And then i saw a Gap in Paris

Okay guys, its official…I am homesick!

Lets start from the beginning. Berlin was amazing. I am sure I have overused that word, but seriously like this was the favorite city by far. We came in Friday and each day we did a walking tour of the city. Me being the massive history buff loved the tour we took on the Third Reich. I just about died when I got to see Hitler’s bunker even though it just a parking lot now. Saturday we just did a standard tour of the city talking about Prussia and the empires in Potsdam. Sunday we went up north to Sachsenhausen, a Nazi labor camp created to be the model concentration camp. I am not going try to pretend like I could understand what happened there, but having been there I feel like I at least attempted to scratch the surface. Great experience, cheap place to visit, wealth of history, you gotta go there.

Then things took a slightly negative turn. One of the exciting features of my trip was that we were going to take a sleeper train from Berlin to Paris Sunday night. I love trains and was so pumped to get to sleep in one! Well we get to the train station half an hour early and are lazily sitting in burger king, when we find out that our train was canceled. Apparently Europe is capable of having hurricanes and the weather was too bad to allow trains to travel at night. Awesome…. thanks for that warning people! Well what we were told to do was take a train that night from Berlin to Frankfurt and wait until morning to take a second train from Frankfurt to Paris. We had no other choice so we took the train from 8:30 pm in Berlin and arrived about 1:30 am in Frankfurt. Our train to Paris left at 6:00 am. Unlike an airport where it is nice and warm and totally okay to sleep with your luggage in the terminal, a train station is different. The train tracks are outside, and there isn’t much of an “inside” area for you to safely hang out. The only place that was covered was the subway station underground but nothing could make me logically sleep there at 2 in the morning seeing as how subway stations are hella dirty and hella sketchy. We were just asking to get mugged. We start to freak about a bit (We as in Me, Katie, Liz, and Nathan) but we find a McDonalds. We ordered only what they would offer us…four-hour-old cheeseburgers and sprite. They ran out of water…yes let me repeat myself THEY RAN OUT OF WATER. How the hell does that happen? I have no idea. McDonalds closes at 2 am, so we don’t have a place to stay. I never have ever felt more like a homeless person in my life. We sit down on the side of the train station and begin to mentally prepare ourselves to sit on the street and wait out for the next 4 or 5 hours. Luckily, Nathan is wandering around and finds a train “lounge” for us to hang out it. It is a large tiled room with a bunch of hospital-like couches (you know, like a giant waiting room). Most of the couches were taken so we camped out on the floor. You have no idea what it felt like, it was heaven compared to the idea of sleeping on the train platforms. So many other people were in the same dilemma as us so it was nice to feel united in a sense. But because everyone was cuddling their luggage and looked a little beaten by their travels…Katie said it felt like we were Katrina victims. I don’t mean to joke…but it really did feel like that. All of us packed in like sardines being handed water to drink and yeah. I slept on the floor next to a young German solider who looked like he couldn’t have been older than 16. It made me kind of sad to see him in uniform at such a young age. Literally, there were a few guys and all of them looked incredibly young. Some even had braces! Well we managed to sleep a little. I broke my hip basically by sleeping on the tiled floor. But I knew it was better than the street outside so I didn’t complain. Somehow, within my sleep I ended up getting nose to nose with the solider, I guess I migrate towards warm bodies. Haha, luckily he was passed out and when I woke up I moved away fast.

We finally got onto our train at 6 am only to find out we were not given an assigned seat and the train was booked. We sat down at what we thought were empty seats but at every stop between Frankfurt and Paris, more people boarded and used our seats. So we would stand, walk around a bit and sit in another spot, only to have to move again an hour later when someone boarded the train and had that spot reserved for them. It was like musical chairs but not fun. Obviously, with this constant shifting of seats, we didn’t sleep much

We arrived in Paris around 10 am and went straight to our school to get our living stuff. I love my dorm. I have it completely to myself, with a bathroom and little kitchenette. This is where the homesickness comes in. This is the first time I am truly living on my own. I have gone to the grocery store four times so far and don’t know how to feed myself! Going from home, to the dorms, to alpha chi for two years…. I’ve never had to cook for myself, or truly live in on my own. It’s really weird! All I do is sit alone in my room and facebook creep and see that everyone is having a great time in Lawrence. Yes I realize that Paris is amazing, and I am having a unique experience, but I just miss seeing you guys. When you comment on my facebook or send me an e-mail it makes my life. So yeah please, let me know how you are doing. You don’t understand how much I miss you all very very much. It has led me to stress eat…and I’ve gained a bit of weight! Haha

The homesickness really hit in when, get this, I saw GAP in Paris. They are all over the place. I wanted to run inside and scream, “I love denim!” Then Monday night I got to go to dinner with Katie and meet her parents who flew in for the week. They hugged me upon meeting me…do you know that that is like my first hug since January when I hugged my mother goodbye. Do you know how much I miss hugs? Please hug me when you see me.

Anyway, that’s all I have for now. I’m sure I’ll be okay

Love you all!

Ladini