Anticipation has a habit to set you up...

Well, here I am finally writing in here about the third weekend of October 2015. This was a crazy one.  Simultaneously the best of times and the worst of times. 

So, as some people may have seen on Facebook, there was a time on this trip (saturday morning to be exact) when I felt like this....

Cain in torment after killing his brother Abel.

Why did I feel such epic sorrow you may ask? Well, I had bought a 160 euro ticket for a beautiful tour of the Loire and I missed the bus. It was really upsetting. Like, the only reason I had decided to come to Paris was so that I could do that tour. I had a 3 day weekend from work and I was determined to make the most of it. My plans had ranged from going to Italy to going to Denmark to going to France when some friends suggested the Loire. They got all flakey so I thought, if you want to do something, just do it yourself! 

So I looked up tickets and tours of the Loire and I found one that looked absolutely fantastic. It was expensive but I decided to splurge on an experience. I bought the ticket and was so looking forward to it. Before I left for Paris I made myself directions from google maps of exactly how to get to the meeting point. I got to Paris on Friday morning and on Friday night I went to bed early and set several alarms so that I would be sure to be at my bus in time for our early departure at 7:15 am.

I wish that I could say that I saved a lost child in the metro and that's why I was late for my tour. But in actuality... my alarm went off and I hit snooze thinking that there would be another one in a few minutes. In actuality, after I hit snooze, I woke up at 7:18 and felt the horror. 

I jumped out of bed, got ready as quick as possible (didn't even put contacts in) and rushed out the door to the metro. I knew I wouldn't get there in time but I thought maybe I could change tours or something. 

I found the tour centre-exactly where my trusty instructions had told me it would be and hurried in and plead my case. To my everlasting sorrow they were so dang french about it. They told me I was an hour late and there was nothing I could do. They gave me the email for customer service and I was like, "Do you think there's any chance?" And they were basically like "NO." Then I was like "sniffle, sniffle...Is there a McDonald's nearby? I need wifi."

So they directed me to the nearby McDonalds and I left in shame. I just couldn't believe it. I actually teared up walking down the street. It was for such a stupid reason too. I kept reliving it in my brain. Luckily, I wasn't totally alone. When I got to McDonalds and got my chocolate croissant-y thing (yeah, that's sold at MacDo's in Paris) I found that my friend Sameer was online. I showed him how miserable I was:

Live from McDonalds early saturday morning

and he helped me feel better. We discussed the facts that it was just money and that no one had died. He encouraged me to go do something fun and cheap instead and consider it a sunk cost. So I stuck my chin out and did some research. My top choices upon consulting my iPhone were either Provinse, an old medeval village outside Paris or the Chateau Fontainbleu-also outside Paris. Sameer was like, "chateau!" so that's what I did.

On the way I stopped to look at the garden outside the Louvre right by my metro stop. It was beautiful and also gave shape to my distress when I saw this all too real depiction: 

Once again. Just to re-re-emphasize how much remorse I felt.

But then this view kind of reminds you that really....life isn't too bad.

People were going on morning jogs here! Very cool.

So I made my way to the train station and with the help of a nice officer, bought my ticket and boarded my train. It took like an hour and a half to get to the stop and then I took a bus to the chateau. Oh my goodness it was so beautiful. I stopped and got a meal and ate it in the chateau garden and it was just like..."if this is plan B, my life is pretty dang good." 

The Chateau Fountainbleu is a lot like Versailles but with a lot less tourists- kind of the hipster version! Because I have a card to work in the EU and I'm under 25, I was able to take the tour for free! There is a lot of history there, especially with Napoleon which was a big bonus. Cause Napoleon was pretty cool. 

Cookie Chateau Selfie

No crowds!

The people who took this picture were like, "you sure you don't want another one?"
Now I see why. Im standing so awkward! 

Guys, this is OCTOBER. Incroyable. 

There's a cool staircase in the back but you can't really see it

Now you can! It's called the horseshoe staircase or something

Top of the staircase

My Secret Garden. 

The coat. The hat. The legend.

I was obsessed with the fall colours.

Obsessed!

