On the Road Again

September 27-28, 2012

I really need to do this more often so these aren't so long. So... where did I leave off. These days are getting crazy now because they're kind of all starting to blend together because I'm just getting exhausted all the time. But on Thursday morning we got up and went on a tour of the Chartres Cathedral with a world renowned historian who's basically dedicated his 80 year old life to studying the  Chartres Cathedral and everything about it. His name is Malcom Miller and he just took us around and explained some of the history of the church and gave us some insight into the stories that were being told in the stained glass. It was really amazing to hear it from him because he knew so much and was so passionate about all of it. I also loved that he was so old that he was not concerned about being politically correct one bit haha he told a chunk of our group to take a spot of chairs before "a group of japs come in. They come in droves and take up all the good seats". I loved his snide little comments haha funny old English man. But after we got our tour we had a few hours just to walk around Chartres again... Woo hoo.... Because it was just such a big city that we didn't get enough of it the first day haha it was way too cold for any of that business. We ended up sitting in a cafe for a good hour and a half because it was too cold and windy to be chillin outside for too long. Once we were done with Chartres we took about a two hour bus ride to a little town called Amboise where we stayed for the next few days. The whole hotel situation was really strange. They had a whole complex set up with a ton of rooms all in these little cottage looking things. It was not fun trying to haul two massive suitcases over a loose pebble walkway all the way to the other side of the complex to my room. But I survived it. Then some of my friends and I decided to go on a little run because the setting was so beautiful. It was right in the French countryside and nestled right against this lush, green forest and it was a little cold, but not nearly as bad as Paris or Chartres. My favorite was waking up in the morning and looking out at the forest because there was a little layer of fog over it and I felt like I was in Pride and Prejudice and Mr. Darcy was gonna come out at any second and ask me to be his wife and live in a castle with him. But sadly, my life is not that way so I had to get over that real quick. Our run was a real adventure. And I'm sorry if you're reading this mother... It won't make you very happy or confident in any skills of mine, but trust me I've been fine up to this point. So there's a group of 4 of us that go out (Kylee, Caroline, Kenzie, and I) and we decide it's a beautiful setting so we should go out into the woods for a little run. So we get about 3 miles out and decide to play it safe and head back because the sun is already down and it'll be dark soon. So we start heading back and we get to a fork in the road and decide to go right. Bad choice. We get to this strange corn field that none of us recognize so we're trying to figure out if we really did go the right way and we just didn't notice the corn or if we took a wrong turn. But then as we're just walking along trying to figure it out Kylee steps wrong (the whole path is torn up from tractors and it's super muddy) and she twists her ankle and it immediately swells up to tennis ball size and she can't put pressure on it. At this point we're still a ways out and it's getting dark real quick. So we say a prayer for safety and to be able to be guided on where to go. Then we decide to turn around and go the other way, but Caroline is carrying Kylee on her back at this point and it's getting pretty dark. So then two girls have their iPhones out lighting up the way, but each one only has about 20% battery and the flashlight really drains it fast. So there we are, walking around in the forest in the French countryside, trying to figure out where to go in the pitch dark with phones that don't have service when from about 50 feet away we hear this big creature making some rustling noise in the trees. Of course, everyone starts freaking out, but we can't go faster to get away because Kylee can't walk and Caroline is carrying her on her back. But then luckily we stick to our guns and stay on the path and eventually find our complex and make it home half frozen to death and covered in mud. It was quite an adventure and I don't regret it. Fun memories to look back on is how I see it :)