullet point for this day... WE FOUND A KRISPY KREMES and now that I think about it Danielle and I probably paid damn near two dollars per donut but when I say it was worth.... it truly was! Gave me a glimpse of what was to come in like 20 days at that time
-We rode the London eye which was really nice... has really beautiful views of the city
-That night we grabbed a few beers and started walking and set out on our journey to find the Tower bridge (which according to Danielle should actually be the London Bridge!) and I must say I agree because after seeing that bridge the London Bridge seems extra regula'... and I do mean regula'
-This night also marked Danielle's last one before she was off to Metz to literally pack and depart for the states in a day. I gotta say, it definitely hurt a little because she was my traveling buddy, but the fact that she was going home made me realize that it was all the sooner for me to do exactly the same.

Also, every day of the trip in London consisted of trying to find a chicken place and it is killing me because I can not remember the name of it...but Danielle got me on the name... check the comments


MILAN
this will be short and to the point
-Beautiful city and I definitely see it in my shopping future once that Engineering money rolls in.
-It was really cool being there also because I was trying to figure out why everybody was in red and black and sitting outside the bars to watch the TV screens... apparently Milano's football team won the championship the night I was there, and it was really cool to be a part of that celebration.

VENICE
My words honestly can not do this city justice. It is beyond beautiful and amazing... NO words can truly describe just how wonderful it is!
I guess I can try to put it like this... if you know me, you know that I am in love with Paris... from the lights, to the streets, to the people.... Venice slowly engulfed my heart in a gondola and took me on a trip deep into all of it's beauty and left me in a dream... Itt is one of my favorite cities in the WORLD!
-The main source of transportation is by boat so you get to ride through the city and view it in magnificent glory.
-I went to Lido and was able to make it to the beach of the Adriatic Sea... It was amazing because the beach was isolated and you could look out and just admire the beauty.
-I also was able to visit Burano in the Venetian Lagoon and if you ever need a place to make you happy... this is it! All of the building are painted these vibrant colors and as I once read on someone's blog... if you go there you will have no choice but to smile because it just does that to you
-Also visited Murano which is another island in the lagoon which is famous for glass blowing/making... I am so sad that I got there late and catch the glass makers at work (Lido and all of it's beauty took up so much of my time) but I definitely got to see some cool works of glass art.
Food wise... Oh My "face fucking chickens" (I had to bring it back for this one) Goodness ... from the pizza to the gelato to the pasta to whatever I had in that restaurant that they fed me... it was AMAZING
-Italians are honestly my favorite people in the world... the language sounds so beautiful, the food tastes great, and Venice is a city like no other!

MADRID
-What can I say to Madrid.... I could have easily studied here also. The city is so gorgeous
-I got to visit a really cool museum of contemporary art and we just need to step it up in America on what we make available to students in our cities bc in most of Europe a student ID either gets you in free or a ridiculous discount.

-Apparently this dude saw my shoes, thought they were really cool, and struck up a convo. He turned out to be studying abroad too, and it was really weird because his name last name was Brodney (no joke) It was nice meeting him and he gave me a tour a really huge park in Madrid, which housed the only statue in the world dedicated to the devil... weird I guess.
-It was really exciting to see black swans!!! I didn't know they existed but I definitely have the visual proof and I have to say that they are beautiful.
-The majority of Madrid just included me taking soooo many pictures of everything I saw in all of it's beauty.

PORTO
-Hands down one of my favorite cities I have visited.
-From the steep hills and the wonderful river with all the amazing restaurants along the way... UNFORGETTABLE
-So happy that I was able to get all of my ships custom made gifts here... YO to KSKP!!!
-I was able to enjoy a wonderful dinner of fish (my first fish I had that still had the eyes intact... I felt fancy) and Porto wine (which Porto is famous for in the World)
-I see Porto as a city that me and my wife can return to after our kids are all grown up and can just reminisce over a wonderful dinner
-Funniest thing was trying to find the bus station in Porto because they don't believe in huge signs but instead all the buses are housed in a random garage on a regular street corner. Basically I almost missed my bus to Lisbon which definitely would not have been so great