The chateau had a great 3 euro audio guide AND a Napoleon exhibit. So worth it. After that I walked around town a little bit and enjoyed the charm. Got a macaron and a chocolate from a sweets place that were delicious. Eventually I had walked too far to turn back but I didn't know the appropriate time to catch the bus. I decided to just walk back to the train station. 

The downside of this was that it was a long way. The upside was that I proved to myself that after about a decade of french lessons, I do, in fact, know how to ask for directions in French. Another perk was that I saw a man walking along by himself in a Ramones t-shirt carrying just a baguette. So French!

As I had been walking around the town I had seen signs for the little medieval town I had been interested in so I figured it was close by. I did a little research and decided to go there! I took the train to the appropriate stop and then waited for the bus. It was starting to get late though and the bus was really late. I didn't want to get stuck outside Paris. So I thought, maybe I shouldn't be so greedy. I also knew that all the museums would be closed in Paris so I decided to just get dinner in that little town and then head back. I had a bit of a misadventure taking the bus into town and trying to find somewhere to eat. The first place I went to, I sat down and it turns out they only had drinks! I was too embarrassed to leave so I got hot chocolate. Then I went next door and got a sandwich which I ate outside by the fountain. Weirdly, people seemed to like my American accent in French. Everyone was quite nice to me.

More cookie selfies.

The bus finally came and it was the one I was originally supposed to be on. It took me like an HOUR into the countryside to Provins, the town I originally wanted to be in. I was like, oh the irony. Because by then it was too dark to see anything. I think I saw the outline of a fortress on the hill. So I just got off the bus at the train station in Provins, thinking that one train station was as good as another. But then I missed the train. I was misinformed about which side it would be leaving from. I wasn't the only one. I ended up bonding with this other American girl there. Eventually we were the only ones left in the station and it was like 11 pm. We had one more chance to get the right train. 

As we started talking it turned out that she WENT TO THE SAME ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AS ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS AT BYU! I was like ...whhhhaaaaatttt? She was really nice and I invited her to come stay with me in Den Haag if she ever wants to. I'm hoping that for some reason I needed to meet her and that's why I missed my tour! 

Me and my new friend when we finally made it onto the train.

Well, anyway, that was Saturday. To back track, Friday was really good. I got into town too early in the morning for anyone to be awake which was kind of awkward but it all worked out (the perks of taking super cheap buses). I met up with my friend and fellow intern from OPCW who was visiting her family in Paris for the weekend and I had a great time eating crepes, looking at Napoleon's tomb, seeing museums and going to the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe! She was a great and very patient tour guide for me.

Outside the Hotel Des Invalides

Yes, I was a total tourist and took a picture with my savoury crepe

Imitating the thinker at the Musee Rodin 

Me and Miriam
(and The Thinker)

It's a statue of Eve leaving the garden ashamed.
I took a solidarity picture with her because I think Eve is pretty cool and shouldn't be ashamed. 

There were a LOT of weeping angels in Paris in general and at the Rodin Museum in particular.
It was hard not to blink.

Michael Jackson

Napoleon's tomb

Eiffel Tower

So excited about the Eiffel Tower that I'm falling down

Miriam doesn't like taking pictures as much as I do but she was a great sport

Market in the evening

INCREDIBLE Dessert crepe

Oh, Champs Elysee! (da da da do do) 

On Sunday I went to a museum with my cousin who was nice enough to let me stay with her all weekend. 

Outside Le Petit Palais 

So yeah. That was my awful for a second but mostly wonderful weekend in Paris! Am I the luckiest girl or what? Also if you want to know what I'm referencing with that title check out this classic from the Arctic Monkeys. So appropriate for so many circumstances: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK7UU097W_w

Mormons, Canoes, and Mr. Darcy

England is like a magnet for me. Case in point: the second weekend of October I traveled with my friend Ashley to a Young Single Adult Conference in Yorkshire! 

I met Ashley at church. We both go to the English ward and are the only young, unmarried women there. So of course we bonded. She got her masters in the UK and so she knows the Mormon scene there and invited me to go with her to what is called the Huddersfield Young Single Adult Convention. Mormon boys? England? A girl friend? She didn’t have to ask me twice. I really didn’t know what to expect but since it sounded like a combination of all my favourite things it would have been irresponsible to sit it out!

