When you're having as rough a time as I am, you kinda just wanna escape reality for a little bit - and that's exactly what I did. There's a company called Ouibus that goes to different cities throughout Europe, and these prices are dirt cheap (my round trip was around 50 euros). I decided to go to Amsterdam for the weekend, so I left Rennes on Thursday morning, got to Paris, spent a few hours there, and caught a night bus to Amsterdam. I stayed at Wow Hostel, which was conveniently located 15 minutes by foot from the train station.
Amsterdam was a GORGEOUS city. If I could sum it up into three words, it would be canals, flowers, and bicycles, because that's literally all you see anywhere. The food was absolutely amazing - I ate street food basically throughout the two days I was there, and everything was superb. It wasn't all fun and games though: For one, the bus station in Paris is the dirtiest I've ever seen, and the bathrooms are so disgusting. I've experienced a hole-in-the-wall-no-toilet-seat-broken-door-no-toilet-paper kine bathroom in Vietnam during my AFS trip, but this was worse than that - peeing was almost an impossible feat. My bus to Amsterdam arrived an hour early, and because the sun hadn't risen yet (it was 6am lol) I was stuck at the bus station for an hour. Luckily, I met a few students from the US, and they were nice enough to let everyone use the restrooms by paying the 1 euro fee first. (Yeah. I guess Europeans don't think peeing is a human right because 93% of the bathrooms I've seen have some type of entrance fee - even in malls! it's ridiculous.) THE WORST PART. So. You know how I've been having the worst luck ever. Well. It gets worse. My bus back to Rennes from Paris, for some odd reason, didn't show up at the stop it was supposed to. Now, I am one to make sure that every single detail is correct, and because my bus got to this station an hour early as well, I had a LOT of time to make sure I was at the correct place. So, my bus wasn't at the location it was supposed to be at, but I figured it was just late (like the bus from Amsterdam to Paris). But after almost an hour at the same stop, I started majorly freaking out. I called the bus company and they told me it had already left, and by that point I was crying and on the verge of having a panic attack. The man on the phone was kind enough to re-book me for a different bus, so I now had 4 extra hours to spend in Paris. But hey, on the bright side I got to see a beautiful sunrise? ^ I made that seem a lot less terrible than it actually was, but I don't think anyone, except for my boyfriend and family, in which I called to cry to, knows how terrified I was. I was pacing back and forth, asking anyone around me if they were catching the same bus as me, my hands were cold, my heart almost dropped to my stomach, and I could feel my breathing getting shorter. While I'm going through these terrible situations, I can't help but think I'm just filled with bad luck, and that the universe is hating on me in every way that it can. But after I get over it and find a way out, I realize that the universe isn't hating on me - it's trying to make me stronger. As I look back at the many bad experiences I've encountered in the past three weeks, I'm amazed that I was actually able to power through them. There were times that I wanted to just quit everything (when I got stuck in Paris, I honestly thought about staying there and having my parents fly from Hawaii to pick me up - that's how hopeless I was) but the fact that I'm still here amazes me, because I know the Corina in 2018 would have broken down during the first housing/visa flop. The greatest realization I've made from these misfortunes, however, is that I have the strongest, best, most loving support team back home. My parents and sisters have expressed to me so many times how proud they are that I've been able to overcome these situations, and always reassure me that it's okay to quit if it means staying sane and mentally healthy. My boyfriend is always supporting me in everything, and constantly gives me the affirmation I need - and if he didn't answer the phone during my situation in Paris, I probably would have broken down. And my friends - even the ones that I never thought would reach out - are always checking up on me and encouraging me to stay positive.
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If you've ever wanted to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, minus all the little screaming kids and rollercoasters, Mont Saint-Michel is a close alternative. The castle-looking church sits on the island, that's surrounded by water. We had to take a shuttle after our bus dropped us off, in order to get to the island.
The Well'Come Association of our school arranged a tour for us, and we thought it would be of the church, but instead, the first thing our tour guide said to us, in the 60 degree weather, was "alright guys, now take off your shoes and socks, as we'll be exploring the bay." The tour ended up taking us around the island, where the black sand stuck to your feet like clay, the water made it a dangerous slip n' slide, and the quicksand tried to grab any unknowing prey it could get. It was an experience to say the least, but it's one I hope I will never have to go through again. After our dreadful surprise, we had five hours to look around the island. This was all fine and dandy, until you realize that there's literally nothing to do on this island. It takes roughly about 30 minutes to walk around the entire inside of the island, everything is super expensive compared to Rennes, all the stores are gift shops, selling the same tacky things at ridiculous prices, and the only things to see are the museum ($$$) and the church ($$ + hella long lines). Furthermore, the workers here, as all places that experience mass amounts of tourism, were not the friendliest to non-native's. If there's anything I learned during my very short time throughout this study abroad process (both pre- and post) it's to never be naive, and to always prepare for the worst. Here's a little story:
