An American Girl in Avignon

June 7th
So it’s another lazy Sunday in France, which usually consists of waking up late, homework, walking around town, and the ever-important search for lunch. We started out going to a Chinese place, but there were pigeons everywhere, and since Sakinah insists that the birds are the spawn of Satan, not to mention, she is deathly afraid of the things, we left quickly and went to McDo (McDonalds) for the last time in France. I finally got to try the Petit Poivre sandwich that I had seen advertised on billboards, and it was really good. Normally I would have said, we can get McDonald’s at home, but France Mickey D’s is different…and better.
I walked around town and took pictures. I felt like everyone had already seen everywhere in France from my Facebook photos, minus the place that I actually lived and referred to as my home for three months. Walking around town made me sadder than I thought it would. Avignon Is beautiful and sometimes I forgot to appreciate its beauty simply because I saw it every day. I took its beauty and how much I really liked living there for granted. You truly don’t know what until it’s gone. The same is true for people, but you could also add, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone…and found someone or someplace else. That hurts worse. I knew I would have to say goodbye very soon, and I wasn’t ready. I had been living in a little fairy tale world and the dream was almost over. It was almost time to wake up and face reality. But I’m slowly starting to accept that.
Martine insisted that we go to a concert that day, since it was free. It was at a fancy hotel in town, and located just off the Rue de la Republique. Sakinah and Katie weren’t feeling well, so they decided to stay inside and sleep, but I went anyway, and I am glad that I did. It was a classical singing group performing songs from the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and everything else up to modern times. What stunned me was that I mostly understood what the songs were saying. For me, I think it is harder to understand French songs than it is to understand speaking.
After the concert, I went back to the house to get some studying done before our grammar test the next day, but no matter how hard I tried, I just could not study. I was not motivated at all. I couldn’t sleep either when I tried to take a nap. I just laid there with my ipod on shuffle, flipping through, trying to find a song to inspire me to do something…anything…productive. No such luck whatsoever. I did thoroughly enjoy Martine’s couscous dinner of taboule, my favorite thing ever! So dinner, sad to say it, was the highlight of my evening.
That night I still could not sleep. Martine had left the radio on in her room and it was blaring some of that crazy European techno music. I thought, “Is a rave going on in my dreams?!” It sure sounded like a rave was going on in the next room! I would have just walked in there and turned off her radio and jumped back into my bed, but I had no flashlight, just the dim blue light on my cell phone, and I feared what her reaction would be if I woke her up. Tossing and turning with a headache from the dance music pumping through the walls, I did the only thing seemingly reasonable. I grabbed my comforter, threw my door open and went into the computer/living room to sleep on the couch. At least it would be quiet. Funny that the couch was more comfortable than my bed. What kept me awake this time you ask? The obnoxious humming of the computer, that’s what. It was unbearable! It took me five minutes to figure out how to turn the blasted thing off too! Irritated, sweaty, headachy, and out of patience, I pulled the plug and crashed on the couch for the lovely 4 hours of sleep I got. During my 4 hours (if even that), I had the oddest dream about Paris. I dreamt that my dad came to pick me up and it just spiraled from there. Bizarre. It would take up five pages to describe accurately, but I’ll leave it that it was weird and several people from my college and high school were in it.
Oh, and the water heater is broken again for the billionth time! So I will smell tomorrow on top of the bags I will have under my eyes. That’s one thing I thought would change when I got home too. I thought I would be able to sleep here too. Nope. I still can’t sleep very well. And there’s no raves going on the next room either.