So I took work off on that Friday and got an early morning train to the Amsterdam airport. Our plane was pretty tiny:

propeller plane!

When we got to Manchester we hung out at the airport for a little while waiting for Ashley’s friend Megan to pick us up. Megan is another American who is getting her PHD in England. She’s been there so long that she actually has an english accent! And a car! I’m a bit jealous of her life. 

Joining another two people’s friendship could have been super awkward but they were really welcoming and it didn’t take long for me to feel really comfortable around them. We had some time to kill before the conference really started so we went to a charity shop in downtown Huddersfield and it was EPIC. I was able to find an entire outfit there; a crazy hat, a yellow coat and a red necklace. I wore it the next day of course!

True Fashion

After that we went to Nando’s, a portugese restaurant, which is apparently an essential part of being a Mormon in England. Then we just relaxed at out hotel before the dance.

The dance was roller skating themed. I was pretty exited about roller skating and didn’t think it would be too hard. However, I fell flat on my back. It was like a banana peel slip in a slap-stick comedy. Ashley almost landed on me. I got the wind knocked out of me and, though I tried to continue, my heart just wasn’t really in skating after that. I met some cool people though. One guy that I talked to came back out of nowhere later in the night and gave me a piece of candy. I was like, “What’s this?” and he said “just turn it over.” So I did and it was a conversation heart candy thing that said “Dream girl” on it. I was like, ‘oh boy’ and gave him a thumbs up or something, not knowing what to do. 

Flattering but uncomfortable. 

The next day we slept in a little bit and got to the conference in time for the service project. The project was a bit of a cop-out this year but I still had fun just being around my new friends— Ashley had introduced me to these AWESOME Scottish girls the night before and they were hilarious. After lunch everyone split up for activities. Our activity was canoeing. Oh my gosh, it was such a good choice! The highlight of my weekend! First of all, we got to drive through picturesque Yorkshire. And then there were only like 10 of us so we actually got to talk to each other rather than just being stuck with people we already knew. Since the weather is getting cold, they gave us wetsuits. I have to say, it takes some courage to wear a wetsuit in public, but I did it! I shared a canoe with this guy named Josh who also likes to travel so we bonded over that. Some of the others were having a lot of trouble with their canoes and had to be rescued. This entailed switching canoes so that I was with one of the guys who ran the place and canoeing back to shore to get the small motorised raft boat. I had a little bit too much fun with that— I stood on the front as we raced way too fast through the water towards the canoe in distress with my hair blowing out behind me. Afterwards Ashley was like, “who are you?” haha. 

The Gang

Only one of us had appropriate footwear. Also isn't my nail polish pretty?

Ashley, Me, Meghan

rocking the boots with wetsuits look

We learned from our lake guides that there were some cool ruins nearby. So before we went back to the church we all went and explored that. It was a beautiful lookout point of the lake as well as an old crumbling castle/watchtower. I climbed all over feeling like a little kid again. I just love that there were no ropes like “don’t go here” anywhere. It was all free game.

I think I was on the other side of the moat

Somehow we started doing exercises...? I think I was making fun of the way I danced the night before

Walking off into the sunset

After that we had dinner and there was another dance- Harry Potter themed. I had thought that I would just put a lot of random eccentric stuff on and dress up as ‘a witch pretending to be a muggle’ but we didn’t have time. And that was fine. We had fun dancing and talking and I got to meet more people. 

Sunday was the last day of the conference. First we had sacrament meeting. The impromptu choir was incredible. Ashley explained to me that, while Mormons in general are known to be good singers, it’s especially true of British Mormons. Seriously it was so funny how good they were. And I don’t usually get worked up about listening to choir music. But I was like #whoa. 

There was a sort of picnic lunch after sacrament meeting. Since we weren't in a hurry we just hung out and talked to people for awhile and even did some little sing-alongs around the piano (again, so Mormon, haha). 

We had an awkward amount of time left over after that before we needed to go to the airport so at the last minute we decided to go to Lymehouse. This is a beautiful old manor house where the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice was filmed. It was so worth it! By this time me and Megan and Ashley were just besties and we had so much fun just exploring and joking together.

