Who's Crying Now...Europe/Me and Liz

I hope everyone gets the Journey reference in the title. But we really are sad & believe that all this rain is because Europe is crying over Thomas, who left tonight to go to Paris, so he can spend a few days there then fly home to Texas. Of course, in pure daddy-like fashion, half of his clothes were in the wash an hour before he was supposed to catch his train and his room was in disarray. We tried to help in his packing, but found it more fun to play itunes and watch him pack (but we did fold a few things). Ryan and Wilson came in after their exam dtp, so they decided to try out the absinthe myth, since Thomas can't take it back to the US. Violetta (the crazy-looking wife of the owner) gave them a cup of sugar, which they then put on a spoon, poured absinthe over, and lit on fire. It's probably never a good idea to light things on fire inside a hotel room. It's probably a worse idea to let it burn IN the cup and then put your lips to it, but nonetheless, they did all of the above. So far, I haven't seen any of them running around the halls, screaming about imaginary things attacking them, so I'm going to say it doesn't work. But since Thomas isn't here, you never know WHAT he's doing on that train. After Liz and I cried over Thomas leaving (and yes, we did cry), we went to our favorite little Italian place down the street. We decided the only thing that would make us feel better is a Tortellini Mafioso. We also ordered our favorite Caprese appetizer because we were really feeling down and it was the best one we had yet in Europe! So then we realized we didn't even need Thomas to have fun! (hahah just kidding, I know he'll read this and he hates when we say our favorite night out was one when he was sick). But really, dinner was really good and for awhile, we reminisced over Thomas like he might be dead, but we are glad he isn't. Funny story-on the way home I saw this little yellow coin-looking thing on the ground and finally stopped to yell, "What is this!?" because I've seen them all over Europe. Liz laughed out loud for awhile and then told me she wasn't going to tell me since I was so bothered by this mystery, but she broke down of course. Turns out, there is a coffee machine at the university and it dispenses a little cup and this little yellow coin and when you are done drinking your coffee you put the cup and the coin back in and get 10 cents back. I have so many problems with this, one being that all of these little plastic coins they dispense and I find all over Europe are just as bad for the environment as a wasted plastic cup. Another is that this machine probably doesn't even properly wash these cups and people are sharing germs. We'll be glad to get back to the US where not everyone is so green. Liz is acting like she's going to put them under my pillow so I really will freak out. I told her she could find some in the laundry room and she told me not to act like she didn't have tons of them in her purse...coffee addict. Back to Daddy, since this post was for him. We really will miss you-and already do, giant and ryan came in the room to joke about daddy leaving his girls. We then asked Ryan why he hadn't looked at our pics on facebook to see what we were like back in the states and the answer was because he was no daddy and he told us to stop acting like daddy wasn't only looking at his self. Which is true, but we hope he doesn't skip this blog, since he only reads blogs about himself and may not catch that this one is only about him. But seriously, we are glad to have met such a good friend on our trip. Who knew goodbyes were so hard. That might be all she wrote friends.