The one with France

There is absolutely no way to fully capture my French holiday. Words do their best to describe, photos help the memories, and videos make it possible to relive certain chosen moments, but nothing compares to have actually experineced it.

Adrenaline was pumping through my body so much when I walked down the stairs from that little plane once it landed in Nantes. It was pumping so hard I thought I might actually jump out of my own skin. That was especially true once I spotted Louise, Gildas, Pauline, and Denis waiting on the other side of the glass. I waved, blew kisses, hopped around, and attempt to make introductions through the glass while Stephanie and I waited for our bags.

Once we had our bags and rounded the corner towards my friends, culture shock immediately set in. I wanted to run to them and hug them around their necks. In French culture it is bisous (kiss kiss on the cheek) that is the norm. For as many French lessons as I had allowed myself to practice prior to the trip, I was under prepared for actual conversation. Many blank stares were given, "quoi"s spoken, and interpretations from Stephanie who does not even know French.

We all sat awkwardly at an airport table trying to make small talk and make plans. I was still sweating and shaking from the coursing adrenaline- it was almost an out of body experiene. Stephanie took a picture and that started to break the ice. Finally we making the hour drive from Nantes to Rennes where Louise and Gildas live. We piled into the BMW, sang along to mostly American songs on the radio, and attempted naps. We made a stop for tea at Adeline and Anthony's flat before lugging our bags to our flat. Adeline and Anthony have a dog named Figi and enjoyed watching videos of Dharma and Bizi playing in the snow.

The English/French dicrionary first came out when talking about Whiskey. I made a major attempt to explain honey whiskey when Gildas pulled a whiskey bottle from their liquor cabinet. I flipped through the dictionary to find the word for honey (miel) and proceeded to fail in my explaination of honey whiskey. Next thing I know I have a small glass of whiskey in front of me along with a bottle of honey and a spoon. That experience and taste was far from similair to American style honey whiskey.

For the first day we took a trip to Mont St Michel. There were many steps, a famous omlette restaurant, a picnic in the rain, and many photo opts. That night Louise took Stephanie and me into Rennes where we met Marina at a popular coffee/tea shop. Marina and Louise had not seen each other since school ended, so there was a lot of catching up to do for all involved. After coffee and tea we walked to the parliment building and watched a holiday animation displayed on the front.

After the animation show we all went back to Louise's flat to partake in a galette/crepe dinner that Gildas had prepared. Ham, eggs, cheese, creme freche, and tuna were available for building the indivual galettes. Everything was tastey and my belly filled up long before it was time to finish eating. This was the case most of the trip. There was always so much food. When we had all finished dinner the girls played a couple games of Rumikub. Rumikub is played fondly by many of the French folk.

St Malo was ours for the adventuring on day two. J'adore St Malo. It is an old, walled in, pirate town. The streets are made of stone, seafood is inexpensive and delicious, the sea can be seen from walking in the walls of town, and on this particular trip Christmas tunes could be heard down each alley. The wind was extreme that day and there was mist in the air which made carrying umbrellas and taking photos memorable. For lunch we all ate mussels (moules), frites, and cider. Stephanie and I also shared a galette. Crepes were again enjoyed for dessert. During the meal we enjoyed conersation about how expensive mussles are in America and what a delicacy they can be. We also cheered and chinked glasses, shared vocabulary (fork/forchette, knife/couteau, tree/arbre, ), and took photos- per the usual.

Naps were a must when we arrived back to the flat after exploring St Malo for the day. We lounged for a short time, Stephanie braided my hair, and once the BMW was packed with everyone's bags we hit the road towards Chateaubriant. It was time for an old fashioned French family Christmas. It was astounding the greetings that we received just from Mum, Papa, Eugenie, and Melanie. I cannot think of any situation more surreal than being back in that house, bisous from the sisters, and walking upstairs, as if I remembered the place like the back of my hand, to stow luggage.