LISBOA
-My main mission was to end up on a beach... point blank period and I have to say Lisbon has some beautiful ones. I spent my first night at Costa Caparica and watched the sunset over the Pacific Ocean... tremendous
-The next morning Randy made it in and we had one mission which was to end up on a beach, so we ent back to Caparica and spent the early afternoon there. I was good with my pitcher of Sangria and the nice sound of the waves crashing against the shore. That water was about cold as hell too, but nonetheless refreshing!
-We met some really cool Turkish girls at our hostel and spent the night out with them... although we didn't make it to the club because they like to go out at 3 in the morning (in Champaign the bar is closed by then LBS)
-Lisboa has the cheapest drinks in all of Europe and I found my favorite one: 1.5 Liters of Caipirinha (pretty much all Vodka with some ice, lime, lemon, and brown sugar) for 6 euro... I was good for the entire night off of 12 euro (This is impossible in France) There is this neighborhood of little streets and sideways full of little bars and the people just pack in there and drink UP!
-Randy and I did like a 3 mile hike trying to find a damn castle (which we didn't go in) but we did spend like an hour taking pictures at the castle ruins... which we decided was where the concubines and servants of the king lived
-Funniest thing happened when we went into this huge cathedral (they really do it big over here... this aint yo St. Sabina) and apparently didn't know we weren't supposed to walk up the aisles and take pictures. Not our fault though because they put up the barrier after we had walked past, lol. Although, it did explain why the people were staring at us.
-We went to a Brazilian festival, which confirmed... I will be going to South America! There was a party in the parking lot that was beyond cracking. I must say Brazilians know how to party (point. blank. period) Grandma (this random old lady from our hostel that tagged along for a trip to the fest) ended up dipping off and was like she had to stay to get it in!
-Best thing about Lisbon/Portugal... hands down FANTA PINEAPPLE... It's my crack (which I don't get because I am allergic to pineapples... but it tastes so damn good) Randy can testify that I walked in and out every store on a mission to find my FANTA Ananas! It's so good that just now while typing about it I googled how I can get it in America! LBVS
-What sucked in Lisbon was missing my bus back to Porto because of the location of the bus station once again. I ended up at one train station.... thought I was at the wrong one, so took 30 mins to go to the other one, only to find out the bus station was at the first.... UGHHH, I ended up on the 9:00 bus which meant I got back to Porto at 12:30am and if it wasn't for the bus having WIFI I would not have been able to make it to the airport. The thing about Europe is that most of their public transportation stops running at 1 AM.... so once I got off the bus I ran to that train station and made it to the airport.
-What sucked was that after all this craziness I had to pay for my bag (that lady was a bitch! and I really wouldn't want to say that about her but she was) I guess I was so used to traveling in all of the other European cities I forgot how the rude the French can be... Thanks RyanAir! But in the end I looked at it as not being that bad because my bag was overweight on all my trips so I took the 40 euro and divided it by 5 flights which makes it like 8 euro/flight.... had to make myself happy again although I hope wherever that flight attendant is right now... she trips and falls (ok I'm kinda joking)

Trams, absinthe, and such

Danielle and I set out for our 4 day excursion to BudaPest and Prague or I should say Praha (it sounds so much cooler). Let me start off by saying this trip included alot of running: to buses, trains, and away from bars.

First after I arrived in Metz and headed to Danielles dorm, we found ourselves sprinting to the bus stop so we could make it to the train station. Now, sprinting becomes quite difficult when you are wearing a belt that doesn't fit anymore, so my pants were falling and I was looking foolish. Since, we made it to the train station on time we decided to grab a bite to eat since our train ride was equivalent to about 9 hours. That Durum Kebab and fries were... Lip smacking, mouth watering, roll your eyes into the back of your head good! (that might also be because I was starving) The train ride to Frankfurt was decent and we got in sometime that night. We spotted a McDonalds and had to do the fries and McFlurry test. Now, I had no idea McDonalds was on this level in the world; their employees had McDonalds jeans, WHAT!?!? we were dying laughing and spent about an hour trying to get a picture and be discreet. This part is important because while we were in McDoe, we didn't know that our train to Prague was leaving from another station in Frankfurt... Not good! We walked out of McDonalds and looked at the timetable all nonchalant, only to discover our train number was not present(panic mode). We go to the desk with literally less than 15 minutes to get to the other station and they say we have to take this other train 1 stop and it takes about 10 mins...
If there was ever a time I wanted a train to leave early, it was then. We were on the train devising plans, "you look right I LOOK left and then we RUN!"
We made it to our train and were finally on our way to Prague. After walking up and down the train for 15 minutes trying to figure out where our seats were, we were greeted by what is always cracking in Prague... porn magazines at our disposal on the train. Danielle decided since she had never read one to throw on her gloves considering she didnt know who had them before and started flipping through the magazine. Now funniest shit ever is watching a girl flip through a porno because she was judging fingernails, outfits, and poses WTH... lol. There was only one thing that interest a man when looking at that and I can guarantee that it isnt fingernails. So basically the rest of the train ride consisted of falling in and out of sleep, I actually finished the book I was reading called "I Will Never Be French"... which was really good. Once we got to Praha... we caught the tram to our hostel, which was banging, and then we hit the streets. Our day consisted of finding Waldo and giant easter eggs. The views were beyond beautiful throughout the entire city. We decided to go on the Pub Crawl and I was excited because that meant that I could finally try absinthe. Since we got there late we had to catch up to the group, so that included like 9 shots (at least 4 of absinthe) in less than 20 mins. I know yall thinking that I should have been gone... but on the contrary we were sober as hell due to the consumption of a street vendors hot dog and fires we had right before. It literally soaked up everything. The pubcrawl was really cool because it was full of Americans and our tour guide was even from Oregon (which was a state I still think doesnt exist). It ended in a club that was like 5 floors, that played different music. The one floor we were interested in was titled "Black Music"... I swear they really don't care about the whole offensive thing over here. Turned out the Black floor was more like B96 and less WGCI... it probably would have been more enjoyable if the 9 shots (plus the 3 other free ones we got at the other pubs) had kicked in.

