People
I guess I should begin with the people in this group. Considering that the France and Italy trips are kinda like a crash course on Catholic churches and historical events, many of these people are newly baptised. (It's not like the Austrian trip which was more for those that have been on previous pilgrimages and already know their stuff.) Some of them aren't though, and are accompanying their baptised siblings/spouses, or if not, they're like me to complete all four pilgrimages lol My roommate was on this trip because she had been on the previous three and France was the only one she missed out on.
Quite a handful of them were old, like in their late fifties or in their sixties, but we ranged from 20 to 50 as well. I was the youngest of course lol but I can't say I'm surprised people still asked me what I did for a living, considering that, well, everyone else was. Either that, or others mistake one of the twenty-year-olds to be the youngest, so I don't know where that puts me :I That being said, a lot of people didn't look like their age. One of them was a teacher at one of the polytechnics and she doesn't look in her late forties, and some thirty-year-olds didn't look like they were above thirty. I even assumed that some of the twenty-year-olds were still in uni ;w;
My roommate is older than my mum by six years and gurl, let me tell you, she don't look it. She has kids that just turned thirty and aren't married yet, and here I am, still a babby. She's p chill with me though, now that I think about it. At one point, Father told her not to (I'm paraphrasing here) "hold onto me tightly and let me hang out with the younger people" and I'm like wAHT. (She herself said that she doesn't hold onto her own daughter that tightly.) If he was talking to my mum, I'd understand, but like. Father pls. No one is forcing me to hang out with an old lady and her married friends.
I'd say more, but after this trip, I kinda feel like I shouldn't speak ill about others. I'm not saying that anyone was absolutely definitely terrible, but there are just some people I'm kinda "eeeehhh" about.
2nd-3rd April: The Flight
Like the Austrian trip, we had to transfer in Doha - but I didn't know that the total flying time would be almost twelve hours ;w;
I don't like flying, sadly. Since I was a kid, I would kinda get this clinical, sterile feeling from the dry air in airports, and my stomach would feel kinda empty. You know how as a kid, you're supposed to eat sweets so that your ears don't pop? Yeah, I eventually got sick of the taste of hi-chew, fruitella, caramel werthers and all other sweets, because the taste reminded me so much of the plane. Also they make your throat dry, meaning you have to drink the water on the plane - which tastes horrible too. (I've learned how to go without them entirely now, so das good.) Also with braces on, it's really troublesome to thoroughly brush your teeth. I settled for just brushing without toothpaste, so that at least the bigger chunks were out, but ugh, after this, I really like having the chance to brush my teeth often.
Anyway, we had two flights, one to Doha, and the next to Paris. Our first flight was delayed because the safety video wouldn't play properly, so we couldn't fly off until the everyone saw it in full in their respective languages. Well, I don't know if there was any other reason for us flying longer than we needed to, but by the time we landed in Doha, we only had ten minutes to catch our next flight. Ten minutes.
Since our flight from Singapore was a night flight and we would end up in France in the morning, we had to spend most of the flights sleeping, which is what I did lol I didn't sleep very heavily, kinda like at half an hour intervals. I think the other problem with braces, is that you drool a lot. Also, I try to unpop my ears by yawning a lot, but that means inadvertently swallowing air too. When I coughed, it seems like I needed to barf, but really it was me barfing out air in the form of burps.
When we first landed, the Paris airport didn't seem, spectacular. It looked kinda old with concrete walls, and for some reason, their travelators are really rubbery, so when you step at some parts, it kinda depresses? Weird. French scenery isn't that great either, considering winter just ended and many trees are still naked lol
We got a Portuguese bus driver, apparently. According to my mum, one of the previous French trips had a really bad driver who would just stop for no reason and even threatened our priest once. I guess that's why we got a Portuguese driver this time? I actually didn't know he was Portuguese at first, but all I thought was that Paulo isn't really a French name. I guess I should've known by the Portuguese writings on the windows too lel
Anyway, I was assigned to sit in seats second from the front - right behind Father. [I know I called him Father R before, but that feels so weird, so Imma just call him Father.] Also, before the trip, I was assigned to be the "choir" for the masses (we had mass every day) since 1. it's not my first pilgrimage and 2. my mum had to do that before on the Austria trip so I know what to do. That being said though, I knew only 2/3 of all the hymns before I left. I raged so hard when I tried to learn the ones I didn't know, but at least that worked out in the end, since I kinda learned them along the way (I only left out like four songs lel)
Intermission: Steam
Looking through the notebook I was writing in during the trip, I wrote down that I created a steam account. I guess I wrote it down because I knew I hadn't written it on my blog yet so lol Yeah, I made an account because my bro wanted to gift Stardew Valley to me, and along the way, I bought myself Shelter 1 and 2 since it was on sale, and I thought it looked really cute ;w; It's a game where you play as a mother badger and wolf-thing-ican'tremember (in the respective games) and you have to lead your five kids through different levels and survive through them. Your kids can die from starvation if you don't feed them, preyed upon by big birds, get lost in the dark, swept away by waves, or die in fires ouo Still a cute game.
