Well basically it looks like I am just not made to travel easily. First our terrible fiasco with trying to leave Chicago, and now I have to re-route my life just to get to Avignon. Basically everything went fine today until just now. Lauren and I woke up before any normal person should so I could catch my 8 am flight to Marseille from London Standsted airport. I managed to get my big bag to weigh 14.4 kg, .6 kg under the restriction for RyanAir, and we headed over to the gate when it was time. The flight over was super short so I basically didn't even notice it, but the troubles began once I got to Marseille. This is a beautiful city, and I really wish I could stay here. The airport I flew into is at the bottom of a valley and the surrounding mountains look like Greece with all the stone buildings built into them. Unfortunately, I immediately got lost trying to find the train station. When I finally realized that I had to take a shuttle to the station, a French girl approached me crying and saying that she too was trying to get to Avignon but all the trains were cancelled for today. I was not too upset at first, because I figured there would be another way to get to Avignon, but the more she talked to people, the more I got worried. I got even more worried when she just hopped on some bus and there I was again with my poor French all by myself trying to think of a way to get to Avignon without taking a 200 euro cab ride. Finally after talking to my mom and my program director I got on this shuttle to the Marseille TGV station, which is the high-speed train that apparently can still work when the regular trains can't. I'm still not 100% calmed down yet, but I'll finish this entry when I'm on my way to Avignon or there. I feel like I've never been less prepared for anything in my entire life, and I really regret not being able to communicate fully with people when I really need to. I'm also really disappointed that I'm in the south of France and there is snow on the ground. People book beach resorts here, there can't be snow! This is probably also the reason that the trains are freaking out. If London is ill-equipped for snow, I don't even want to know what south French cities do when it snows, they must be having a conniption.
Wow talk about bad luck. So I guess what happened next isn't necessarily that big a deal, but I bought a ticket for the Avignon TGV and then immediately all the trains started getting more and more delayed. Basically I bought my ticket for a 3:00 train and it said it would be 30 minutes delayed, and then 40 minutes, then 50, then an hour and finally when it said it was 1:15 delayed, the train came. But just for some perspective: this is Marseille, a usually fair weather location, so they built this whole train station to be an open air building. It was about 30 degrees Fahrenheit in the south of France today and I had to huddle with strangers next to tiny heat lamp for about 2 hours. It was cold and uncomfortable and not fun at all. But here I am, finally on a train that is actually moving on its way to Avignon. There is definitely a screaming baby in my car, and I haven't eaten since 7am this morning, but I don't care; as long as I get to my effing city without any more problems I will be happy. I almost want to erase that last sentence because I feel like if I'm too optimistic something else will hinder my journey.
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