Ruminations on our vacation

I've been back since Wednesday night.

Thank God! I am so happy to be home.

Right now my main thought about the trip is that I enjoyed Washington D.C. far more than I did Paris.
Yes, it is blasphemy to admit that one isn't in love with the City of Lights. I was but I'm not any longer.

We stayed in the suburbs, it was cold and rained almost everyday. We had to, or thought we had to, walk to the metro when we wanted to get anywhere. The last day before we left, we took a bus to the Metro line. Ahh, what a difference.

I had some joy, seeing Yvette and Abel, of course. But with Berthe getting ill and being put in the hospital, my emotions were dampened by Yvette's sadness and fear.

I was able to speak some French, esp to Abel and Yvette, but truthfully, one day I just got sick of it. Trying to communicate was exhausting.

I guess I just don't want to go to Europe any more. I don't enjoy traveling, I think. I don't know. This is my first blog about it, so I am going to keep "self search" through the posts to figure out what went on for me.

I am finally more of an American than a person who has identified with Europe all my life. I never felt part of the United States experience when I was younger, for many reasons, but now I do.

I worried about Frazier towards the end of the trip, Josh had called and said that Frazier was having some bowel problems, bleeding and lots of diarreah. His diagnosis wasn't not serious, just needed some meds and new food.

Maybe a tour would be better next time we go anywhere outside of our comfort zone. Then we would have more information, and have more structure. Just a thought, as Michael says.

oh, and the flying? It was still horrible. And we actually had a man who was over 6' tall sit behind me with a request not to put our back seat down. However, the man in Front of me did so I was squished between two people on one of the flights. Delight.