End of Europe trip journal: 5/27/05

if you're reading this first, don't. go down to the first day, 5/18/05.

5/27/05

12:18 (British time) well, we luckily enough caught the plane we were crossing our fingers for (though we had to run our asses off) and now we’re headed straight for LA. We were sooo relieved to hear that we got seats.

Last night we went back to the Millennium Lodge, and I ran into Rodrigo, but he didn’t stay for the evening, so I didn’t have to worry about being mean or warding him off. Instead, we met this really cool guy named Daniel, who looked like Weezer, who was a young teacher from Portugal. He told us a lot about the culture, music, and economy of Portugal. I plan to write him so I can learn more. Ruby and I sang karaoke, and then I sang Happy Birthday to her, with the help of some of the Brazilian guys. Poor Ruby was being somewhat harassed by one guy who apparently had the biggest crush on her. He’s a nice guy, but he had way too much to drink, and was being much too pushy. What happened to the cute Mexican? I wanted her to hook up with him. I actually ended up having a hookup of my own that night…

The first time we stayed at the Millennium Lodge, I had been immediately attracted to one of the guys at the bar. I saw him a few times later on, but never actually talked him or anything. Yesterday, I saw him early when we checked in, and again considered him the best-looking guy there. After the karaoke, and when we started dancing, I noticed he was watching us (me, Ruby, and Daniel) and when we went to sit on the couch near him, and Ruby said something to him, I took the opportunity to start talking more to him. He was really nice (apologized for his drunk friend, smiled a lot), and I invited him to play billiards with me and Ruby and another guy. They were all impressed with my playing abilities…I think I won the game for us like 2 out of 3 times (and we played 3 games). But this whole time Ghean and I were sitting close and smiling at each other and talking. Eventually after the pool games, everyone else left (cus they didn’t want to cock-block I guess…those guys look after each other) and we ended up kissing. I think he tried to ask me first, but he didn’t know how to say it in English. He was pretty aggressive with his kissing, and if I hadn’t set boundaries, he would have taken things really far, really quick. As it was, we spent the evening with me refusing to sleep with him, and him pushing his boundaries as he could. He was also being romantic too, holding hands, hugging, asking to see me the next morning. I don’t have much reason to expect this to be special for him, cus I’m sure he gets a lot of traveler chicks, but he did ask if he could call me in two days. I’ll have to email him the international code, and tell him when I’ll be home it’s kinda cool in a sense that we missed the plane, because firstly, I got to bond with Ruby in a really strong way, and secondly, that I was able to take my last chance to hook up in Europe (though I honestly really didn’t think I was going to, or would even want to). Although I hope it’s alright for Ruby, cus it sucks so bad that she has to spend her birthday on a plane.

-----> 12:54 (somewhere over Canada) well, just over a few hours until we reach LA. Now would probably be a good time to fill in the gaps and write about whatever else I wanted to, while it’s still considered my Europe trip. Let’s see, where was I? oh, yes, Dunkerque (5/20). Jess’ host mom made us dinner as we settled in for the night, and after we ate, we walked into town and to the beach. When we got there, Ruby says “I’m going swimming,” and starts taking off al her clothes. We were like “Ruby! All the bars are like 100 feet away…people can see! So we convinced her to keep her underwear on, and she somehow convinced us to join her. So there we were, the three of us, stripped down to our bra and underwear, running screaming into the frigid waters of the French coast of the English channel. We didn’t get any further than our thighs, but we still got pretty wet and cold. I really didn’t want to do it at first, but I’m glad Ruby has such good persuasive powers (“I’m going to do it whether you guys are coming or not!”) because it was a lot of fun. And I’m glad I have the story to tell.

After that we went to a little bar, and we sat and talked for a while (me and Jess caught up on the last 9 months) and it was cool cus we ran into Jessy, the guy who helped us on the train (he let us borrow his cell phone to call a very worried Jess). Him and his friends set the bar high for nice French guys.

The next day the 3 of us went to Lille, and we got to go to the art museum (Palais des Beaux Arts), and after that we walked to the Citadelle where we saw some people planting and asked if we could join them. someone there was English, and we found out it was an organization to help keep the ecological systems balanced, and it was all volunteer. We wrote in their guest book, and everyone was so nice to us that we walked away feeling very good about ourselves.

That night we all dressed up and went out on the town and did a little bar-hopping. Someone tried to pull Ruby away from us once though, and someone else tried to separate Jess from us, so I was a little uneasy about most of the guys. Plus, Jess and Ruby had just told me I was too gullible when it came to guys, so I guess I was trying to be more aware. We ended up joining a group of guys later though, and we found out they were a bachelor’s party. Jess picked up on the bachelor, unfortunately for her…she couldn’t keep him. They were all really though, and I wish I had gotten some emails. We all had fun trying to communicate, and poor Jess, the main translator, was losing her voice.

I’ve learned that there are several opinions on French people and the English language. We ran into some French who were like “you’re in France, speak French.” But a lot of people (mostly English, but quite a few French) thought that the French should know and speak English, and that they were just being snooty about it. I would actually agree with the first opinion, but someone mentioned the tourist industry, and that they rely on English-speaking tourists for a portion of their economy. I figure I’m not French, so it’s not my fight, I’ll just do my best to communicate however I can when I’m there. Well, I think that’s all I remember wanting to write about…Oh, except I wanted to make mention to the drunk young British guys we met on the Underground one midnight. They asked us where we were from, and when we said “America” one asked us “Where’s that?” we were like “you know…the United States” and he goes “Is that in the UK?” I couldn’t tell if that’s how drunk he was, if he really didn’t know, or if he was just messing with us. Now that just about concludes my Europe trip journal. This has been such an awesome experience for me, I don’t even know how to sum it up in words. I’ve written 20-some-odd pages on my thoughts and experiences so far, and I still feel like I missed a lot. One thing I learned that I don’t think I really talked about so far is the value of a home, and having friends and family that know you and love you. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to travel alone, because at least on this trip when things felt pretty lonely, I was able to turn to Ruby, and know that she was someone familiar, a piece of home, and a friend that I know and love. I hope I always remember this, and ever take these connections for granted.