Anyway, the first round I played it, I lost one to starvation, because I couldn't feed it while being chased by the big birb; one fell behind when we were being chased by same big birb; one was lost in the darkness (when they hear a noise and scamper away from you, and you can only save them if you chase after them and keep them within your field of vision); one accidentally died when waves in the river swept it away (I didn't know you had to run across the river in one shot and that you couldn't stand on the rocks in the river ;w;), and the last one died a similar way 'cos I had to turn up the river at the last minute. I wrote down in my notebook that I was gonna replay it to keep at least one alive, and I did! I don't know if I should be proud of myself or not ;www;
4th April: Photographs and Postcards
I think it was on the second day of the trip, that I decided to forgo my mum's camera and just takes pictures using my phone instead. It's troublesome to have to bring the camera, my phone, wallet, notebook etc down the bus, then take the camera out, turn it on, and put it back into my jacket, over and over again. Also, the camera is kinda old, so the quality isn't the best.
That being said though, it was a good idea of me to take out the microSD card from my old phone and put it into this one. Initially I was worried that I would take too many pictures, judging by what happened in Austria where we had to buy another SD card for the camera since we ran out of space lol Turns out I had just under 400 photos at the end of the trip. I didn't take that many pictures either, and just took what was pointed out to us, since last time, I have pictures of things I have no recollection of. Also this trip had fewer sights to see, so I suppose that also meant fewer photos.
I also figured out how to take pictures of stained glass that I wouldn't have known how to do on the camera: change the EV settings lel Don't judge me, k, I have no technical experience with cameras and photography ono
Since there will always be shots I can't take, it's time to collect postcards!! At one of the churches we visited, we were given a short amount of time to go to the toilet and browse the bookshop, and honestly I should've gone to the bookstore first. All I wanted was a postcard that was 50 cents, but everyone else in front of me were buying loads of stuff since the lady at the counter had no small change, so they all had no choice but to buy a lot lol And I was the last one in the line, so, ;w; (all that for a 50-cent postcard...)
Also yesterday, (Wednesday the 19th) when I went out with my mum to Raffles city, I got myself a photo album binder, as a way to keep my postcard collection together. I have some photo albums at home, but they're the kind where you pull back the plastic sheet, place your photos on the paper, and put the plastic back, meaning that you can't really take them out again. Also those pages are yellowing and I don't know how much longer they can last. Alternatively, not all photos are the same size as postcards, so I can't fit them into standard photo pockets of albums. So, I had two options:
1. get a ring file with those plastic file pockets, use those photo corners that can stick to paper, and stick them onto coloured cardstock and file them.
or
2. accordion photo album (preferably black) and do the photo corners
I ended up getting an empty photo album binder, and now I'm cutting my own pages to the size I want, decorate the pages, and stick my postcards on with the photo corners. The other good thing about this is that I can put in as many pages as I want as my collection grows. I guess it looks kinda cute, but it's not quite what I had in mind. If I had a black accordion book with a lot of pages, I think it would look a lot classier lol But at least the current method is better than what I thought of for the first option.
5th April: Nosebleed
On the night we reached Lourdes, I got a nosebleed c: Good job, me, I held up the whole group as they waited for me and my roommate to come down lol Even our resident doctor of the group was sent up to our room by Father to check in on me. I don't know how long I took, but I knew I couldn't stay for very long so I couldn't wait till everything was gone. I went down still with tissue in hand (still pinching) and walked around with everyone else with it lol People kept asking me if I was okay, and I'm like "lol chill bruh bleeding noses in the cold isn't such a big deal" (some still asked me the next morning) but I guess I'm happy to know that they were so concerned about me.