The highlight of Praha had to be this wall that Danielle was so keen on finding. (Btw Danielle is probably the best trip planner I know, because I just end up in a city and google a few things and go with the flow... NOT HER, she be reading random blogs and articles... great travel buddy!) When I say it was about a 50 foot long wall full of graffiti that people just sign and write messages. Definitely one of the most beautiful things I have seen and it would describe why our 15 minute visit turned into a 1.5 hour photoshoot. But, it was definitely time well spent!

Now considering I'm tired of typing all of this... Budapest is about to be straight to the point...
-Loved the mix of nature into their city... It's like they built themselves into a mountain
-Went to a natural springs bath and I found it extra cool that I ended up with Room 15... we tried the hottest of the waters (although Dani couldnt hang) and the coldest one which neither of us could deal with... I think my toe is still feeling the effects
-Discovered McDonalds has the best advertisement because I was hungry and wanted to know what time it was and here they come with a clock giving the time and pointing me in the direction of their nearest restaurant
-There was this dude who played the glasses filled with water and HE WAS a BEAST... we were standing there for like 10 mins and was thinking he probably isn't even that good... turned out he deserved an Oscar, Emmy or something for that performance
-We had a quest to find Mexican food and this place we ended up finding had it down to a science. Those quesadillas and frozen margaritas hit the SPOT
-Danielle ghetto mapping that was done by pinpointing locations on the map using a McDonalds fry and their barbecue sauce (I definitely have pics of this on deck)
-Last but not least was creating a bar tab and after realizing that they didn't except credit card... dipping like we were trying out for the Olympic track team... Then we were beyond petrified considering we were probably the only black people (forreal) in Budapest and there did happen to be a police car chilling outside of our hostel. BUT we made it home safely

Once I made it back to France it was now my 2 week Spring break and it started off well with me finally falling in love with Cergy!

Mameee In Pahreee

Soo this is long overdue, lol. I had been pacing my room back and forth anticipating the day for my mom to arrive. The time had finally come and on March 23rd after standing at the train station for over an hour and half.... she appeared! The joy in my heart to see her in person was overwhelming (SKYPE sometimes doesn't cut it). Now, as expected she got lost but refused to let me meet her at the airport because that would have given me an excuse to not go to class. Once she arrived she crashed for like 6 hours which completely disrupted the meticulous plans I had for our first day, but who cares... She was here! When she awoke we headed to the Hippopotamus Restaurant which had some banging potato soup (i know this bc on my first day in Cergy I was beyond sick and this was all I could eat). The experience... quite interesting, lol bc for some reason WELL DONE to the French still means allowing it to be a pink burger->Not what I really wanted my mom to experience about the amazing French cuisine.  After Dinner, we headed into Paris to see the Eiffel Tower in all of its glory. Now I have been there many of times but honestly it was amazing to enjoy the view with my mom with her first trip behind the Bahamas and S/O to my older brother Joe for making that happen (love you bro!)
The second day was meant for the Champs Elysee and a search to find Disney Paris tickets (which did not happen because they were beyond expensive). I was excited because she would see the great  and oh soo magnificent Haagen Daz store.... funny thing is out of all the flavors in the world that they offered Vanilla Swiss Almond was not one of them, lol. Guess we really can't beat the Walgreens raincheck system. After the Champs- Elysee the walking in Paris started to get to us both so we hopped on the first Sightseeing bus available. Honestly it was definitely a learned experience for me because I saw parts of Paris I didn't know existed (when I was awake to see them).  We got off at the Notre Dame and so began  her infatuation with all of the Souvenir shops. Now I'm talking walking in each store to look at all the products and then coming back after finding the best price. After seeing Notre Dame, we headed to Moulin Rouge... somewhat of an odd experience going into sex shops on the strip with your mother... i.e. I literally was covering my eyes and hiding on the opposite side of the store, lol.
We went to Montmatre which was a beautiful sight and Haagen Daz for a second time.  Time well spent!
Towards the second part it turned into another rainy day and trip to Pompidou (which left my canvas shoes soaking wet). Pompidou is hands down just a raw ass musuem... period. Although I did discover that my mom struggles with taking photos, lol. It took her like 3 times to catch the lights in a photo.
My favorite moment was taking the trip to the TOP of Eiffel which was an experience that we shared seeing that I had yet to go to the top since my arrival. It WAS FREEZING up there (and my feet were wrapped in plastic and paper towels due to the rain and my not soo good canvas shoes... leave it to mama for them good remedies). Words really can not express the beauty and honestly you see why it's called the City of Lights.