Although Christmas had passed, it was time for presents and celebrating. Stephanie and I opened our gifts first. We received scarves, tea sets, handmade bracelets, and other beautiful and thoughtful things. My nerves set in as I handed presents to each of the Belays. I was nervous that my French used in their cards to explain the gifts might be insuffiencent or just terrible, but all was well when I head Mum and Papa speak, "tu es tres gentil." It was a winderful time watching everyone read their cards and inspect their gifts. I will always remember Papa wearing his new KC Chiefs blanket like a cape, pointing to the couch, making snoring sounds, and indicating that it would stay there forever- as would the miniture Statue of Liberty forever stay on the buffet.

In no time at all, the rest of the family had arrived and we were all seated around the table. There is no possble way to remember each dish that we were served for dinner and the accompanying bottle of wine or champagne. I cannot even remember how many courses there were at dinner that night. I simply remember eating and eating and eating. I also remember drinking more wine than ever before and provoking many laughs. There was a good amount of singing and dancing around the table that night too. The singing started with the cousins and then Stephanie and I were strongly encouraged to stand up and sing an American song for all to hear. After many embarrasing moments in attempting to choose a song, there we were, in front of all of my French family singing Home by Phillip Phillips. Somewhere out there exists a video, but fortunately, I know not where.

Through the remainder of our time in Chateaubriant, many such dinner parties transpired. Bread, wine, cheese, wine, chocolate, wine... The pattern seems clear to me. One of the best events was eating a pile, a literal pile, of crepe with Nutella and homemade honey after a walk through the forest with the cousins. Chateaubriant is something of a country town. The clear vast skies were advantageous for our walk and the creek and woods made for a beautiful backrop for our continuous photo opts. The adventure through the forest reminded me of adventures with my own cousins through the creek at grandma and grandpa's house. Singing, walking, posing for pictures, climbing, being silly- all things that make for lasting memories whether in Independence or Chateaubriant.

Funny thing about New Year's Eve- last year after having been in New York City to ring in the new year I decided to ring in 2013 by sitting at home in my pyjamas. Instead of being at home and in my pyjamas to ring in 2013 I was at a party in France disguised as The Queen of Hearts. Stephanie was clad in a red beret and was a fine looking Le Petit Chapeau Rouge (Little Red Riding Hood). Louise was impecibly dressed as an Incredible and Gildas was a poorly costumed John Lennon. The celebration consisted of many exciting and memorable things: alcohol; food-escargot, chips and dip, shrimp with eyes and tails, crab legs, bread, and the list is forever long; games of song and action; dancing; fireworks, costumes; a questionably gendered bunny. Oh and more alcohol (with ice cream) and food. There were so many courses that tea and coffee eventually came at 3am. I will give the French a few things, one of which is that they know how to party.

Saying goodbyes was not as heartbreaking this trip as I know for certain that I will see everyone again. Louise and Gildas were gracious enough to drop us as the Rennes train station; Pauline and Denis were patient enough to pick us up at the Paris train station. Facebook saved our asses as we could not locate Pauline and Denis and did not have a phone. Thank you Facebook.

From the train station we dropped our bags at the hotel and walked to a cafe for lunch where Simon, Pauline's friend, met us. Simon lives near Paris and was kind enough to give up his entire day to be our personal, patient, tour guide. We saw what seemed like everything: la tour eiffel, l'arc de triomphe, les invalides, le louvre, montmartre, le moulin rouge, notre dame, le centre pompidou, sacre coeur, les champs-élysées, et al.

After saying farewell to Pauline, Denis, and Simon we went to the hotel to form a plan while I soaked my blistered feet. Our plan was to find Le Petit Chatelet, but not before stumbling upon an awesome used book store which we perused for a good long while. I was most excited to find the following books en français: Ramona the Pest, Sherlock Holmes, Alice in Wonderland, and The Polar Express. Once we were able to pull away from the bookstore we again checked the map and successfully located the restaurant across the avenue from Notre Dame. Speaking only en français to our waitor, successfully placing our orders en français, and understanding some conversations en français quickly sprang to the top of My Proudest Moments list. I was beyond estatic to have had such luck in French conversation.

