I'm back!

I was reading over my last post and I thought that people who read it probably figured that I stopped writing because I've killed my sister and went to some Venetian tourist jail. Au contraire! I went to Paris, and me and my sister actually got along quite well there (for most of it). She's still a huge pain in the ass, but she's my sister and I love her, and she makes me laugh... sometimes with her, and sometimes at her, but nevertheless we had a good time in Paris except for the problem of my insane relative. The relative whose apartment we stayed at in Paris is my grandpa's cousin. She's married to a very rich French man, and has a little yappy dog of the Papillon breed (look it up on Google images to get a greater understanding of my aunt). Thank god she decided to stay at her husband's Parisian suburb house instead of the apartment with us because if she hadn't she would've ruined our Paris experience completely. I won't even go into the details of what hell she put me and my sister through by introducing us to her friend Elizabeth who is as crazy as my aunt-person, and a huge bitch on top of that too, but in the end we somehow got blamed for breaking an antique statue that my aunt had in her apartment, attempting to steal her camera, and also me having several men at the apartment when Elizabeth came over to pick up the key before I left. All of these things are not even close to what could possibly be the truth. Nothing got broken or stolen, and no men were ever invited by me to my aunt's house (though one sicko did prank call me when I was all alone there to say "You fucking bitch, I'm gonna getcha..." which was actually kinda scary and worrying at the time). Please... do NOT ask, unless I see you in person and you want to hear all of the horrific but hilaroius details of that ordeal. Oddly enough, between all this complete and utter insanity, I managed to fall in love with Paris. I can't begin to explain how incredible the city is, how many things there are to do and see and how it makes you feel just walking around, going into random tiny shops, bookstores and boutiques, peoplewatching while eating your Nutella crepe at Place de Vosges, getting lost in the Louvre... I can't say the same about Parisians though. When I go back, I'm definitely taking an arsenal of at least basic French because from the get go those people are just not very nice at all. Such a change from Spain. Sure, there are some bitchy Madrileno store clerks, but I found the general Spanish atmosphere to be a lot more friendly and welcoming, even before I could speak any Spanish.

From France I went back to Ireland, which I didn't end up seeing at all because I wanted to spend as much time as possible in Paris, so I only went back to Shannon to sleep there my last night in Europe and fly back home. The last day in Paris I finally understood all of my Cordoba classmates in their lamentations about wanting to go back home. I was in beautiful Paris, and really, all I wanted is to be in ugly little Torrance with my family. This was one of the oddest things about this trip. I actually truly missed my family. Not Timi, not Korin, not Larkin, not anyone. Just my mom and my dad and my cat (I saw my sister just two days before that), and our little apartment. It felt odd but nice, and the funny thing is that it hasn't gone away yet. I'm still as happy to be home as I was 4 days ago. I still haven't fought with my mom (though I know it's bound to happen sooner or later), I still haven't gotten that sick, suffocating feeling I usually get on about the second night of being home, and I still haven't gotten the extreme urge to hang out with friends or go out. Now, I'm not even suggesting that it's not gonna happen, I guess I just feel like something is different. I don't feel completely awful about living at home, especially since I've realized that I do have a bunch of friends in LA, some that I knew were here, and some that pleasantly surprised me. So I guess I won't be stuck watching Russian TV with my family when I get home, though for the next few days, that might suit me just fine. =)