The time I had with my mom marked a highlight of my trip here for sure. When she left Tuesday, I shed a slight tear... (if that means I cried a lil bit of alot, lol). That train ride back from the airport was when I realized she was definitely on her way home to the States and I had another 2 months here. I am beyond grateful for her being able to come and God knows we had a blast while she was here. I definitely can't wait to get back and spend my first summer in the Chi since high school... #GOODTIMES.

Fallas and Firecrackers!

Spain... simply put they get it krakkin on a whole different level. But let's start from the beginning....

I didn't sleep the night before my flight to Barcelona because I had to leave my dorm at 5am to make it all the way to the airport in Beauvais, France for my 11am flight. Good thing, I left early because due to Ryan Air's cheapness you have to print your tickets out online and you can't pick them up at the counter (WTF it's an airport). So when I arrived they were sending me to all the different terminals to look for the printing station and I quote, "might work"... What do you mean MIGHT, I dropped 45 euro on this flight, so I was getting on that plane. Luckily, the machine printed my tickets after I did some reckless internet searching so I was able to get on my plane. 

Now I tried to pick a hostel that was close to the metro stop... but as always I got lost. Turns out it was a 2 blocks from where I started but unfortunately no one spoke English and the maps were beyond confusing so I took a cab. My hostel was really nice (the best part being the FREE WIFI) and provided me with the perfect napping spot. After my nap, I hit the main street of Barcelona---> Las Ramblas. There was so much to see, with the street entertainment, music playing and all of the beautiful architecture. The best part about Las Ramblas is that it flows right into the coast line, so after about 30 or 40 minutes I was looking at the Mediterranean Sea.
After walking for about 6 hours, I headed back to the hostel and I was dead tired! I took another nap and now it was time for the Barcelona nightlife. I looked up a few clubs around Las Ramblas and set out on my walk. During this time, I discovered that all the black people in Barcelona apparently come out at night because they were EVERYwhere and during the day I saw specks through all the crowds of people. The funniest thing happened to me too... I apparently must have been walking in the not so great area of Barcelona as I got lost trying to find the club. There was this woman who seemed to be nicely dressed and was quite pretty... she started to blurt something to me in Spanish and from my expression I guess she understood I only knew English because that was her next question as she approached me. I answered yes and her immediate response verbatim, "20 dollars, fuck everything" o_O WTF, lol... I definitely had to decline because I think whatever dude brings his penis anywhere near her, it would just fall off. At that point, along with the fact that my feet wanted to fall off... I just made my way back to the hostel around 4a.m. to go to sleep.
Thursday now marked the day to head to Valencia... FALLAS! Now when I got to the train station I was thinking it would be like France and I could walk up to the platforms with my Eurail and get directly on the train without a reservation... they got me, lol! In Spain, they have security guards, baggage and reservation checks at the station. Considering I only had 20 minutes before the train and the people at the windows were acting slow, I missed my 1 o'clock train. So now I had to wait 3 hours for the next train which was cool because I got a kickstart on scholarship and job applications for the summer. BTW got an offer from GE Transportation in the Chicago area (BALLIN!)

