After 1 car ride, 2 airplanes, 2 trains, several mistaken subway rides and plenty of aimless wandering....

Jill is finally in Europe!

The last few days have been pretty unreal, lots to do and very little time to do it (I highly advise anyone who is going abroad to start packing more than a night in advance!). Definitely had some good last times in Seattle though, particularly a visit to Bayou on First (a Cajun restaurant in Pike Place) with Dad. One of the owners, Haji, who is Algerian was so thoughtful and actually had a present waiting for me. He told me that it was "better than all the piles of gold." It was a English/Arabic copy of the Qur'an, and though pretty hefty, I brought it along in my suitcase for some travel reading/refreshing on my Arabic before I get to Jordan. Haji also kept telling me how I was "going to become an Arab woman." He was very excited about it. Very excited.

Flights were not a problem, though I have to say, everything is was cooler on international flights. First class had weird spacepods, they came around with newspapers for us to read (I took a Wallstreet journal, wanting to look classy, silly Jill), and let me tell you, Coke tastes way better if the can is in Japanese (why it was on Japanese on a European flight? That's just how Lufthansa roles).

So, what I learned immediately upon arrival in France is that my French is not good. At all. I remember bits and pieces, but whatever I can't remember, I automatically try to fill in using Arabic, which makes me entirely unintelligible. I have thus gotten very good with "bonjour," "s'il vous plait," parlez vous Anglais?" and my favorite, "pardonnez-moi" as I have run into numerous people on buses, in train stations and on the street with my ginormous backpack.

I tried to find my way to the train station on my own at first and managed to get helplessly confused and a little grumpy-nothing that good travel snacks and 'une cafe' couldn't cure (though I have yet to get a croissant). Luckily the people are pretty helpful to confused looking American girls and after a couple interesting interactions with various machines in French, before realizing that I could switch them into English, I was on my way.

I didn't get to see too much of Paris today, other than an hour or so of a stroll while waiting at Gare de Lyon for my train out to Bern. I would have ventured longer, but was too weighed down with all my stuff. What I did see was pretty wonderful, lots of cafes, beautiful buildings, and a whole bunch of people rollerblading (normal?). But I'll have plenty more time to explore later.

Kate met me at the Bern train station and we came back to her place where I had the most satisfying shower of my life and am now about to crash from utter exhaustion (which you may also feel from reading this monster of a post).

Bon nuit all, or Gute nacht since I'm in a German part of Switzerland (I totally had to Google translate that-my German is worse than my French!).