Bienvenue a Paris
Hello cruel world! We've been in Paris a few hours now, and honestly we literally passed out when we got to our apartment. We just got back from dinner, but before I get to the good stuff, let me tell you about our sojourn thus far.
Let it be known that when we travel, whether together or apart, we both experience travel anxiety. I didn't know how bad Cary had it, but his was pretty bad. I wound up getting about 4-5 hours of sleep myself, and I wound up waking up pretty early to say goodbye to the folks. I had to shake Cary out of bed and we headed off to the grocery store to get some last minute goodies, and Joe, my brother, came by to get us to drop us off. Pretty normal, I'd say, for the course.
We wound up staying late to pack, and ran into some issues because Cary's bag is significantly smaller than mine. Since he doesn't like to pack (ask him, he'll verify it), I had to figure out what to put of his in mine. I know this sounds like nothing interesting, but fixing up his stuff made me lag in fixing my stuff. I wound up leaving critical elements at home, like my Lomo camera and I left my faithful travelling companion, Kitty, at home. Which isn't entirely a bad thing because she's already been to Paris, albeit it was without me.
So back to the airport. We get there, check in and make our way through security. Once at the gate, we forget that we have some ends to deposit and have to go all the way back to the check in counter area where the nearest ATM is. We hesitate and ask the TSA person if we can go through, and she assures us that it's okay. Note to self though: they are seriously anal about your liquid stuff in a quart-size bag. But not so much anal that they actually look at it; they just want you to declare it. We get called out for taking off our shoes, and we do like good citizen travellers, but no one ahead of us is asked to remove their shoes. I sense a bit of Croc-awareness. Let it be said that it is much easier to kick them off and put them back on when you add the time all up. We get teased by the TSa people (they were apparently in a jovial mood) for coming back through the line. We assure them it's because we really liked the experience. Sidenote: as a child I always dreaded going through the security gate because I was afraid I'd set it off and be whisked away. I still feel that to this day.
At any rate, life is good, we buy our water at the gate and board the plane. It's five hours to Detroit, where we'll board another plane and land another 7 hours later in Paris. Then it hits me, shit, that's a long time sitting. I shift uncomfortably in my seat. My backpack, overloaded with video games, magazines, and books, and way too many snacks is a potential roadblock because I have to reach down and grab for something new. I am always aware of how fidgety I am in airplanes and how that might annoy my seatmate (I'm sure Cary loves it too). Our seat mate on our trip to Detroit was a college student from some Michigan college who was trying to study Jacques Lacan philosophy. Poor guy had a presentation to do the next day and barely started. I feel like I'm back at work again. I wish him good luck, but not after schooling him on psychoanalysis.
We deplane and head over the gate for our next flight. It's now 8:30PM, Detroit time. We don't depart until 9:20, so Cary sees a sushi bar. Not one to turn down a good Uni, we stop in and order up. We finish around 9 (we were hungry), then make our way to the gate. Except there's no one there. I look at the clock. 9:05. I look at the LCD tv that is broadcasting the plane's departure time. 9:10. We scoot onto the plane with no further delay and settle in. RIGHt at the point where the engines start to rev because we are headed East, my friends, the pilot informs us that there is a bag that needs to be removed. I stop for a minute, think about the hundreds of Paris-bound people, and get immediately annoyed, and sustain it for the next hour that we are forced to wait. Security boards the plane, looks around at everyone. The airline, what are you supposed to call them these days, attendant spills the beans to another passenger that someone had a suspicious package that was leaking. All matters of terrorism float through my head. We try to be cool about it, then we find out that a painter left her thinner in her suitcase and it was leaking. Who the hell travels with thinner! Seriously! Then we head on.
While in the air, Cary and I keep ourselves occupied with video games and reading. He does the video game, I do the reading. Soon we get caught up in NWA's fancy schmancy games on the mini-tv screens, and wind up battling each other. I manage to sneak in some naps. Cary doesn't and is therefore ex-hausted! I also get sick in the plane, runny nose, headaches, bloody noses, etc. I figure it's the A/C, but know that there are a lot of wheezy sick people on this plane as well. Yuck. I feel a lot better now, but the trip was hell.
We deplane, find a taxi. We meet Chheang, a Thai cabbie who takes us into town towards our residence. We got majorly stuck in traffic, so we're bummed there. Cary falls asleep, I barely manage to stay awake. He drops us off. In the wrong place. WTF. I asked him if he knew where we were going and he says yes. I have no reason to doubt his master cabbie skillz, but damn. We have to lug suitcases and backpacks blocks away. I have to test my french in this situation and say in my kindest most polite voice: we are freakin lost. Luckily it helps that we snag a nice person who shows us where we should be, and it's a little jog away.
We are staying in the residence of a colleague of mine, and the studio is 4 blocks up. As in no elevator. Poor Cary was so miffed at this that he didn't talk to me. He also hasn't forgiven the driver for dropping us off in the wrong spot either.
What made up for it was the nap we took as well as the wonderful dinner we had. We made the mistake of leaving without our map, and we didn't want to get lost (after the cab incident) again. Cary had spaghetti bolognese, and I had ravioli di zucca (pumpkin). Good stuff, people. It is cold here in Paris, a little cooler than San Francisco, so the layers are paying off. Apparently it is freezing enough for some folks, but I think I'll make it through! Cary is doing well with his outfits, but he does note how well dressed everyone is here. i think we're going to do some man shopping later to make up for it.
At any rate, we're stealing signal from someone's internet, and I'm going to cut this entry a little short. We don't have much as far as pictures go just yet, but we're working on it, and we have a big day of walking ahead and anticipate some photos to be added to the gallery.
Hope you're all doing well! Wish you could be here with us!
Cary and Char