I am now back to the reality that is my life, where my parents ask me not even a day after I get home to run errands for them and I get nagged to eat when I’m not hungry. Oh how I miss thee, Europa. But when abroad, I missed my lovely family (including my doggle) and friends, some of which came to visit me last night. Thanks a bunches. 
By the way, I was really happy when I got home because my dog was so excited to see me. haha
Hello all, I am finally home after over 24 hours of Delta hell. I haven’t flown with a lot of airlines, but this one seems to be the worst by far (that flies from or in the US, at least). I feel that EF College Break is to blame for part of the nightmare, but most of it is on Delta. Our flight from Madrid was delayed three hours, but not only that, we were a little late to getting to the airport thanks to the genius planning of EFCB and so were the very last people left standing at the check-in counter. Half our group of seven were put on standby and so they sat in limbo for the next three or so hours. This particular flight was okay and service was pretty good, but flying into JFK, we had to sit for about an hour to get to the actual gate after landing. The delay of our arrival not only caused delirium, it also caused us to miss our connecting flight to LAX. Tucked away in the back of the airplane, we began to be obnoxious Americans, most likely pissing off all the Spanish folk around us. We sang bits and pieces of patriotic songs, talked about what American things we were going to do upon our return and how Europeans (namely Parisians) had wronged us. I sincerely love Europe, but there are just some things that stopped me from enjoying my time there occasionally, ie paying for water and restrooms, and paying too much money for ridiculously small portions of food, to name a few. Despite the fact that we went to very touristy places, some merchants were just plain rude, even when we attempted to speak their tongue and tried to be polite according to our tour guide’s standards (I’m talking about you, Parisians! The only reason I’m not saying that French people perpetuate the stereotype that they are rude people is because the people in Nice were total opposites). Other than that, the places we traveled to were beautiful and rich in culture in history, so I did indeed enjoy Europe and shall miss it dearly..but not so much the people.
Anywho, so we were late getting in to JFK because the weather was bad and there were a lot of planes lined up to get to their gates. Who ever heard of airstrip traffic? Ugh. Only one person in our group had a seat on the 6:30 flight and he had 10 minutes to get to it, but seeing that all flights seemed to be delayed, I’m thinking he made it ok. The rest of us were put on the 8:30pm flight, though only two people had seats and the rest of us were on standby, but luckily we all made it, and for the first time ever, I got two seats to myself! 
This flight was also delayed (and apparently tucked into the very end of nowhere or something because we had to walk so far to get there from customs and I had to carry my stupid duffel bag full of bricks, which I’m sure will result in me getting scoliosis. More about this in a bit.) and then it took about another 2.5 hours to take off after we left the gate, because there were approximately 45 planes waiting in line to take off. Redonkulous, mang. I wanted to shoot myself because I don’t really like being on airplanes, or in airports for that matter, and because I wanted to go home and away from that mess. I didn’t want to leave Europe but once I got to the airport in Madrid and my European adventure was officially over, I just wanted to get home as fast as I could, but Delta wouldn’t have it. We finally landed a little before 2am and I could not wait to just get my suitcase from baggage claim and get home.
Ok so, I don’t know what the weight limit is usually but Delta’s was 22.6 kg (which they lie about because the sign at check-in says 23), which is 50lbs. If you go over this, you have to pay 80 dollars. I’ve never had a problem with weight limit, so I’m thinking they have a lower one or something compared to other airlines. My stuff was weighed and it came out to be 26 something kgs so I was like..ah, holy crap. This lady in front of us told us she went over one kilogram and they gave her the choice of either paying or going to the very end of the line to repack and line up again. Either choice is ridiculous, but she chose the latter. Who the heck wants to pay that much for one extra kilo? I thought I was screwed for sure, but because of all the problems at the check-in counter, I started pulling out a bunch of things and stuffing them into my half empty duffel. I had over 3kg worth of weight to shed from my suitcase to add to the weight of my duffel, so you can imagine why I’m almost sure I will get scoliosis from carrying it.
Because of Delta, I have formed a love/hate relationship with the song “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz…but it’s more like love stained with memories of despair. The song came on when we first landed at JFK and it was such a perfect song to end the flight with. Then we sat for another hour, at least, long enough for us to hear it more than once. When we were sitting and waiting those three hours for our second plane to take off, chunks of the song were played over and over again because the flight attendants couldn’t get the entertainment system to work. I still love it, but it will always remind me of that day..
But yeah, be excited, my two readers, for I am home!
