Road to ROUENderland
Cows, why are there cows? What is happening, where are we going? I thought this was a city, why are crossing a farm with white and brown cows? What? My reservation’s not accounted for? I have to pay 735 EUR today? The allowance is not available yet? Where am I going to stay tomorrow? I do not have another 23 EUR to spare!
The move to Mont Saint Aignan (a small town 20 minutes away from the city of Rouen, capital of Normandy) was horrific. And I cannot believe a month has passed since those dark days. It would have been fun if I were able to write all my sentiments down. But thinking about it now, I was so furious that I could not even find the right words to explain myself. Simply put, this was not how I saw it happening. This is not what I expected to be.
I will spare my readers the rants I would have wanted to express. Let’s just say that today, everything is a whole lot better than it used to be 30 days ago. I am still recovering but I decided to just keep moving forward and leave the past where it belongs: the past.
I came to France late August, in the middle of summer. I spent my two-week vacation with friends from the South. It felt so good going back to the city I love - Nice. I even got to cross borders in less than 48 hours! From my connecting flight in Korea, to Paris, to Nice, to Sanremo and Ventimiglia in Italy, Monaco and all the way to the other side of Côte d’azur! I was dead tired but I was having too much fun, I could barely feel the jetlag kicking in.
Week number two was spent on the opposite side of the South, Midi-Pyrénées. Boy, was that an adventure. I wanted to book a train that goes directly to Toulouse but when I went to the gare (train station), apparently, all roads that lead to Montpellier are closed due to the heavy rain and flooding.
Flooding. Are you kidding me? A puddle of water is not flood. Have you seen the great flood of 2009 in the Philippines? That’s flood! Nevertheless, I understand that due to security reasons, they have to cancel all trips for the day. The next day, however, was a sunny day, thus, I was to purchase my train tickets but this time, with three connecting trips. Three, I mean c’mon, I have luggages to carry and I have to transfer trains? I tell you, it was horrible. It may have cost me less but the stress was astounding! I almost missed my second train because the first arrived five minutes later! On top of that, it was too late at night in a town where I do not know anyone. I have not eaten, I was so hungry, tired and just lost.
Fortunately, most public spaces in France have Wi-Fi so I was able to contact the person who was supposed to pick me up and would host me for the entire sojourn.
God, I loved it in the South. It was always sunny and the best part? Sunflowers. Oh, I’m sorry, I underestimated. Sunflowersssssss. Thousands of them!
A week went by so fast, I had to head up to Paris where I was hosted by my sister’s former college classmate and her husband. God, those two days in Paris redeemed its image of itself! Two years ago, Paris left me an unfortunate impression. Despite of its beauty, I was always so scared to go out! But this time, I managed on my own. My hosts were kind enough to show me around and treat me to dinner, even prepare lunch and dinner for me!
Just before the end of August, I headed to Rouen. Funny story, it was a Sunday. I did not have any bank card with me, just bills. The thing is, in France, even if you have money, but no bank card, you're as good as broke! I could not buy myself a metro ticket just because the automated machine would not accept coins nor bills! Fortunately, there were passengers heading out from the metro who were kind enough to let me in using their automated pass. That was good enough to get me to Paris Saint Lazare, the train station where I would ride on my train to my final destination: Rouen.
I don’t even know where to start with my journey in Rouen. Maybe I’ll save it for another day. For now, it’s Thursday, laundry day (laundry day varies, actually. It used to be weekends, then Mondays and now, for some reason, Thursday). I have no class but I have loads of books and articles to read! Half of which, I don’t even know where to find. I tried searching online, libraries and the last resort would be to buy them. I spent almost 200 EUR for these books. While they are worth every euro, I’d very much prefer to save my money… even if I have spent most of them already.
God, one story just leads to another. I don’t think I’d successfully come up with one entry that explains it all, for two reasons: I’m lazy and no words would best explain or narrate the journey that was.
Don’t let today’s disappointments cast on tomorrow’s dreams.