Aero: Piper Lambert-Vail – France 2018 – Travel
Aero: Piper Lambert-Vail – France 2018 – Travel
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Piper Lambert-Vail
In my head, I am a seasoned traveler. I fly home to Seattle twice a year and have for the past five years, I have flown to Texas, Ohio, California, and I have driven to many other states and Canada. But when it came to international travel, I am a novice. My international travel amounts to driving two hours to the Canadian border and that’s it. I had heard stories from my parent about their travel, and the do’s and don’ts from my sister’s time in Wales. So when we got on the plane for France, I realized I was completely unprepared. I thought that I was going to be prepared but I wasn’t.
My first experience with an international flight was a bit of a doozy. It seemed like all of the things that could make a flight uncomfortable happened. There was a loud large man sitting next to me, I couldn’t sleep from the roar of the engine, a toe went numb, and I couldn’t stretch. It was a rocky start to travel but it ended up being an awesome experience in itself.
Once we got to Paris, the transportation and modes of travel already proved to be much more different than anything I had experienced in any city in the US. The train from the airport to Paris was interesting. There was a woman who tried to get money from us by helping us with our bags, there was a young man who brought out a speaker and rapped along to a beat. You can see things like this in places like NYC, where young men hand out burnt CDs with their mixtape then ask for a donation of 10 bucks or more. Although it may seem like a sketchy way of living, it’s probably all they have, which makes you think “should I give money because I know they could be struggling or should I just ignore them because it could encourage them to ask for more”.
I noticed that on the Metro in Paris, there weren’t as as on the other train, people kept to themselves and had their headphones in or paid attention to their lap. The trains were too full for anyone to perform, so there were people who performed in the tunnels. Along with vendors, beggars, homeless, and needy. It was honestly so heartbreaking to see. One of the most popular persuasions I saw in the Metro stations or on the street was having pets. People often had puppies or cats, even bunnies, huddled up close to them, their faces propped outward so people can see the cuteness. It was highly effective.
When we took a train to Vitre, I thought it was going to be like the train on our first day in Paris. More like a subway than a comfy train. But the train we took was magnificent. You could tell that people valued its service because it was almost immaculate, nothing was vandalized, and the seats weren’t torn up. I think that if we had trains like that in America, we would’ve destroyed them. That’s why we have the saying “This is why we can’t have anything nice”. I think that Americans lack appreciation for the things we have and the services we are given.
Another thing I found interesting was how dependent everyone was on the train system, both in Vitré and in Paris. In Paris, with our NaviGo passes, we never took a bus. Everywhere we went we either walked or took the metro. And in Vitré, students depended on the trains coming from Rennes to get to school. It’s almost impossible to imagine what that would be like if the whole of our country was dependent on a train system and gave up on our obsession with cars.
Piper Lambert-Vail
Study Abroad – France 2018 @ FLCC
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(Click here to browse the entire FLCC @ France 2018 Gallery!)
