“This is Nicole. I missed the train. Now what?”

Oh.. I missed the train!!!

Today my entire class went to Amiens, France.  I did a little research on it last night and it looks really neat.  Unfortunately, I did not make the train!  This is how is began:

After living two months in Paris, I admit that I still have no clue where the Gare du Nord Train Station is.  I arrived in Paris at that station and I never had a need to go there since then.  So last night while I was mentally/physically exhausted and halfway asleep, I made the smart move of looking at the Map of Paris I have in my room.  I found Gare du Nord easily and decided to take my normal route to school in the morning… only adding an extra three metro stops to it!  No problem!

I arrived at the last metro station to change trains, I was ready to get onto the last train and almost passed out.  The time was 8:55am and I messed up.  I stood staring at the train schedule and realized that I made a mistake with my directions.  I was on the complete other side of the city and with any luck, I just might have enough time to make it!  I sat nervously on line 4 towards Gare du Nord and watched the minutes tick by.  My hope began to drain away.

Gare du Nord!  At last!  I checked my watch and ran into the terminal to find someone… anyone from my class.  Defeat overcame me… the time was 9:15a.m. and the train was due to depart at 9:17a.m.  I pulled out my cell and texted my Professors.  I literally said, “This is Nicole.  I missed the train.  Now what?”

I stood in the station feeling as lost as ever.  I walked over to a ticket booth to see if I could buy a ticket to Amiens on a later train and catch up with my class.  The ticket would have been 18 Euros!  No thank you.  I decided to try and find a tobacco shop to get recharge minutes for my French cell since I was running dangerously low.  My bad luck continued to haunt me!  Five out of the five tobacco shops I approached did not have the correct type of minutes for my French Virgin Mobile and wind blew freezing cold rain all over my shoes and jeans.  I finally got a text back from my Professor and she told me not to worry about catching up with the class because it would have been too confusing.

So I headed home, cold form the rain, and went back to sleep for a bit.  At least the weather was perfect for that!  The constant white noise of the rain quickly put me to sleep.  I also worked a bit on the new project for studio and caught up on laundry later on in the day.

Tonight Steve, Matt and I wasted three hours trying to book a hostel for Madrid!  I know we waited until the last minute, but we were so frustrated!  Each time we found a place and decided on it, the rooms would magically disappear.  It really didn’t make any sense and we were at breaking point.  Steve finally saved us when went onto the website for the Cat’s Hostel and successfully booked our room.  We are going to stay in a 10 person coed dorm for Thursday and Friday night.  I’m so excited!!  Ony one more day of classes!!

~ by Nicole on October 21, 2008.