Soo... I 've been typing this post for the past two weeks lol, so I need to sum this up quick.
Arrived in Valencia at some station and found a McDonald's with Wifi to contact Will. Luckily, he was on FB so I opened a chat and apparently he thought I was arriving Friday. Which means, I would have been stuck in a train station of Valencia because I had no idea where to go and I definitely didn't know a lick of Spanish.
So once we finally figured exactly where my train came in because all I knew was Joanna Sequillo or something like this was the name of the stop... I set out to walk toward the main station and lets just say I knew it was going to crack from that point on. There were people everywhere (except for black people, bc Spain has none and they make that known when they STARE you down, like forreal... I had to turn on 63rd street a couple times). We made it to his apartment, which was big as hell btw and started planning for Fallas Night 1. After hitting up a Kebab shop we picked up what has now become one of my favorite drink combos... Redbull and Vodka, apparently the 90/10 mix still leaves it tasting just like Redbull... killed a bottle between two people in less than an hour i.e. we were fucked up that first night. From the fireworks (which I took over 100 pictures of in 20 minutes) to the street party and the best effin fries with mildsauce (and it tasted just like mildsauce which is why I had 4/5 nights while I was in Valencia I have ever had!!
Friday consisted of waking up late in the afternoon and Will just forgetting all about Randy, who was coming into Valencia... basically Will sucks as a host, lbs. He got up made breakfast and just left a brother starving like a mofo. We toured the city and let our ears be blown off by the little six and seven year olds throwing M-80's every where. Yeah, apparently they don't care about they child's safety because they were encouraging their kids to play with mini-bombs... Definitely a different culture. Ended up buying a 2 bottles of vodka for Friday and they were finished between 3 people, so in two nights I probably had over a bottle to myself... Spain goes hard!

Virgin Mary made completely of flowers

Saturday was the big day for the Fallas and the city went crazy! Fireworks going off through all the neighborhoods and lighting up the sky. We decided to watch them set fire to Will's neighborhood Fallas and once again safety because we were about 15 feet from a 20 foot figure that they were going to set on fire. Once that bad boy was lit up, they got the picture too because my face was burning... and I thought my phone was going to melt in my hands. Shit was INTENSE! And I know I do alot of walking in Paris, but damn... we walked so much when I was in Spain. They like to walk and just keep meeting up with people, I prefer to walk and meet people at the club. But I did enjoy watching the Spaniards run from these fireworks called chasers... they light up everything else but they definitely didn't like these lil m'effers. Once lit, it shoots sparks everywhere and chases your feet. It was too damn funny watching crowds of people scatter at the sight of one.

Sunday consisted of sleep and a failed attempt to return home to Paris, so I had to book a train ticket for Monday which was cool with me because a brother was in First Class and it was niiiceee. The seat reclined all the way back, they gave me a toothbrush, a bag, and a blanket. It was a good ride home.

C'est la vie avec mon famille!

Before I set out on my journey to Strasbourg for another great weekend in my Europe life... I made a pitstop in Metz to chill with Danielle considering we hadn't seen each other in weeks (i.e. she missed my birthday... but no hard feelings)! The funniest conversation was our walk to the grocery store to buy stuff for dinner, as Danielle put it "about all our 'dislikes' but don't worry we enjoy our 'experiences'". We had a blast that night and hung out with Dani's classmates for the dinner party. There were a lot of good laughs (I want to say why but Danielle may kill me, lol) and watched the Wedding Crashers.

Friday I set out for Strasbourg to finally meet my host family after 3 YEARS! My train ride consisted of watching episodes of RENO 911... which is by far one my favorite shows---HI- LAR-I-OUS! When I arrived I was greeted by Baptiste and who I thought for the first 10 minutes of the car ride back to Gerstheim was his older brother Julian... turns out, it was his younger brother Victor with a hair cut, LOL. The car ride back consisted of trying to decipher American slang. Baptiste recalled when we were in high-school I called somebody "thirsty" and wanted me to explain. Let's just say this was beyond impossible because I don't know how to explain thirsty without using more slang... For example, my first  explanation for it was "You're doing too much" but clearly that does not translate well into French. Then I tried putting it into story form... "So there is a guy that really likes this girl and keeps buying her shoes, flowers, clothes, and spending all of his money on her but she doesn't like him at all"---they took that as thirsty meaning you like somebody very much, making my explanations a FAIL so we definitely had a good laugh about this.

Once we made it to the house... the night was set out for Folk Dancing at a bar in Ernstein, a nearby town. Now y'all know my realms of dancing consist of Salsa and Hip Hop... maybe a little quirky modern but Folk Dancing? o_O We got there I got a beer and the people set up to start playing music... Before I knew it MamAnnie (that's what I call my host mom) had me on the dance floor and joining the circle. It was by far one of the best dance experiences I have had! Your feet get to moving and the arm swings and quick turns... We left after about 3 good hours at the place and I was drenched in sweat.