6th-7th April: A Day and Lunch in Lourdes
Okay, this was kind of a big deal to me, because the night before, Father was telling us about how the different language slots for morning masses at the grotto worked. Each language mass has a specific timing, so the English one can be really packed with Americans and other English-speaking pilgrimages groups - in other words, we wouldn't be the only ones celebrating mass there. How they decide which priest celebrates mass though, depends on the seniority of that priest. (He recounted once, a previous time he was in Lourdes, how the American priests didn't bother asking each other what position they held as they prepared for their own masses, while he sat by the side with his stole. Then this priest from Malaysia came in, sets down his bag, and took out his bishop hat-thing and all the Americans immediately hushed up and knew their place lel)
Anyway, that didn't mean I was off the hook yet for choir duty since it was still possible that Father was the most senior among the priests at our mass, so I was kinda freaking out like "amg what if I have to lead all the hymns and I mess up in front of foreigners should I prepare songs that they know in case we're the one celebrating mass and they have to follow our lead omg the responsibliyt ithe preusseure"
Turns out we were pretty much the only people there, and even if there were others priests with their own pilgrimage groups, we outnumbered them, so. Mass just kinda went on like usual, but I had chosen some of the 'Murican hymns anyway, for any of those that were there. I guess I just overthought the situation, but it was just like the masses we had been having the days before lol orz
Later that day, we had stations of the cross, which is basically a prayer that goes through the journey of Jesus from Pontius Pilate to his tomb, and it was on this huge hill that was pretty steep at some places, both going up and down. My legs were so dead after, that I struggled to sit down and standing up was a better alternative lol
Anyway, we had a procession at night, which started at 9 pm (I swear, it was still as bright as 7 pm in Singapore) and ended at 11. We each had a lighted candle and prayed the rosary in our own language as we walked towards the square, where the rosary basilica is. (They do this every night, even on the rainy night before we left, and carried on despite only having around a hundred people, I think.) It was an interesting experience though, because there are so many people from all over the place: the group behind us was Korean, in hanbok. At the basilica itself, there were representatives from different countries, so they take turns to lead the rosary in their own languages.
The next day, we had like four to six hours on our own to go around Lourdes lol I kinda forgot how big the place actually is, and that Lourdes isn't just the area where the basilicas are. When you go further up and cross a bridge or two, there are quite a lot of restaurants and stores. My roommate and I crossed the bridge, to what is, according to the lady at the concierge, is the city centre, and walked along the river, looking out for restaurants that sold crepes.
We stopped at one of the restaurants to look at the menu, and the manager came out and asked if we wanted a table outside, and we were like lol no. He said that he thought we would like such cooling weather, until my roommate (I should just call her Kat from now own actually lol) said that it was too cold for her, then he took her hand and was like "yes, it is cold!" then proceeded to bring us in and gave us glasses of hot water, for our hands. Then he brought us another two glasses of water, "for drinking", saying that the first one was just for our hands lol
He's such a nice guy though, in his forties, running what looked like a family restaurant-diner, with bar and all. He even had regulars coming in - and almost none of them spoke French. They were either Italian, Spanish, or I think even a couple of Germans? And he spoke to them all. I suppose I should've known judging from how there were different menus for different languages, but I didn't expect him to actually speak it.
We had couscous in an African-style stew, and that was the day (well, one of the days) I ate vegetables that I wouldn't have eaten otherwise. It was quite a lot for one person, but we (and by we, I mean me) managed to finish it. Then we had normal french pancakes with chestnut cream, which I liked, 'cos it wasn't so sweet and sticky. I mean they're not like the Japanese crepes, but I liked it anyway.
