You say Goodbye, and I say Hello!

June 12, 2010
Day 45


In the morning I woke up around 8:30 and said goodbye to Betsy and Andrea. I then went and used my computer in the lobby for a little while until Professor LeBras told me I should check out as soon as I was ready. So then I went and got my stuff from the room, brought it all to the lobby and checked out. I then sat in the lobby with Sister LeBras for about an hour as she talked to me about everything (she likes to talk). Around 11:30 I said goodbye to Sarah and Paige and a little while later the LeBras’ left too so I sat in the sunroom with Jessica and Isabelle. But they too left eventually (they were leaving in the evening so they went into town for the day) and I was left for another hour alone to myself until my taxi arrived at 1pm. The taxi was a rip off (the charge started at 12 euros so I ended up paying 25 euros to get to the airport, which was only a ten minute drive). But the driver was nice and talked to me a little bit. I was able to easily communicate where I wanted to go and I understood his directions to go down the stairs to the bottom level to find the baggage claim area to meet my parents. Luckily I understood him and his directions were clear.

At the baggage claim I had to wait an extra hour because my parents’ plane was delayed. While I was waiting I sat next to an old lady who leaned over and asked me the time and started telling me how her family was supposed to pick her up but they were an hour late or something and had forgotten her! It was funny though because it was hard to hear her because of the noisy surroundings and she didn’t speak exceedingly clearly so there was a lot of miscommunication--we both couldn’t really understand each other. This was kind of sad because I should be able to understand French by now, but it was difficult to hear her too. Eventually her son came and picked her up (it sounded like there had just been a mix up of the correct pick up time so he hadn’t actually forgotten her) so it all ended well. She even said goodbye to me twice as she was leaving with him (“Au revoir Mademoiselle!). It was really cute. She was the sweetest little old lady (only about 5 feet tall, a little hunched over with age and she shuffled when she walked; white hair, little old lady skirt suit and old lady heels and purse, and she spoke cute little French). Adorable.

Finally, around 3:15 I spotted my parents coming out of the terminal (after two hours waiting in the airport with all my stuff). I was so excited to see them! It’s been six months now since I’ve seen any of my family, which is the longest I’ve gone so far. So it was really great to see them again.

We walked over to the car rental area and waited in line for a while. Luckily we didn’t wait in the big line because it was really long and in the sun (it was sunny and humid out, not great line conditions) and it took half an hour with Dad only waiting behind one person in the “already checked-in”-line. However, he eventually got to the desk and I stood with him to help in case he didn’t understand. I didn’t think it would be a problem because I expected a car rental place would speak English. But Dad had trouble understanding the guy’s French accent, so it was a good thing I was with him.

Rental Guy: Do you have your passport Monsieur?
Dad: What?
Guy: Your passport?
Dad: What?
Me: Passport. He wants your passport Dad. Same word in English.
Dad: Oh....

This happened a few times...

Finally, after revalidating a bunch of paperwork, which took longer because the guy serving us was new to the job, we got our car and left the airport. It took a couple rounds to actually get out of the airport and onto the main road, but we did it. We also took a couple wrong turns getting to the hotel, but that too was eventually found in time. Once we got checked in we put on our suits and went to the beach. Dad chose the private section with swimming pool, and a sandy beach with sunbathing chairs. Normally it would cost 12euro a person but the beach was only open another forty minutes and I was able to negotiate with the guy (who was pretty cute) to get in for free. Mom said we only got in for free because he thought I was cute. That would be nice. He definitely got excited when he learned that I spoke French. And I did a decent job too. I think I hid my incompetency fairly well, haha.

Side Note: I was really happy to be in a huge room
with such big comfy beds...

After our half hour of lounging and Dad going for a swim in the Mediterranean, we changed quickly and got dinner along the boardwalk at a buffet place (a real buffet, because its French!). The dinner was decent (the best part was the green beans and the casserole dish of lasagna). Again, I avoided eating the bread!

We missed each other

When we finished dinner, we took a little stroll and then went back to the room, watched my baguette fight movie, and went to bed.