Saturday included a breakfast (which I missed because I was beyond tired from Folk Dancing), but I made it down for a great lunch. After that, me, Baptiste, and Victor set out for their boy scout troop that they lead every weekend. This adventure consisted of going in the forest and playing a game, which the instructions I could not understand because they were in French but once I saw the kid start counting down and everybody running into the forest, I understood... We all know black people run and ask questions later, lol! I dashed off and made my way for the furthest tree that I could hide behind, however forgetting that I was still wearing the bright orange Illinois hoodie I have! After a while, I realized I should probably choose to stay a little closer considering they cover their eyes and count down from 10 and thats all the time you have to make it back to them. We played this for about an hour or so, and I probably made it back once, lol.

Once we got back to the house I had to take a nap because I was sooo tired. I awoke and proceeded downstairs to watch TV with the family and enjoy our Franglish conversations from politics, to Japan, to crazy French commercials. For dinner on Saturday, we had a crepe maker and got to personalize our crepes. I'm talking everything from ham and cheese, apricot jelly, to fruits and berries I can not pronounce. By far a tradition I will definitely have with my family... it was one of the best dinners of my life! Every time one of the brothers offered me water saying "You 'thirsty'?" We would all start rolling (another slang term which I probably can not explain... "rolling"--- meaning laughing very much)

That night we headed to the movies to see "True Grit" and it was decent. The movie was in english but the man was speaking in complete gibberish so I found myself reading the french subtitles too. BTW, the popcorn/candy packages are so much better than America's.

Sunday consisted of me waking and a little saddened by the fact that it was my last day. We ate some type of special bread they baked which was on point (<---another slang term here) and since Baptiste had to leave around 5 to go back to school we decided to go see Chateau de Frankenburg. It's a castle in the mountains and what was really cool was that I could see Chateau de Koneisburg, which we visited in high school, from there. First we drove up the mountain, but then had to park because you couln't drive the rest of the way. We got out the car (we parked by YAKS!---crazy cool) and Baptiste was pointing out the castle through the trees saying where it was, however I could not see a thing through all of those trees. We damn near hiked a mile and a half to get to the castle ruins. By the time we got there I was sweating and had to unzip my jacket and was about to take off my hoodie, lol. But once we reached the top... the view was AMAZING! Honestly I would take that 1.5 mile hike any day!

After the castle we went to a small little coffee shop just in town and I think I might have introduced the family to cheese cake (which is 10 times better in France... it was so rich and smooth). We dropped Baptiste off, had one more dinner at the house and before I knew it, it was time for me to come back to Paris.

Seeing my host family again was an experience that I was so blessed to have and that I am beyond grateful for. It amazes me how wonderful people can truly be and I love them sooooo much. Merci pour tout!

'Appy 'Irfday to ME: Why am I singing this alone, LOL

View of Bern Switzerland

The monumental 21st birthday of RSSJ was spent in the land of the Swiss (which is too damn expensive, lol). First stop on Friday the 4th was Bern after a 4.5 hour train ride. The city is built on hills, so me being a citizen used to the flat Illinois terrain... Switzerland presented a problem! Getting to my hostel proved to be a trial because, me and my lack of common sense as my ma would say forget to write the address to my hostel down and clearly my phonetics don't match the Swiss' at all, so I spent 20 minutes trying to get the taxi cab driver to understand where I was going. My hostel happened to be along the river which was really beautiful, however it was unfortunately DOWN hill from the city-centre. So after unpacking I had to make the hike back up... and lets just say I stopped to talk to a few of the stray cats along the way, cus that shit was INTENSE. Once, I made it up the hill... Three main goals: Einstein House (connect to the subject I hate the most i.e. physics, lol), Buy a watch, and the Clock Tower. It was really cool walking through the Einstein House and seeing the couch and tables where he once sat and ate. And apparently for the folks in Switzerland, the Einstein look is wats up because I saw hella dudes with unkempt gray hair and those mustaches! The clock tower was amazing to see and I did happen to find the watch that I most desperately wanted. However, I walked away and couldn't find the store again... *sadface* So after my day tours I went back to the hostel to skype only to discover that my Euro- wall adapter apparently does not apply to Switzerland *double sadface*. I could have sworn they were in the European Union as well, so with my computer dead after one Skype session with Jessica, I had to turn to the evening plans to a club.  After my search I found a club in the city, so I got dressed and made my way back up the hill around 10pm. I stopped at McDonalds (which was my only choice of meals because I was being cheap and that was equivalent to 12 dollars) and then headed to the club. Now, WTFITS.... I get into the club and there is literally no one there with a piece of facial hair... I felt like I walked into a high school dance, so clearly I had to dip. I spent that evening walking downhill and praying to God as my 21st birthday approached!