After lunch, we headed to the pharmacy, 'cos Aunt Kat needed somethingidk, and Father was there, purely by coincidence. After we left, we stopped by a store selling priestly garments, (because Aunt Kat has been meaning to do some embroidery work for Father, so I guess she went in for inspiration), and again, Father was there! After that, he accused me of stalking him ;w; (later on, when we were in the same elevator in the hotel, he wouldn't live it down. Fatheryudodistome) Anyway, I found a nice pendant for my mum, and then bought a pin too for 4 euros. When I handed my 5 euro note to the guy at the cash register, it took him like 30 seconds to realise he hadn't given me change yet LOL
At night, it got real cold 'cos it was raining, and omg life is suffering without gloves. I could move my fingers, but I couldn't really feel them. At some point, we went back to our room, and saw Father and (I don't know what to call her? But her name's Anna) Anna come out of their room, and the asked if we wanted to get a drink with them, and we were like "lol okay" So we went back outside, and we ended up not having drinks with them lol Aunt Kat wanted to find a place where she could get some breakfast stuff since for the next day, we had to wake up super early before breakfast was served. Almost everywhere was closed, so we looped back, and saw two big dogs outside a store. I assume they're supposed to guard the shop, but omg they're so cute!! So big and fluffy >www<
Hold on, let me pause; now that I'm reading through my notebook, I can't remember what happened when omg Anyway, what I'm gonna talk about next is kind of an event on its own, so lol okay whatever
7(?)th April: Lourdes Bath
I kinda don't really want to talk about the bath itself, since for many, it's a personal experience, so anyone if there's anyone reading this and hoping to go for it, I don't want to spoil the experience for them. Also, I personally have not much to talk about it, so I'll just recount what we did that morning lol
We were told by Father that there would be a queue forming by six in the morning, so us being kiasu, we were told to reach the gate by 5.45 latest, if we want to get a chance. Aunt Kat and I woke up at 4 I think, shared one cup of instant noodles - as breakfast - got ourselves ready, and reached there by 5.30 - and it wasn't us who were the early birds, it was almost everyone else in our group LOL We then discovered that the baths open at 9. Our group was practically the only people there, until 7+, and that was when normal French people would come.
Anyway, we spent the time shivering, and "learning" some yoga from our resident yoga instructor, in an effort to keep ourselves warm. It kinda worked, for me at least, to stop shivering, if I just stopped and focused on breathing deeply... And then I would go back to shivering lol At some point in the day, it started drizzling, so someone managed to contact one of the volunteers at the bath, and allowed us to sit under the shelter, so that wasn't so bad. I was still shaking, though, and my legs were still freezing and I felt really sleepy too. My number check buddy (we have this system where you need to check for the person before and after you in the number list) and her irl flatmate came to all of us with bread from the breakfast spread in the hotel, which was a (pffft) Godsend LOL But really, it's nice to eat bread when you're cold and hungry, even if the bread is cold too I don't care it was fooDO
And then came the bath, which for many, was an emotional experience, but for me, it wasn't like a revelation or something. But that's okay, people can do the same thing but experience it differently at different stages in their life. If anything, my "emotional moments" were in the next place we went to.
9th April: The Hills Are Alive
No, we didn't cross into Austria lol (Would've been a nice surprise though, to cross into another country during this trip, but this isn't the Austrian pilgrimage) We did end up in the mountain range of the Alps, though, and stayed in a monastery for two nights.
The ride up was quite pleasant: first you see snow-capped mountains in the distance, and then as you go uphill, you notice some forests in the distance dusted in snow, and then you actually see the snow on the road. And we were like !!!!!!! SNOW. When we arrived, it was snowing ever so lightly that you couldn't really tell that it was snowing. The snow we got was nothing like what my mum had during her trip: the snow was so thick, that the statues outside the monastery were almost buried completely. But there was just enough fresh snow for me to enjoy and have the chance to touch!!
Also, the monastery is nothing like what you'd expect of a "typical" monastery. It looked more like a hostel, with a common cafeteria, a basic room to sleep in, different dormitories, and common areas along the hallways. Father probably scared us all into thinking it would be super cold 'cos we're so high up, but I survived on my three layers (and with the heater at max lol)
Even if our room was as small as the budget hotel room we got the previous night, I honestly preferred the monastery room, even though your alternative heating is two extra blankets, and the bathroom is just slapped on in the corner with a round shower with retro orange plastic walls. The water there is really hot though, so we were pretty good lol Maybe it's because Father sold the idea of the monastery to us like it was gonna be stone walls and no heater with a room shared by six people (my perception of a dorm), so what we got was really better than we expected.
We were also fed really well at lunches and dinners. A salad, a main course, yoghurt or cheese, and dessert, and even bread! There was so much food omg but I really liked their desserts and yoghurt amg
On the first night, we had a procession similar to the one in Lourdes, but on a smaller scale. I didn't know we would be going out in the cold after dinner, so when I came down for dinner in my pyjamas, I had to go back upstairs to change >:I The procession of the first night wasn't my "emotional moment" though, it would be the one on the next night, which I will get to when I get there lol Anyway, as expected of a mountain, it's really cold at night, so cold that you can even feel it in the basilica. Later that night, I was invited by the younger peeps for hot chocolate, which was nice. I didn't talk much, but hey, hot chocolate!!
10th April: A Good Day to Cry (not hard)
This is probably the only day throughout the whole trip that I actually felt emotional? I don't know why, but anyway...
