After many, many hours of researching the best deals I could find, I finally have all of my hostel/apartment reservations and train/plane tickets bought. It took me a long time to decide exactly which cities I wanted to travel to, but I finally figured it out. Here it goes:Santorini, Greece La Spezia, (Cinque Terre) Riomaggiore Italy Interlaken, Switzerland
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On Tuesday, I left Paris to go to Montpellier for the rest of the week. I took the TGV, the "trains a grande vitesse" (translation in English: very fast trains). The last time I took the TGV over the summer, my train was delayed for 5 hours because some trees fell on the tracks. Lets just say it was the worst train experience I've ever had. This time, I was taking the metro to the Gare de Lyon in Paris where my train was leaving from, when I couldn't get past the turnstile in the metro. A little Gypsie boy saw that I couldn't get through, so he offered me some kind of ticket (which is pretty illegal) for 1 euro and it got me through. Then, I had to wait another 10 minutes for my train to arrive. Unfortunately for me, this time, the SNCF (the company that runs the TGV) stuck to their motto of "guaranteed punctuality" and left right on the dot. I was 1 minute late for my train, which meant I missed it. So at this point I was pretty stressed out, because the ticket I bought was non exchangeable and non refundable. This meant that I would've had to buy an entirely new ticket (probably for about 200 euros) and just thrown out the ticket I had. I went to the information desk where there was a nice man working, and told him I missed my train by 1 minute. He asks me for my ticket and starts writing something on the back of it, hands it back to me, smiles and says to get on the next train which leaves in 1 1/2 hours. I was so happy because I honestly thought I would just have to stay in Paris for the week. So anyways, I get to Montpellier just fine, and they really did stick to their guaranteed punctuality motto; they said my train would arrive at 5:34 and it arrived at exactly 5:34, not a second later. My friend Cesar (one of the boys I'm staying with) came and got me from the train station and took me to him and his boyfriend's apartment just outside of the center of town. I've just been relaxing, walking around a little, and spending many hours booking plane/train tickets and hostels/apartments to stay in during the rest of my travels. We went to a movie the first night I got here, and yesterday we went to the beach for a little (even though it was a little chilly). Overall, I'm just spending this week relaxing before I start spending all day looking for some kind of job or volunteer work in Paris to do for 6 weeks. The road for the tramway in Montpellier Cesar and Adrien, the couple I'm staying with The sunset at the beach last night
I arrived in Paris on Sunday morning, and was picked up at the airport by Tristan's (a very old friend) mom. I'm staying at Tristan's house for the week, until I leave for Montpellier on Tuesday. I'll be staying with a gay couple I met a while ago in Montpellier from Tuesday through Sunday. Then on Monday, I can check into my apartment in the 9th arrondissement in the center of Paris, which I'm very excited about. The last couple days I've just been hanging out, walking around Paris and doing some shopping. KLM lost my luggage so I got to go on a little shopping spree on KLM's bank account which was fun. Paris has pretty nice weather right now, but Montpellier's is almost perfect. I can't wait! I can't even begin to describe how much I have learned during my month in Ghana. Before I came here, I didn't think twice about how lucky we are to live the way we do in America. I knew there were people in the world who lived in horrible conditions, but seeing it firsthand and living that lifestyle for a month has given me a completely different perspective on everything. One person who really had an effect on me here was Tina, the head of the day care. The other day, she told me about how she went to the mall in Accra and rode in an elevator for the first time in her life and how scared she was. To us, an elevator is what we typically choose instead of taking the stairs. It's a totally normal, everyday technology to us. To Tina, it's a new and exciting adventure. I have learned so much about the Ghanian culture and just their way of life, and even though it was difficult to cope with at times, I will miss it. I'll miss the adorable kids at the day care, I'll miss the beautiful nature surrounding the Akuapem Hills, I'll miss how incredibly friendly the Ghanian people are, and I'll miss the crazy nights out we have with all of the volunteers. This trip has really changed my life for the better and I am so thankful for that. It's woken me up and made me realize how fortunate we are to live the way we do. I hope one day in my life to be able to come back to Ghana and help out financially more than I am able to now. Volunteering is great, but they also need things like clean drinking water, a solution to their trash problem, better medical care, and much more. I would like to believe my trip here has made at least a small difference, but I would love to make an even bigger difference later in life. Goodbye Ghana, I hope to see you again one day. Next destination: Paris! This weekend, me and 3 other volunteers were planning on traveling to the Cape Coast which is about a 6 hour drive south west from where we live. We made it to Accra where we were going to catch a bus to the coast, but right when we got to the station, the boy we were with realized he lost his wallet with all his money and credit cards in it. So we had to go to the police station and report it missing so that the insurance we get through the organization can help him out. When we got to the police station, we quickly noticed that there were 2 jail cells, one for men and one for women, about 10 feet away from where we were standing. In the men's cell, there was somewhere from 15 to 25 men stuffed into one single very small cell. It was probably one of the craziest things I've ever seen. The prisoners were flirting witn us girls through the bars, but luckily there were 2 sets of iron bars preventing them from getting anywhere near us. So after spending a couple hours at the police station, we took a taxi to the bus station where the police officer told us we could catch a bus to the Cape Coast. After a 30 minute drive to the station, when