Nupey Pik

Happy Birthday to me, Happy birthday to me... what went through my mind as I woke up Saturday! I happen to have a very interesting breakfast to start my interesting day! I woke up to find that, and I don't wanna sound racist.... BUt one of the damn Asians in my hostel room stole my glasses... come on now, lol! I was mad but it isn't like they were RayBan's, so I got over it. For my birthday breakfast I had cereal with sunflower seeds in it... o_O Once breakfast was over, made my way to the train station for stop #2- Lucerne, Switzerland! It was so beautiful and I definitely enjoyed all of my 3 hours there. There was a festival going on and I was greeted by people dressed in all costumes and the sounds of a band playing in the distance. So me being me, I followed the sound and lets just say that band was cracking... they played Rolling in the River! As I continued to walk through the festive streets, I saw some cool clocks in a window that had star placements for zodiac, etc. Above all I found the H&M, lol So my bday was  going great!

This was good

That afternoon, I embarked on the journey to my last birthday destination, Zurich. I arrived and got soooo lost trying to find my hotel... the cab drivers wouldn't give me a ride because they kept saying it was right down the street but that damn thing was hiding from me! So after a few pitstops in random hotels and restaurants for directions, I finally made it there. Let's just say my Hotel was Ballin'! It definitely put a nice touch on my birthday... My room had a TV with two English Channels #FTW I spent my afternoon watching MTV and CNN, before taking a well deserved nap. Once I awoke from my nap, it was time to the hit the city! The churches and sites were phenomenal to see and on my way I saw this upscale cupcake shop... I figured no one else was going to buy me birthday cake so I celebrated with 2 red velvet cupcakes from the Cupcake Affair and they were sooooooooo good. A wonderful gift to myself and on top of that the shopping in Zurich: ON POINT, lol. After, walking around for a few hours (more hills included) I went back to the hotel to make my Skype BDAY Calls and check the FB wall. Honestly, this was definitely one of the highlights of my birthday... knowing that people truly do care and love is a good thing. After a nice chat with fam and friends, I had to get ready for the club connected to my hotel, called XTRA for Latin night. In short words, the club was KRAKKing... and apparently I was Kid Cudi for the night (must be the glasses that I had to replace at the nearest H&M thanks to those Asians, lol). However, the downfall was that I had no cash and the club excepted no cards so I was drinkless which is not an option for a 21st. So after an hour or so at the club I made my way to the Hotel's bar and ordered my first two drinks... A long island and a hurricane! To say the least I was alotta tipsy when I left there so my bday night was well spent.

Last Weekend of Break: Scared White Ladies and all

So considering that much of my vacation time had been postponed due to my lack of French speaking abilities and SFR(thats the internet company) I decided to spend my weekend it Paris and visited Ibrahim!

I got there a little early and the funniest thing happen when I approached his apartment building entrance. It was about 4pm and this little old white French lady started to approach the door... me being cautious (trying to avoid giving her any signs of trouble) stood back to let her enter the door! She kindly entered the code while glancing over her shoulder back at me and I must say, she probably scraped the skin off her knee caps and nose trying to hurry and close the door behind her while peering at me through the glass. So to be funny, I entered the code and walked right in behind her, lol (I know its bad!) But really lady, come on... you think I would rob you in broad day light with glass doors to your apartment building. But that was just my welcoming experience into Paris once again!

I called up Ibrahim to discover that he wouldn't be done with research until 6:30 so that gave me time to tour the neighborhood! I loved all the little shops of random quirky stuff, and when I actually put myself up to it... I will start buying people's souvenirs. I checked out the mall too, and I have come to the conclusion that French neighborhood malls are just better, but maybe thats becuase my neighborhood mall is Ford city, LOL!

Starbucks seat from 3 years ago!

Once I met up with Ibra, we took a trip to the Louvre... for the exclusive visiting time for city residents only... (this made me feel like a true Parisian!) Walking through the Louvre didn't seem as overwhelming from the first time I went back in high-school... Although I did get lost like 5 times and on one of those journeys, GET THIS, I saw two people I know from UIUC! WTF I am in the biggest museum of the world, during exclusive hours, on a Friday night, and I see two people I know... this world is truly small! Got to see the Mona Lisa, as close as you can get to it's nice and all but the whole big fascination especially when the picture directly opposite is HUMONGOUS (come on people!) The highlight of my Louvre trip was getting to take a picture on the exact sofa (at least I think it was) in the same spot of a starbucks me and my friends chilled in high school 3 years ago!