I had a chance to walk around outside in the morning, and took some nice mountain shots - it's only before breakfast that I learned we weren't allowed to go outside oops. Some of the snow melted and became ice, so it wasn't the safest for us (especially the older folks) to go out alone in case they fall and no one knows. Even when we had the chance to walk up one of the hill/mountain/thing after lunch, Father was watching with is eagle eyes. Like seriously, his room window looks straight at the mountain where most people were, and you could hear him like a hundred meters away as he shouted out the name of whoever was going higher than they should.
The poly teacher, resident doctor, fiancee-lady and I ended up sitting at the slope at the edge of the path to just soak it all in. There was some silence for awhile, until poly teacher said that she actually wanted to "sabo" me and wanted me to sing some hymns, and I was like "lol sure" so I did. And for some reason, I started tearing? Like I literally had no reason to cry, it's not like any of the songs had a special meaning to me. But maybe it was just because she asked and wanted to actually listen to me or something that touched me. I don't know if she noticed me crying (sunglasses-that-are-big-enough-to-cover-glasses ftw) but just the night before, she was talking about how she noticed some people having really emotional moments after the bath and how she ended up tearing with some of them too.
Anyway, the rest of the day was more processions, of a different kind, but the night one was the same one as night before. This time though, apparently it was too windy to process outside the basilica, so we had an internal one, within the church. This was the next, supposedly emotional moment.
Okay, first of all, the reason why I say "supposedly", is because when I felt it the first time, it wasn't emotional at all - but at the end of the trip, when we had to share the most important moment for us on the trip, I struggled to talk about this moment, and cried and I'm like ???? Honestly, I think the reason why I cried was because 1. everyone else had some sort of emotional experience to share, and 2. talking about personal things to strangers can be nerve-wracking and a struggle lol Moving on.
During the procession, there's one moment where all the lights are switched off, except the two lights that shine on their statue of Mother Mary, and our lighted candles. And even if I'm Catholic, I've never really felt an attachment to Mary, but for some reason, in that silence and how white the whole statue looked as it stood out from the blackness, you can't help but just have your eyes fixated on her. And in that brief minute, I felt so peaceful, and I was kinda excited too because I recognised it as a peace that I wanted. It's kinda hard to explain what exactly it was I felt. It wasn't really a feeling of content, or that "floating in the silence of the universe" kind of silence. It was just, peace and quiet. I don't really know what it was, but I've probably only felt it one other time before, on a less noticeable scale. I don't know man.
11th April: Boutique Hotel
This was the night we were supposed to bring our overnight bag for, because we were told we wouldn't be able to bring our luggage with us. So we were all prepared with clothes for the night and the next day, but then suddenly this buggy came out from nowhere with some of our luggage in it? And it was kinda funny 'cos people took turns riding in it with, the hotel's chef at the wheel, going p fast to and fro from the bus lol
Turns out, that the hotel we were staying in had a real tiny lobby area with an tiny elevator, and stuffing 52 of us + luggage in one elevator would mean transporting each person to their room is nearly impossible. So, we just left our luggage in one of the side rooms of the lobby (safer than just leaving it in the bus I guess) and had to use our overnight bag anyway. And I feel so cheated because the hotel is actually bigger than you expect on the inside, and that we had so much more space for our luggage compared to the previous places we stayed at. Like come on, at the budget hotel, I had to lay out my suitcase in front of the door.
Well, technically it's longer than you expect, not necessarily bigger, but the restaurant seemed like it had no end as you walked through it, and the floors had hallways, and plenty of rooms - and even the room I got, could accommodate a four-person family. It had a child's room??? With baby cot and bunk beds!!
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| there's even a sitting area, like wat |
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| child's room, with added toilet!! |
13th-15th April: Paris
Again, I don't know what happened on what day, but I can remember what happened in chronological order lol Anyway, according to our bus driver, Paris (and Marseilles actually) were two of the worst places in France in terms of safety and pickpocketing, so we had to be wary and watchful of our belongings. It was actually a good thing that I had the uniqlo jacket with me, because it has inside pockets!! (I discovered it when I stuffed my notebook in my jacket, and then realised it didn't fall out, because it slid into the pocket and I was like yus sekret pockits) That's where I hid my phone, wallet, and notebooks lol
Anyway, we went to Sacre Coeur, which was a hotspot for cons. As we were walking up to the basilica, you could see guys with cups on the ground, moving it around and you have to guess where the ball is, that kind of trick, right. And it's not so much of being cheated of your bets, but it's when the con artist's buddies see where you take your wallet out from and pickpocket you from there. Even when we were being briefed by Father, poly-teacher-lady said that she noticed two young guys eyeing people's bags as the walked past, not at us or our faces. I didn't notice at first, but later as we lined up to go into the church, I noticed this one guy standing by the side of the line, stretching as he faced us, and I'm like, that's not really a place to stretch? And that was one of the kids looking at our stuff.