The Well'Come Association, which is in charge of making us Exchange Students feel welcome at the school, arranged a few optional field trips for us to attend, and one of them was to a city near the coast call Saint Malo. The first two days I was in France, I prepared for super cold weather - two long sleeves and a huge jacket - only to take off each layer every hour and sweat the rest of the day. I figured, since it's been like this for the time I was here, today wouldn't be any different. I thought I'd be smart and dress for the hot weather so I wouldn't have to suffer later on. LITTLE DID I KNOW that it would be HELLA CLOUDY and WINDY AS HELL where we were going. No sun, no warmth. Just clouds, gloom, and what seemed to be 920mph winds on top the fortress that is Saint Malo. To make matters worse, I ran out of the house without breakfast because I thought I was gonna be late (... we ended up leaving 30 minutes after the meet time) and I experienced car sickness for the first time in a while - I wanted to leave. I was prepared to catch a 2 hour bus back to school and waive my €22 participation fee goodbye. I grit my teeth, tried to enjoy the beautiful city through my holey sweater and shorts, and made friends who warmed me up along the way. After the hellish part (aka the tour in the -18° weather) was over, we went to a creperie and got lunch. €10,40 for the savory Galette of the day, a sweet crepe, and a drink - count me in. It was amazing. The weather cleared up, and it was sunny and bright, warm and cozy (with a little bit of chill) the rest of the day in Saint Malo, where my new friends and I enjoyed lots of pastries (the BEST kouign amann I've had in my life, a ker-y-poire-chocolat, and a pasteis de nata) and the even more beautiful view of the ocean, castle, and fort, after the gloom had disappeared. I woke up today feeling overwhelmed, as there were so many pastries I wanted to bring home to Hawaii, but only so little space in my two carry-ons to fit them. #firstworldstruggles
My first stop was the infamous Blackbird Doughnuts. Google Maps stopped working again (what's new) so I had to navigate using my wits and extensive knowledge of Boston and I made it! I got the Everything Bagel Doughnut, as literally everyone on Yelp raved about it, and it was pretty amazing. I stopped by here a second time after my lil excursion around Back Bay to get four more to take home. My next stop was a fifteen minute walk down to the Boston Public Library. I passed by it yesterday, but my feet were giving out under me and I knew I had to go home, so I've redeemed myself today. Not as impressive as the libraries I've seen in Copenhagen, but what did intrigue me was the museum-like parts in the back of the library, which gave off super European-y vibes. I had a second (mini) breakfast at Flour Bakery + Cafe, in which I tried their infamous sticky bun (but the mini size, because I know my body's reaching its sugar limit soon). I was dying to try the other things too, but I knew I had to save my money to buy more pastries to take home lol #priorities Since I was in the area already, I figured I'd walk to the Berklee College of Music, and I peeped inside some of the classrooms, and it was a dream for middle-school, bank geek Corina. There was a piano in almost every room, and the lecture that I walked past was teaching music scoring. I also passed by at least seventy nine people with guitar cases swung across their backs. My day was not all fun and games, however. I stopped by Tatte (again) to buy some pastries to take home, only to find out that none of the Boston locations have the Ham & Cheese Croissants after 9:30am I. was. paralyzed. But knowing my stubborn lil self, I made the trek to fucking Cambridge IN THE POURING RAIN (again) to get my goddamn croissants. My left knee was buckling, my right heel was bleeding, and my whole body was shivering but you know what? It's all gee because my sweet lil croissants are currently sleeping in the fridge, waiting to be taken home tomorrow morning. .. Watch me forget them all in the fridge before I leave tomorrow LMAO Day three of my time in Boston consisted of shopping at Assembly Row and Prudential Center, beautiful sakura (?) trees at Charles River Esplanade, a very mediocre Boston Cream Pie from Mike's Pastry, the deathly feeling of my legs giving out under me with every step I took, and the most amazing cake I've ever had in my entire life from L.A Burdick.
Whoever allowed me to make the 2.1 mile walk from my BnB to Assembly Row, and the 4.3 mile walk to Prudential Center, should be sued. I am honestly scared for tomorrow, as I currently cannot even get off my bed because my left knee is about to fall out of my socket. But besides the excruciating pain coming from my limbs, I'd say today was a pretty nice, chill day. I didn't get rained on today, and the stranger that took my picture actually got it down very nicely, which made my day. I got to see a whole different neighborhood and many cosplayers coming out of the Boston Anime Convention, and I got to experience the most surreal cake I've had in my life. There was a point in the beginning of my day that I felt like giving up on the entire world. Google maps led me in a circle, in the rain, with my shrunken canvas converse shoes, in a neighborhood that was probably not the friendliest in Massachusetts. Can someone please tell Google not to make the highway part of a walking route.
After my horrendous experience with technology, I (miraculously) made my way to Boston. I ate lunch at Boston Sail Loft for some Clam Chowder. Rich, thick, and piping hot I give it a 8/10. Plus, I was starving from my whole morning ordeal, I think almost anything would have sufficed. I visited Faneuil Marketplace and all three Markets within the area. I snapped a few pictures, listened to some street performers, and strolled down the many food shops about four times, before deciding there was really nothing that pulled me in. Haymarket was on the way to my next destination, so I strolled past and enjoyed seeing all of the different produce they had for sale. It blew my mind that vendors were selling strawberries 2/$3. That's insane! We're lucky for it to be on sale for $5.99 in Hawaii! The worker at Q's Nuts in Boston Public Market waved me down for a free sample, and boy, did he know how to sell. I really did love all of the samples he gave me, and because he was so sweet (and cause I'm a sucker for samples), I ended up buying a few to take home. My last destination of the day was the North End of Boston, aka Little Italy. There were SO many pastry shops that I wanted to visit, but a girl can only eat so many sweets in one trip. I mean, I know I can eat it (i live off of sweets) but I love my body too much to stuff it with solely cannoli's and pies. I did eat at Carmelina's, an authentic Italian restaurant (one among many) that had raving reviews on Yelp. In my honest opinion, I thought it was just alright. Nothing super amazing (which I'm very sad about tbh). As I wrote in my Yelp review, I think the reviews just raised my expectations too high. |