manic monday

i spent ten hours traveling monday to marseille: two german metro stops, three trains/metros in paris, and a final arrival. miraculously, i didn't miss any connections, met lots of minorly helpful strangers, didn't lose/break/have stolen anything, and the vomitting and crying i felt coming throughout the process didn't actually happen. i met for the first time the lovely kate, who i met through a friend of a friend online and is so gracious as to let me crash at her place and tour the town with her. we made it to her flat, which is a ten minute walk to the beach, and met her roomie courtney. both girls are americans in the their mid twenties living here as missionaries, which makes it that much more incredible that they made time and effort to take me in and hang with me around town. we grocery shopped and they made a fantastic dinner (multiple sides with chicken with figs in a sweet wine and a bagette for each person). kate and i hit up the beach after sunset (which is like 10pm and sunrise is well before 6am), and the mediterranean is CHILLY even in summer. the shore was peppered with carnival attractions, playgrounds, little bars and restaurants with people relaxing in the warm summer breeze. then we met up with some of their fellow missionaries and participated in some truly cool things that can't be written openly about online. some of you know what one of the girls is trying to do here and fill in the gaps; for other who know me really well, just use your imagination of things i may be passionate about and can take place in red light districts that for security reasons aren't wise to post. that said, i'm safe and everything went extraordinarily fantastic!