Me being the youngest, I was kept close to the center of the group, even though I was perfectly capable of walking on my own lol All I had to do was keep my hands in my pockets, and give everyone a death stare as we walked lol I was fine when we were given time in Notre Dame (in Paris) and I walked around the place by myself. Still, it was nice walking with other people around me, looking out for me 'cos I'm the babby of the group ;w;
We went to Montmartre nearby, and poly-teacher-lady asked Aunt Kat if it was okay for me to go with the younger people lol I did anyway, and spent most of the time with Van+Mel (future sister-in-laws with each other) and omg, I don't understand how they can buy so much. We went around from place to place to look at postcards at a cheap price, and then they nearly bought the entire store when we stopped at one of them. Admittedly, there were quite a lot of cute things in Montmartre. Even some of the artists in the square had pretty good artwork too. Then I went with Cat+Steph to the bookstore at the basilica, bought myself another postcard and an autobiography of Pope John Paul II's life before he became pope. (Father showed us the movie on the bus again (my second time watching it) and I really like him okay omg he's such a nice guy ;www;)
Also, lunch earlier that day was kind of a bad experience. Not the lunch itself though, more of the, well, other patrons that just so happened to have lunch the same time as us. Paris attracts a lot of Asians, like I knew about how many Chinese go there, so I wasn't that surprised to see Koreans there. I went to the toilet at the restaurant, and there were some Korean ladies lining up in front of me. When I went into the middle stall, the toilet wouldn't flush and it was clogged, so I came back out, stood back in front of the line and tried to tell them that it couldn't work. And then, one of the older ladies came from behind, pulled me aside, and went into the stall I just said couldn't work and I'm like ????????
I mean yeah, I was bothered by her pulling me to the side, and technically you "cut the queue" but why would you still go in?? When it's kinda apparent by the wads of tissue in the bowl that it's not working?? You do know that your two-three sheets of tissue is just going to make it worse right. I gave up and just went into the next toilet (also not working) and just not give a poop about it. I was upset at that point, and I wish the rest of our group didn't have to use the toilet because omg there's no point in using them, and I was also upset with that Korean lady. And because there was only one stall working, it took a long time for our group to get out of the restaurant.
On the last day, the same day we were gonna fly off, we were dropped off at Galerie Lafayette to go shopping~ Again, I went with Van+Mel to look at clothes, and while they were at Zara, I told Mel I would be at the store just opposite to look at clothes. So I did, tried on some clothes and bought myself some stuff, but when I came out, the two of them were gone. I knew they would be looking for me (because I'm the babby
Turns out she thought I was outside the building, which was why she didn't want me to go around on my own lol But I still wish I could, then I could've bought more stuff that I wanted ;w; When I went around with a group, it meant that I couldn't really take my own time looking at stuff I wanted, so I just followed them around. Even when we got back to the meeting place, there was an hour and forty-five minutes left to walk around, but I sat there with some other people to watch over other people's bought goods. Also my feet were tired. And there were a lot of Chinese people at the tax refund counters and it was pretty crowded. I still wish I could've bought more stuff there hhhhhhhhhhhh And I wish I was allowed to go around on my own ;www;
The plane flight back was pretty okay, actually. I slept for most of the second half of the first flight, to the point that I fell asleep on the second flight before the plane even took off lol Also the second flight was a lot less crowded, like almost half of it was empty, so we each had a lot of space. I spent my time rewatching Bakuman and sleeping lol I slept at four in the morning that Saturday night and woke up at 1. The remaining days were of a similar sleep schedule, but I'm slowly sleeping and waking up earlier. Also when I came back, I learned that I failed my grade 8 exam lol A passing mark is 100 out of 150, and I got 93 so :/
Now I need to put my suitcase back in the store room downstairs, and actually clearing out my suitcase wasn't so bad since there were a lot of clothes I didn't wear lol I didn't even use my mum's heavy duty jacket or use the woolly sweaters, all I needed was three layers for temperatures greater than -5 to 20 degrees lol Anyway, I think that's most of what happened during the trip! My other posts will probably be stories of the saints and churches themselves, so yerp, good job for reading 6500+ words!!
