Murphy's Law

"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."

I think it's safe to say that just about everything that could've possibly gone wrong, did go wrong.

1. Flight from RDU to JFK delayed because of weather, so I was going to miss my flight from JFK to Paris.
2. Rebooked my flight from JFK to Paris to a later time so I'd still be able to make it.
3. Turns out, the huge storm in NY would've probably delayed my flight even more, so I was advised to change my flight and instead go from RDU to London to Paris.
4. Plane made weird noises as we were leaving Raleigh, so we went back to the gate for 45 minutes while they checked it out.
5. Made it to London with 35 minutes to get to my connecting flight to Paris.
6. I literally sprinted through the airport, along with 4 other people who I'd been with since RDU trying to get to Paris.
7. I made it, just as they were closing the gate.
8. My suitcase didn't.
9. While en route to Paris, I spilled creamer on the British man in a suit sitting next to me. Awkward.
10. Got to Paris, was told I should wait for an hour until my bag could come in on the next flight. Aight. So I walked to the train station to buy my train ticket during my downtime.
11. Walked back, and my bags still weren't there.
12. They said they'd ship my bag, but then I realized I didn't know an address for them to get the bag to me. British Airways woman took pity on me and called the girl I was going to be staying with and got her address.
13. Walked back to catch my train.
14. Saw my train and then heard in French "the train for Lille Europe is now leaving, doors closing."
15. Sprinted. Missed my train.
16. Waited an hour and a half, got on the train, and got to Lille.

Oh. my. goodness. What a rough day. Thank goodness that journey is over. Such a pain.

However, thank goodness I've traveled by myself a lot and so I was able to handle the adversity a little better. Don't get me wrong though, when I saw that train leaving, I just stood there in shock and contemplated curling up in a ball. But I didn't.

That being said, every single person I came in contact with today while my stress levels were through the roof was really nice to me. The person leading the sprinting cavalcade to our connection in London, the British Airways baggage lady, and the train station man who exchanged my train ticket (an hour after I'd bought the first train ticket from him...and then missed the train.) Things could've definitely been a lot worse. And hey, I was terrified about having to get on the train with my two suitcases by myself...guess British Airways solved that problem for me.

Anyways, the girl I'm staying with, Sarah, met me at the train station and brought me back to her apt. Rode the metro and everything. Aww yeah. She let me take a nap because I think she could tell I just wanted to curl into a ball. Napped for three hours. Oops. So about 7:30pm, we walked to the grocery store and she did some grocery shopping while I just sort of followed her around. Then we stopped at a bar next to her apartment to grab a drink with a few of her friends. They were all so nice and super friendly. Lille was playing someone in soccer so we sat and watched that. We left at halftime when Lille was down 3-0..womp womp womp. All of her friends were pretty sad that Lille was down so much. Fanhood. I respect that.

Now we're back at her apartment. I had bought a sandwich at the grocery store for dinner that I thought was tomato mozzarella. Turns out, it was ham with tomato and mozzarella. Totally misread that one. #vegetarianstrugs

Tomorrow morning I'm meeting up with Emily and her mom so we can go look at some apartments. I'm looking forward to getting out and seeing more of the city. I'll take pictures and put some up as soon as I can.

First impressions of Lille:
1. Very small metro. Only two lines.
2. So many young people.
3. Everyone is dressed so casual.
4. People are so friendly.

Basically, this ain't Paris, y'all.


Luv,
Sarah