we got there, they told us that none of those buses go to the coast and they sent us back right to where we just were. Unfortunately the traffic in Accra is about 5 times worse than the traffic in LA, and what should've been a 5 minute drive took over an hour. By the time we got back to the station, it was 7 o'clock at night, very dark outside, and not safe to get on a 4 hour bus ride to go to a city that we had never been to before. I decided it was much safer to head home, after ALL that, and we would find something to do near our village. So that's what we did. Yesterday, me and the same 3 volunteers went to the Shai Hills which is about a 1.5 hour drive away from our houses, and went on a mini safari at an animal reservation. We saw a ton of baboons and fed them bananas, we saw a few ostriches, lots of antelopes, and some cool looking birds. Then we climbed up a very rocky hill to get to the top where there was an amazing view of the park. It was a very cool experience and made us feel a whole lot better about not going to the Cape Coast. When we got back at night, we went out with all the rest of the volunteers that stayed here this wekeend (including our boss who was pretty damn drunk), danced all night and had a great time. Let me tell you, Ghanians know how to party. I've had more fun partying here in the last 3 weeks than I've had in my entire life in Chicago. I would say we all had a pretty fun weekend, except for the boy who lost his wallet. On February 17th, I will be leaving for Ghana, Africa. I'm going on a volunteer trip for 4 weeks with an organization called Projects Abroad. I'll be living in a village called Akuapem Hills which is about 2 hours north of the capital, Accra. In The Hills, I'll be living with the Asare family, consisting of the mother (the head of the house), Dina, her aunt, her mother, and her 5 children. There will also be 3 other volunteers staying in the same home as me; one from Norway, one from Belgium, and one from the UK. I've been working at the Adom day care center for the last 2 weeks and even though it's very exhausting, the kids make it all worth it. In the younger kids' classroom, they sit on small old rotten wooden chairs that make the feel of the room pretty sad. As my donation to the day care, I decided to buy them some cute and colorful chairs to brighten up the room. They made all of the kids and teachers very happy and it felt really great to give them something so simple that they appreciated so much. I have two favorite kids who are also the physically tiniest children at the day care: Benjamin and Karina. Benjamin is almost 4 years old but still does not talk. He was a premature baby so we all believe he has some type of mental illness, but I am completely in love with him. It just makes me sad to know that most mental illnesses here go undiagnosed and most people just end up thinking they're crazy. I really hope that his parents are able to put him in some kind of special program when he gets a little older. Karina, who is 2, is the smallest kid at the day care but she is definitely not the youngest. She also was born with some kind of birth defect in her legs because she has trouble walking around and is also a lot smaller than even the 1 year old at the day care. But she might just be the most adorable human being on this planet. Then, there is Tina, who is the head of the day care center. Tina is really an incredible person. She is always so eager to learn new things and absolutely loves hearing about all of the modern technologies we have in America. She was amazed at my description of a microwave, a stove, a roller coaster, a washing machine, literally everything. Her personality is just so great and it makes me so happy to see how happy she gets hearing about other parts of the world. I've decided that I want to try and bring Tina to America this summer. I'm counting on having a little extra money when I get back, and I would rather change someone's life with it then spend it on something like clothes or food. I know none of you know Tina, but if anybody would like to help out and completely change an amazing woman's life, it would make both Tina and I ecstatic. Thanks in advance :) Right now I'm sitting in the food court at the Accra mall with 2 full bags of groceries and I couldn't be happier. There's air conditioning AND an actual grocery store! I walked into the cookie aisle and almost started crying of happiness. All of us volunteers staying in the hills decided to go to the capital this weekend and relax. We're staying at a hotel called the Rising Phoenix Magic Beach Resort. When we booked it, we didn't realize it was a Rastafari resort. But when we got there, I was happy to find a hotel on the beach full of Rastafarians. Unfortunately in Ghana they don't have any type of garbage pick up system, so everybody either dumps their trash in the ocean, the streets, or burns it. This causes the ocean and the beach to become absolutely filthy, so there's no way to swim in the water behind the resort because of how much trash washes up on shore with every wave. Luckily I've never lived farther than a 10 minute drive from the beach in Chicago, so I don't really care about going to the beach here. I am finally getting to eat real food, but because of all of the cardboard food I've been eating for the last 2 weeks, my stomach is not agreeing with this real food. My trip to the grocery store should definitely help me adjust though. Instead of going to work today, all of the volunteers in our region got together and had a 'dirty day'. We went to a school that had an old rusty playground that looked haunted and painted the swingsets and seesaws along with a giant cement wall enclosing the school. It was excruciatingly hot and I got a horrible sun burn on my back, but at least the playground and wall look nice. I really am not made for this heat and it's extremely hard adjusting to it. I don't know how I'll be able to stand it for another month. One of the main things I've noticed at the day care is how many of the kids' clothes had obviously been donated from America. I always donate my old clothes and think "yeah this will go to some poor kid in Africa". And actually seeing the poor kids in Africa wearing the donated clothing is really touching. Today, one boy at the day care was wearing the top to a cheerleading uniform as a t-shirt. Please, whatever you can, donate. It really does go to children in need. |
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