Traveling

I woke up on June 1 with mixed emotions: I was sad to leave Paris, but totally excited to see the US again. I said goodbye to Jean-Paul and took a shuttle to the airport. It was sad to say goodbye to him, since he had been so sweet and generous to me and had been sort of a surrogate family member while I was there. If I ever head back to Paris in the next few years, I know I'll be able to stay with him. When my shuttle came, he said, "A bientot!" ("See you soon!") and hugged me goodbye.

When I got to the airport, things began smoothly. I had bought my tickets with Iceland Air back in December, before any of this volcano nonsense had started. Even after the spring break debacle, I kept a wary eye to the news to make sure the second, larger volcano had not erupted. And lucky for me, it hadn't. But when natural disasters fail to inconvenience my life, the French bureaucracy steps in. I got to the airport in good time and got straight through security, but the plane was mysteriously delayed for over two hours at Charles de Gaule. When we finally boarded the plane, the pilot told us (in a noticeably frustrated voice) that the French government had been doing a surprise inspection of the plane. The plane passed the inspection, but it had been annoyingly thorough. When we finally took off, I relaxed again (this was my first plane ride with individual video screens, and I hadn't seen "Office Space" in years).

The bad news came at our layover in Iceland. Turns out, our connecting flight had already left for New York. The Iceland Air workers told us, without a hint of remorse, that there were no other planes leaving for New York until the next day, and that they would provide us with vouchers to stay overnight in a nearby hotel. Now, coming home from a semester abroad is a psychologically complicated event. By the time I left France, I was in "home mode"...I just wanted to be in my house in Albany, with my cat Lucy, and a homecooked, American meal, and my family. I just wanted to be home! I was truly heartbroken for a good ten minutes.

...And yet, somehow, seeing how angry all the passengers were made me think of this youtube clip called "Everything's Amazing and No One's Happy" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk). And I realized there were many worse problems I could be having. I decided I needed to embrace my overnight experience. So, on the taxi ride to the airport, I asked the driver what there was to do in Reykyavik. He told me we weren't in Reykyavik...we were actually in the sister city, Keflavik. He told me I absolutely had to go to the Blue Lagoon...the top Keflavik tourist attraction (ha). And magically, while I was in line at the hotel lobby, a father and son struck up a conversation with me and told me they were headed to this Blue Lagoon.

The father (John) and son (Erik) were actually heading back to Minneapolis, the other destination whose flight had already left. They told me the exact same thing had happened to Erik's sister awhile back, and she ended up having a great time. So I headed to the Blue Lagoon with them! Turns out, it is a geothemral bath that is extremely sulfuric and stays at about 105 degrees Fahrenheit. It was actually unbelievably relaxing and wonderful after the stress of traveling. There was also a swim-up bar. And the bartender had a mullet faux-hawk. And wore a girl's leotard with a bowtie. I could not stop thinking about how random the entire experience was. Also, on the taxi ride to and from the Lagoon, we observed the Icelandic landscape, and it is one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen. It is basically completely made up of volcanic debris, so the entire landscape looks like the Apocalypse. Or the moon. The whole thing was so surreal. After the Lagoon, John and Erik invited me to go to dinner with them, so we went out to the harbor and had Icelandic seafood. The harbor was incredibly serene, and the restaurant was empty except for us! The food was delicious, and it was so much fun talking to the Minnesotans, who were quite interesting people. This annoying travel mix-up had turned into an almost-free mini-vacation! And I weirdly ended up really liking Iceland.

The next morning at the hotel's breakfast, I met an NYU student who had also been abroad, and we killed time together at the airport. Finally, our plane left, and six hours later, we touched down in New York...