Prior to departure from Paris we toured the Palace of Versailles where I was utterly mesmerized by the splendor and shine that The Hall of Mirrors offered. Steph seemed to greatly enjoy strolling through the gardens. Two last Must Do's before leaving- purchase rings from Pylones and stock up on Chocolate. Finding Pylones might be one of the biggest achievements of my life. With avenues changing names mid-block and directions en français we had some struggles with arrival. Once we walked through the front door and heaved a sigh of relief we marched directly to the ring counter and began choosing rings of varied size, shape, color, and inner fillings. A great amount of Euros were spent that night in the Pylones store and now the women of both my French family and my American family are connected by jewelry. More Euros were spent on the way back to our hotel as we made multiple stops for chocolate and candy.

To skip ahead a bit and summarize- there were issues getting to our last hotel, more issues checking my luggage at CDG airport, iPad with 3% battery life for a seven hour flight, watched episodes of Sherlock on the flight, handsome man with an accent and runny nose next to me on the airport shuttle to Grand Central Station, Thai food delivery, chatty girl on flight to Kansas City, and visits from family and friends once I was once again at home.

My desire of all things French has not been quenced it has simply grown to be more adoring.

Merci à tous qui a rendu ce voyage possible. Merci à ceux qui ont été patient, aimable et hospitalier. J'aime ma famille français et je suis très heureux de les accueillir un jour dans le missouri. Merci pour l'amour et les souvenirs. A plus.

The one with London

Heathrow Airport is a big place. We were supposed to have a seven hour layover there. Instead we faced a nightmare and were detained through the holidays. Luckily, we were able to leave the airport and our nightmare slowly became less of a disappointment. The airline put us up in a fancy hotel the first night which a singing bus driving delivered us to. We had vouchers for dinner along with breakfast and lunch the following day. Although the meals were buffet style they were delicious.

Our first morning was spent trying to find a place to leave our bags for the day and rest our heads that night. We decided on a Shakespeare Hotel on the other side of the city to be closer to the consulate. Due to the holiday tube strike we chose to stay close to the consulate. Although the Shakespeare Hotel sounded fancy, it was not. We were supposed to have two beds, but only one was to be shared. Stephanie's side of the bed was partly in the fireplace. We had to place a coffee cup in the windowsill to prop the window open to breath fresh air. We were four flights up with no lift and a number of bags. We paid for the internet and had a terrible time accessing it. After complaining to the front desk I had to sit in the stairwell to Skype with my entire family on Christmas Eve. Our shower leaked when other people utilized the pipes and our bathroom faucet randomly spewed water. To our advantage, we were out exploring most of the day and did not have to endure the smallness of the room until the evening.

The Big Bus (tour) became our friend. We were walking to the consulate so that we would know how to get there when the time came and a man stopped us to inquire about the Big Bus Tour. We obliged and it all worked out beautifully. Although it was a hop on-hop off tour we rode the entire way through. We saw a multitude of neat things and made a list of the places to which we wished to return. With our tour came a free Harry Potter walking tour which showed us seven locations used in the films. It was awesome and, of course, rainy. After our tour we went to dinner at a Taylor Walker pub. Stephanie had lamb. I had salmon and a Carling beer. We both nommed on Camamberet cheese. Since it was Christmas Eve we decided a bottle of wine and an assortment of wafer chocolates seemed a good way to celebrate. Two days later and we still had about half a bottle of wine. We never did finish it.

Christmas Day most places were closed, including public transit, so we walked the city. We actually walked all the way to the consulate this time. Once there a friendly, everyone in London is friendly, armed guard pointed us in the direction of Shepards Market, where he assured us some pubs would be open. What we found was a Turkish restaurant with a few Christmas specials on the menu. After some time of deliberation over what to chose from the menu our server arrived. As we pointed to the menu and voiced our desired selections he informed us that we would be served every item listed under each special. We spent all that time deliberating only to be served small portions of all the options. Lamb, tabouli, broad beans, falafel, spicy shrimp, etc etc was feast before us. After picking though those options it was time for dessert. I decided on what sounded traditional- Christmas pudding. I was quite displeased with my Christmas pudding. It was not pudding at all. In fact, it was a sort of dense chocolate cake with prunes deep inside and something of an egg drizzle atop. It was not good. Stephanie made the best dessert decision; she ordered Eton mess. It was fruity, meringue-y, delicious, and light. She was nice enough to share with me since I could not even stomach mine.

