the day i gaffed my pants off aka had the freakout of a lifetime.

[i'm happy. really.]
note:the first chunk of this was written yesterday [or the day before, given time zone crap] and i'm too lazy and jet-lagged to re-write something clever. you're welcome.

welp, i'm exhausted. i'm at the airport right now, and i think i'm running on about an hour of sleep.

why only an hour, you ask?

maybe because i was terrified of the thought of sleeping past my alarm and not making my shuttle to the airport.

literally, that would be the worst kind of nightmare.

funny stuff is at 3, i decided to maybe sleep until 5 when i was supposed to wake up, and that is when my hostel mate starts coughing up a storm for one entire hour. i am not joking. and i was two seconds from screaming "my gosh, go drink some water already!!" but i didn't want to be rude. 

or get beat up [even though i'd totally win]. 

or have my things stolen [which i so carefully made a crib with around my bed].

so i played nice.

and now, i'm at the airport, wearing two coats and a bazillion other layers that you don't want to know about. 

fun fact: everything i'm wearing is at least two weeks past it's due date for being clean. makes for a good time when you're a walking garbage.

i know, i know, tmi michelle, tmi.

but at least i'm saving a boatload of money on luggage, with which i can go shopping.

itwillbeworthit. ithink.

just get me home, air france.

alright, let's pass some time and blog for real now.

wednesday, october 26th.

so here's the deal sparky, me and brynn wanted to go to cannes because it's actually right next to grasse, where all the perfume museums are. one, specifically, where you can make your own perfume. yesss.

anyways, so we woke up early in cannes and took a bus out to grasse for the day [yes, this was a wednesday. no, i wasn't skipping school. my only class that day was cancelled. yippeeee meee].

the day was quite eventful. first off, we almost missed the bus going out to grasse because it was around the corner from the actual bus stop. because that's normal. it was a gorgeous ride though.

[the windows were suuuper foggy, so that explains the fogginess of the pictures. obviously.]

then, when we got there, we didn't know what stop to get off at and we asked the bus driver and he's like "oh, i know where you're supposed to go", and insisted it wasn't the stop we thought it was supposed to be, but up the hill. turns out you were wrong, buddy. it was the stop down the hill. although, the view from the top was not bad. not bad at all. 

[so gorgeous. also, we went up those stairs and they literally led us up to a wall....??]

since we were 15 minutes from our perfume-making appointment, we ended up having to hail a taxi. yup, we're rich.

luckily though, we got there on time. on time for the most stressful few hours of my life! seriously though. the reason why it's so stressful is because they have you smell a million smells, and you're supposed to only pick a few to mix from there, and how do you know that they're going to smell good when you mix them? and you can't really start over. and what if it smells like an old lady and not a designer-like perfume? because for some reason, you don't really mind the smells of old ladies [their perfume, you weirdos]. yes. these were the questions that haunted me for hours. 

[1. me looking asian. 2. my table set-up. 3. me and brynn on our "smell break". 4. our perfumerie certificates. 5. me being pretty. and stressed. 6. just doing my day job. mixing perfume. no biggie.]

it was so stressful. you had to pick heart notes, head notes, and base notes. one of them was the smell you smell first, the next was the one you smell next, and then the other was the smell that stays on forever. for the rest of your life. okay, not really, but it might as well have been.

i just wanted it to be perfect. and something i would actually want wear. and something that smelled like a twenty-year-old girl and not a deceased/formaldehyde-smelling old lady.

and i'm actually really happy with it! i called it "michèle chèrie" because that's what my daddy would call me when i was little. cute huh? i like it at least. 

then, we backpacked alllll the way back up that hill [emphasis on the freaking backpacks]. hotter than heck, people. heck. but we made it. and then we chose a random cute little street and wandered.  flâneused [wandered, strolled], if you will. and what did we find? this adorable restaurant. with a delicious cordon bleu. how fitting.

