Train to Paris

I am unreasonably excited to go to Paris tomorrow.  I get to take the train, and for some reason a Youth First Class ticket is cheaper than regular rate, so I am traveling first class baby.   If you've never taken one of the high speed trains in Europe please put it on your list of things to do (preferably before you turn 26 - then you can be first class like me!).   It's so much more fun than flying - it's more comfortable, more time efficient, and much more amusing.

What I am not excited about is the prospect of speaking about my work in FRENCH for the next couple of days.  I am actually very nervous about it.  Sort of puke-y nervous.   I used to be fluent in French, but I don't think I am anymore.  And I certainly don't have the vocabulary for my current work.  I need to dig up a dictionary somewhere for sure.

Also, what was not exciting, was actually BUYING the ticket to Paris.   In some ways Europe can be so efficient, and in other ways it is mindbogglingly different and well... behind the times.  You cannot buy a ticket for the train online.  I even asked the ticket clerk and he admitted that "the website only works a quarter of the time". The wait was almost an hour and a half until my number was called at the ticket desk!   The clerks were incredibly slo-o-ow.  And then to top it all off, you can't pay for your ticket with credit card (only a local bank card called chipknip that I don't have yet) so I had to carry almost 150 euro on cash with me.  What the hell.  So the fact that you have to physically go to a ticket office, wait in a looong line, and then pay for an actual paper ticket with well, paper cash... well, it just boggles my almost-2006 mind.  What happened to the technology age and printing my ticket at home, like I do with absolutely everything else?!

So, to console the fact that I had to give up an hour and a half of my life (an hour and a half I would have normally spent at the gym!) to the waiting room on Platform 2 in Amsterdam Central, I went home to watch TV (Tuesday is my TV night here - it's the only night there is some good stuff on) and eat Thanksgiving leftovers.  Of course the only thing I had leftover were mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce.  I put them together in a bowl and heated it up in the microwave.  It was so good!  Mashed potatoes and cranberry in a bowl, eaten with a spoon.  Kind of like an ice cream sundae.  And I am afraid about the nutritional equivalent of said ice cream sundae... 

Comments

[Ali G]

don't worry! i'm sure your french is still better than mine...

yeah, europe and the internet were frustrating to me. i had no understanding of why it was necessary to actually GO TO THE PLACE and conduct business. how annoying!

but oh, i wish i had a job that meant i went to paris and spoke in french...

[Heather B.]

1) your french will come back to you. I thought I had forgotten all of my spanish before I went to spain and then when that was all I had to rely on, it came back to me in no time.

2) I don't know how this will sound but I'll say it anyway, for the longest time (after seeing your comments around) I thought for some very strange unsubstantiated reason that you were male. No clue, but I am very sorry.