Side note: one of the best aspects of that weekend was the fact that Ashley and Megan thought I was so funny. Like, I would say vaguely eccentric things and they’d be like, “stop! I’m putting that quote on twitter!” I was like… “well, ok then.” It’s nice to have my genius appreciated every once in awhile ;) 

So here are some pictures of our time with Mr. Darcy: 

This was in the gift shop.
You know, I actually got broken up with in the process of a BBC Pride and Prejudice marathon?
I've made peace now. 

Home Sweet Home!

Fall Leaves

Beautiful landscape

having fun with my little photo shoot

candid that I like

getting funky

getting up and personal funky

collecting leaves like Gollum

I love leaves so much

Happy Autumn! 

Flippin ma hare -cause that's what you do when you live in an English Manor home

Oh, but how I love England. And this trip was a great reminder that ‘London’ does not equal ‘England.’ Even though I visited London earlier this year, it didn’t matter. The rustic quaintness of Yorkshire makes it a totally different place. Love. Love. Love.

Tour de Den Haag

Well friends, October was a CRAZY month! I think every weekend but one, I visited another country! The Netherlands, England, France, and Norway all in one month! Not too shabby, eh? Well, with all the out and about I had a hard time getting to this blog. But don’t worry! I took some good notes to remind myself of the important details! 

I will start out with that first weekend of October. I will call it: Tour de Den Haag. The tour guide was, of course, the one and only Sameer Ahmad; Cycling extarordinaire and former resident of the Hague for about 4 years. 

So the gist of this weekend it is that I had been planning on going somewhere else on that first Saturday of October but one of the girl’s I was supposed to go with didn’t feel well. So it fell through. Which turned out to be perfect because that was the weekend that Sameer came back to visit from his new job in Vienna! I had lots of fun hanging out with him. With all the new friends and places and people around me it was nice to spend some time with someone who knew me well. 

First, on Friday night there was a birthday party that a lot of the interns went to. Even though I hadn’t been in a good mood earlier in the day and wasn’t sure if I would go, I’m glad that I did! People were really fun and I had a great time. I even tried muscles for the first time! 

Muscles just look like little lungs...

They weren't my favourite.

As the night progressed people got a little rambunctious and started saying ignorant things about my religion (can’t remember how that came up). Anyway, while that was pretty annoying (why do people only want to talk about it when they’re drunk?) I could see the humour. For one thing, one of my fellow interns joined the conversation a little late and was like, “YOU’RE MORMON?!??” looking at me so alarmed as if I had just told her that …. I’m struggling to think of an appropriate comparison. As if I had just told her that I was a polygamist? Maybe that’s really what she thought had just happened. 

this pretty much summarises my reaction to the 'YOU'RE MORMON?!?' comment

Anyway, she regained her composure and said, “you’re my favourite Mormon that I’ve ever met” or something like that. I’m not really sure how much of a compliment that was but I could tell she was trying. Sometimes it’s nice to surprise people by my religion so that they 1.) don’t pre-judge me and 2.) when they find out realise that Mormons are pretty normal. 

So yeah. That was a notable thing about that night. I talked with Jaime and Sameer for the most part and it was great. 

Saturday was great! I slept in and then met up with Sameer for a bike ride. Sameer is the king of cycling in the Netherlands and he has a favourite place in the middle of nowhere along the beach that he calls “Sameer Spot.” He was shocked that he hadn’t taken me there yet so we biked for awhile through a park in the Hague and along the dune area and over to the beach.

It was fantastic and very empowering! When I first got here, I wouldn’t have been able to bike that long. But now I’m a cycling mar-chine ;). Really though, I hardly got tired and the weather was beautiful and the beach was fantastic. Here are some pictures: 

Scheveningen Beach

Typical Travel selfie

Horseback riding on the beach!...one day...

The Famous "Sameer Spot"! 

Oh yeah! I'm a cyclist now!

I did my own thing that afternoon but then that night I met up with Sameer and another friend, Miriam, from OPCW. We went and saw The Intern and then got deserts at a restaurant near Parliament. Overall a great weekend. And a great reminder that the Hague is incredible!