[the cordon bleu had the yummiest tomato-ish sauce on top. and the salad had this yummy lemon-y dressing. ohh, and don't get me started on the fries. fries always=heaven. but the dessert...blechhh. it was such a letdown. like can't-even-finish-it letdown. so unlike me, i know.]

after that, we found the church we were wanting to see, with some of rubens originals inside. it was really pretty inside, but we didn't get to stay that long because we were running short on time. we came out and saw this gorgeous view and had to stop and take it in aka take pictures.

after we died from the view, we decided we should probably figure out where the bus stop was from there so we could maybe shop around there. we walked to the place where the bus dropped us off, but i was thinking that maybe it was in a different area. we decided to go down to the tourism office to ask, and when we were close, our freaking bus passed us. we were jumping and screaming, trying to get the driver's attention, and all he did was shake his head and point up the hill, which we didn't understand at the time. we went to the tourism office anyways and they told us the bus stop was way up the hill, past where we thought it could've been at. so thaaat's why he pointed up. it was all just so frustrating though.
anyways, we take the bus bake to cannes and decide to walk the small bit to the beach aka the mediterranean sea, just to see it and touch the water for a bit.

then we booked it back over to the train station to leave, but realized we were an hour early. so we bought a pizza for the train ride. then we get to the train station and asked like two different workers where our train was, just to make sure we were in the right spot. they pointed us to the same spot and told us it was the train after the next one coming. so we waited. and that train came. it was at the right time. but nobody was getting on it. it was super weird. why wasn't anyone but us getting on? we were debating if we should get on or not, and at the last second, decided to stay on and not follow the crowd. the train started going. it was going along the beach and all pretty, and we ate pizza as we looked out at the view happily.

[yes, that is salmon. no, i did not know it was going to be on there. yes, i still ate it. blechhh.]
then all the sudden, the train stopped. we figured it was just at the next stop. but then the train driver got off and left. yup. we started freaking out, big time. we didn't really know what was going on and were super frustrated. brynn ran out and asked the driver where our train was [the one going to paris] and he pointed at a train passing us by. GREAT. but then he told us if we stayed on this train, it would eventually go back to the station where we could catch the next one. the reason why we were so worried though was our train wasn't going directly to paris. we had a connecting train in marseilles that we were supposed to catch too, so we didn't know if we were gonna be stranded in marseilles if we caught the next one. plus we had a test in our class the next day. yeah, can you say screwed? i was trying so hard not to freak out and cry. especially because it was taking forever for the driver to come back to the train to drive it back to the station. we should've just stolen that freaking train and driven it ourselves to paris! who needs train tracks all the way there? we'll just make our own.
eventually, it went back, and we ran off and ran to the ticket booth to try and get tickets [for free] for the next train going to marseilles. and lucky us, the line was butt long. again, i had a gaf attack. but all the sudden, everyone started leaving the line. the church is true! we ran up to the worker and started explaining our situation and he said that the direct train to paris [that they previously had told us was completely booked] was there in the station and about to leave if we could make it [and for free!]. i grabbed my bags and brynn's and booked it. i can't even tell you how frantic i felt. the train was right there in front of me but the doors were closing. i got there and pushed the button to open the doors over and over, but they wouldn't open. and then the train started leaving. and then, things got ugly.
something snapped inside of me and i started banging on the train as it was leaving. i was screaming [yes, it's true] and i'm pretty sure i also kicked it too. seriously, i was freaking out. what the heck were we supposed to do now??
oh, and about two seconds later, a lady came up to us and told us that wasn't the train to paris and that the next one was. oops? yeah, looks like i ruined my reputation for nothing. right when she said that, i cried and laughed my butt off. and wished so badly that i could've had a video of how i acted, because it was absolutely hilarious.
from there, we got on the train to paris, which had tons of extra seats [stupid ticket office that told us bs about it being full], and we played uno to relieve our stress that we [aka me] could not let go of. this is also when i realized that brynn is the only person besides my sister jit who knows all of my random ridiculous movie quotes. yess, finally someone i can work with! i love that girl.
i never thought that in just one day, i would experience so many different emotions. mostly stress. but also gratitude to just be on a train when we could've been stranded in cannes or even having to switch in marseilles to go to paris.
and right then and there, we made a pact to ask at least 14181204701 people if the train we were getting on was the right one. because apparently two experienced workers are not enough.