From the Turkish restaurant we walked to Buckingham Palace. We arrived at the Palace a short time before the rain did. We oogled over the grandness of everything and took loads of photos. We next walked to Westminster Abbey, stopping along the way to take photos of Big Ben. At this point the mist had started and the rain was moving in. Of course we took photos while at Westminster also, and could not resist getting some fresh roasted nuts to munch on for the walk back. The rain was really falling now, but we marched on and although we were freezing we stopped for ice cream at Baskin Robbins. We had to leave before I finished my cone due to Stephanie feeling sick from all the Hookah smoke from the nearby lounges.

Other things seen and experienced in London: Picidillay Circus, Tower of London, London Bridge, Fleet Street, Baker Street, The Sherlock Holmes Museum, The London Eye, Regent Streeet (owned by the Queen and Norway), Margaret Thatcher's house, The Prime Minister's house, Bridget Jones' "house", Abbey Road, eating fish and chips with our Big Bus tour guide on Boxing Day, etc etc. Oh, and my new favorite television show is 8 Out of 10 Cats.

Our time in London ended once Stephanie and I had waited in the queue at the consulate, made various phone calls from one of the infamous Red Booths, sipped hot cocoa at Starbucks (where I napped and waited for Steph while she was at the colsulate for a second and then third time), received a new passport, and boarded our plane to Madrid.

Thanks London for being so friendly and for not completely ruining Christmas.

The One With the Flight Before Christmas

"Twas the flight before Christmas and all through the plane the passengers were all snug in their seats and no one complained."

Southwest proves time again to be the most creative and enjoyable airline to travel with. After riding the airport emloyee shuttle to the terminal with my uncle and a decent flight to Chicago with barking dogs, this was a first for me, I boarded another plane to Newark. The flight commenced with an entire rendition of Twas the Night Before Christmas. It entailed safety precautions and airline procedures. There was even a time for passenger participation. The flight itself was fine, full but fine. Here is a little something I have learned during this flight. If you know that your Southwest flight is full then opt for a seat other than the window. If you chose a window seat then anyone can choose to sit next to you, especially the creepers. Be the chooser and not the choosee. I have learned this from experience.

I am not yet sure what useful things I have learned from my flight from JFK to Heathrow. Some facts have been reiterated, but nothing new has come to light. Things that have been reiterated: Christmas is a busy time especially for travelers, people as a general public tend to not listen and they also like to sit next to their travel mate on their flight especially if they paid extra for a seat assignment, people get impatient, and yet there is always someone willing to help. Sometimes that helpful person heaves your luggage over a carousel that you are obviously struggling with and sometimes that helpful person shoves your luggage into the overhead bin after people have stowed their coats there first even after advised not to. It is nice to know that there is always that helpful person out there. That thought makes me wonder how often and when I present myself as that helpful person.

Boarding the flight at JKF proved to be rather nightmare-ish. The flight was cancelled the day before we were scheduled to leave, so Steph and I were frantically calling to make new plans and get things in place. Once we got to the airport, late, our boarding passes could not be located and by the time they were found it was almost boarding time. Steph got her bag checked and in the time that took it was supposedly too late to check me in- it was too close to boarding time. The airport personnel did not seem to understand that we had been there waiting and that we were travelling together. All things said and done, I got through. We made it through security, somehow, and then we ran with significant haste to our gate. I heard the Home Alone music in my head the whole time. Our flight was not even boarding when we arrived at our gate.

All things considered the actual flight was not so bad, except for the mini asthma attck I had once I finally sat down and not being seated near my travel mate. Little did we know what nightmare loomed ahead once our plane was to land in London.