..is what we kept saying all day. Nice is a very beautiful little resort town and there are still pockets of less touristy areas in existence. We spent our day at the beach lounging on the pebbles, as this beach was without any sand whatsoever except for the volleyball court, which I am sure was comprised of sand from somewhere far, far away. The pebbles were extremely painful to walk on and I wanted to cry with each step. Standing in the water and allowing the waves to splash around you, as one would at a normal beach, is like being attacked by the ocean because the water moves rocks around, which then hit you from all angles. We spent some time drawing on rocks after a while because we were afraid to go back into the ocean after all the pain that was endured. So yes, Katlyn, I did take some rocks. Anyway, more to come later. I must repack once again, as we will be on the move in the morning to Provence.
internet cafes suck!
…But I am currently in the French Riviera in Nice using free wifi from the hotel that possibly no one else knows about so shh. This hotel room is the most spacious I’ve had since this trip started, because almost every hotel has crammed in four people in the rooms so as soon as we open our suitcases, there’s little room to walk, or exist, for that matter. The funny thing is, this is the smallest bathroom I’ve had. It seriously looks like an airplane bathroom except theres a couple more feet to the right for a shower, which is a drain in the floor and a curtain surrounding it.
We left Italia but I hope to go back to it again because there were some importante things I missed in Florence and Rome. We’re gonna hangarang on one of the beaches along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and have a lovely picnic tomorrow. Unfortunately, this beach doesn’t have sand, just rocks. 
!
Been pretty crazy here in Amsterdammizzle. I love this little biking city, but it’s pretty easy to get lost. I guess it’s been that way in every city, though. Our last night was full of strange happenings but it was a night to remember. We saw the Red Light District, which is quite a sight to see. It’s really touristy, but I still saw a couple guys go for the services. Awkwarrrd. The funniest thing was coming back to the hostel, though. Basically, this creepy Dutch guy kept staring at my current roommate’s boyfriend, Doug and mumbling something on our tram ride back to the StayOkay Hostel. Doug couldn’t really hear him so he kept asking him, “What?” The guy continued to mumble and then I saw him glance over at my roommate, Leslie. He sort of did some winking and nodding action and Doug still didn’t really understand what he was trying to say, so he gave him a thumbs up. He continued to do this for a while and I saw him staring at Leslie’s reflection or something in the window. After a while, I thought he was slowly reaching for her head, but it turned out he was reaching to press the button to request a stop, which also happened to be ours. We got so scared that we ran off the tram all the way to the door. When we got in, we ran to the elevator, which came quickly, luckily, and hurried to our room. Because there is little air in our room and the window only opens a crack, when the door opens or closes, the window moves a little. When we heard it tonight we started screaming and ran to the door, which opens inwards, so we had some trouble getting out since we were all squished against it. Doug came in to inspect our room and made sure no monsters were in there and all was gravy again. We did manage to piss off some neighbors though..some old woman next door looked so mad, but I don’t know what she’s doing here since this is a hostel and hostels aren’t usually quiet. Anywho, bed time. I’ll be in Germany this time tomorrow!
Hey friends. I spent most of the day in France. It was my first day here. It’s been really different from London. London was great since everyone spoke English and their accents made me giggle each time I heard them. Unfortunately, as cool as their accents are, they do not seem to know their ways around their own city. Either that or every single Londoner is in on some joke they’re playing on tourists, telling them the exact opposite of where they’re supposed to go and all. It really sucks to get lost in a city you don’t really know, since your crap tour guide just leaves you in random places to figure out how to get back on your own, but it’s an interesting yet annoying experience. It was okay in London, since people speak English, but in France, you’re just stuck. Luckily I have a pretty detailed map this time, but I really hope Heren and I don’t get lost as much, because we get lost pretty much everywhere we go and it makes us really unhappy despite whatever fun things we’ve done that day.
I miss my famaree and kind of want to sleep in my own bed, but it’s really only been a few days. I’m so tired and my feet are friggin sore. I’m getting quite the workout walking all over these cobblestone roads. Anyway, I’m really, really sleepy, so I’m off to bed now. It’s like 3am! Ah!
I am embarking on a journey to Europe with my (not anymore) roommate Heren tonight. I am scared, excited, happy, EXCITED, unprepared, nervous, freaking outtt, etc., etc. I’ve packed things, but I still feel unprepared and I have to go to the bank and stuff. Ackk. I’ve been to Germany before and I probably felt the same then, but I’ll be gone for a whole month this time! A whole month! And I don’t speak a word of any of the languages of the countries we are going to. That’s right, not even English! Not their English, at least. I’m going to have such a blasty listening to British accents. I probably won’t even need to go sightseeing to have fun there. We will be in Germany for a day or so, where I will attempt to speak in my broken high school German, so that’s quite exciting. I don’t know if I’ll be getting internet there, so this may be my last post until next month when I come home! See you all in a month!