My Mona and nem' pose lol

Why does no one see me with that 5x7 across from me LOL

L'HOMME... all this for MENS SHOPPING! #FTW

After the Louvre, we did some intense window shopping in downtown Paris and it makes me want my engineering job NOW! You have Gucci, Louie, and POLO  (Black Label) chillin on the same block. The best thing about downtown shopping is this HUGE mall that has two buildings connected and one is completely dedicated to L'HOMME! I haven't been in there yet but I pray God keeps my wallet intact, lol!

Then we had dinner at McDonald's with a nice discussion about my educational future.. (debate over me taking Phys 212 again---DEATH OF ME) we headed back to his place and he discovered Lil Kim's new video dissing Nicki Minaj! Now I would have never thought in a million years I would be defending Nicki Minaj in any type of circumstance... However I feel that Roman's Revenge was a better song than that of Lil Kim's! Ibrahim being the person he is (a frikkin PhD owner) wanted to breakdown things all scientifically, without the basis of understanding the metaphors from Nikki's verses, LOL!

So after, about an hour of this I checked my email and what do I see... An internship offer from GE, which threw me into worship mode because this was definitely not a part of my expectations at all!  With that Ibrahim decided he was going out (mind you it was 3AM already) but I stayed in skyped with my ship, and watched a movie...

Saturday marked one of my favorite days in Paris----I TOOK A HIP HOP CLASS AT STUDIO HARMONIC! Funny how a language barrier totally disappears with dance! It was so much fun and I definitely enjoyed being in the company of other dancers.. makes me =D

LOVE's Reflection

I spent the last week of my break trying to figure out my internet situation, which didn't get figured out finally until YESTERDAY! I insisted on informing these people that I did not have the wall connection necessary, only to discover after a week it was hidden behind my gigantic shelving unit! #sadface

On a better note, I also spent my last week of break delving deeper into the word of God... with my new book "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan (lol at first I typed Chris Francis and realized that was completely wrong) and if you want to be amazed check out this vid here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ya12I036lg.

Chapter  5 discussed LOVE, and what it truly means. It got me thinking about how we get so indulged in ourselves... We forget to love (the right way!) I took the verse, as Francis stated, from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 "Love is patient and kind; Love does not envy or boast; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.... faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is Love." and inserted my name in place of the word love, and it literally brought me to tears. This is how we should live each and every day carrying out Christ's greatest command... To Love each other!

Another part of Chapter 5 discussed how we should always be running after GOD, because if we are running how can we ever fail! He used the analogy of trying to race and eat a box of twinkies... at some point you will have to choose (question is we often times indulge in that twinkie and stop our legs from moving) This thought brought new meaning to one of my favorite songs by Tye Tribbett, "Chasing after YOU" Which is my profession to Christ... I will be running and seeking God for all of my days!

GLORY!

I guess the streets of France ARE really confusing...

So today was a day to remember! I went into Paris in search of dance studio's which was unsuccessful... but nonetheless, I found another favorite train stop known as Bastille! The Opera House is located here and its full of shops, stores, and some good night life! My favorite part were all the furniture stores, with the extravagant displays (never too early to get ideas for my Condo when I'm making bank!) which have brought me to the conclusion that IKEA 'aint' got shit on France!

Now, the more interesting part of day came on my ride home.  Apparently there is some problem with the RER A trains (equivalent to the Metra) in Paris/Cergy. So this morning it all went well although I forgot to get off the train the first time so I ended back up where I started (no worries, it was only two stops). However, this evening I got to the train stop to transfer to the buses that they have working in between the stops that can't be accessed for the past couple days... The bus driver got to the the first stop OK, or at least it seemed so because I was in tune with the Lonnie Hunter playing on my ipod! Then I felt the bus jerk a few too many times and looked up to find out he'd made a wrong turn. Now I'm thinking, no biggie, it's just  wrong turn. THEN, he enters a traffic circle and find myself losing my balance due to the centripetal acceleration because he has gone around not once or twice, but THREE times! And at this point the whole bus and I had caught on... and I look up, this dude is on a cell phone trying to get directions: YOU'RE A BUS DRIVER... SHOULDN'T YOU KNOW YOUR WAY AROUND THE CITY! But, after about 3 or 4 OR 5 more wrong turns and traffic circles, we ended up at the station. Luckily, the gospel playing on my I-pod could only bring me to laugh at the situation and say "Merci et Au revoir" to the bus driver. I guess the streets are not just confusing for tourists... but also for those that are supposed to know them like the back of their hand!