26 Decembre 2009 (Day 117)
Today was the day that I had to say goodbye to England. Since ‘Utah’ was leaving, naturally the snow was leaving and it started to rain on the early morning drive to the airport. It really wasn’t that early, but seeing how late we stay up every night, it was early. I had my favorite toast, clementines, and hot cocoa for breakfast and we all headed into the car to sing along to Elena’s ipod. The drive to Liverpool was very beautiful with the sun getting higher. We said our goodbyes in the parking lot where they dropped me off. It was really sad to leave them.
The airport experience went fine. I was asked if anyone put anything into my bag without my knowledge (to which I wanted very badly to respond sassily…how could you say yes, someone put something in my bag without my knowledge, and since I don’t know that they did that is why I am able to say yes). I got frisked in security yet again. I don’t know what keeps on setting the alarm off. My shoes are rubber, I had on no jewelry and I didn’t even where bobby pins. Oh well. Sadly it wasn’t as amusing as the last time I got frisked with my giant hoodie that had an apple core in it; that was entertaining. I was at the airport so early they didn’t even have the flight terminal for over an hour. It was okay though because I was in THE John Lenin Liverpool airport. He also has a college and some of his suits were in the airport, as well as awesome quotes from The Beatles.
I sat around and read and ate an overpriced (but quite nice) raspberry muffin and a banana with my last few pounds and waited for the board to tell me what terminal I needed to go to. The plane was late coming in, so we didn’t know until very late where to go. There was already a line to the next terminal even though we weren’t leaving for 40 minutes. I don’t see the point of standing in line to get a ‘good seat’ on a two hour flight. It is two hours! So I contently sat and read and was one of the last people on the plane, which I don’t mind at all. I sat by some Turkish guy and a British girl, but we didn’t talk. The pilot did really well taking off and it was probably the best landing I’ve seen. The view in the plane was gorgeous; the mountains to the left and the ocean to the right. The ocean was such a pretty color! The coolest thing was that the runway was right by the ocean. There wasn’t even a fence, you could have walked off the airplane into the ocean!
I didn’t realize the irony of the Murphy’s Law sign that I took a picture of in the Liverpool airport until I arrived in France. I was trying to go quickly so that I could take the bus to the Bonnard’s and save some money. Naturally it took a while for the luggage to come, so I just tried to add everything into the same bag as quickly as possible. During this wild frenzy I managed to lose all my information about how to get to the Bonnard’s. I thought I lost it in the baggage claim area which I already exited so I had to ask three different people to finally get let back inside only to find that my directions weren’t there. I searched in my pockets and bags multiple times, but I couldn’t find the paper so I just tried to remember the directions and not cry (I didn’t, yay for me!). I asked where the cheap bus was and what I thought was the number and got sent off in the wrong direction, then back in the right direction, and then on a bus to get on the cheap bus. I asked the bus driver to let me know when to get off near the train station since I didn’t remember what bus I needed to take to get to the Bonnard’s. The bus driver’s changed, so I asked the new bus driver to tell me when I needed to get off and he said that I missed it! Happily, he stopped traffic in the middle of the road so I could run across the street and catch the bus back. The man on the new bus was very nice and didn’t make me pay again and he let me know when to get off.
I got dropped off at the Gare (train station) SNCF (the wrong gare) so I was smart and went to the tourist information office to ask for directions. I got a map and thought I was doing well, but of course, I got lost. And that is why I don’t like traveling alone. I asked at least (not an exaggeration) five different people how to get to the train station and they all sent me different ways (except the last two). I ran all around Nice searching for that stupid train station! Luckily I found it, grumpy, sweaty, and very stressed, but I found the train, didn’t miss it, and I got a hold of Brooke.
Nice was very pretty though. There were palm trees and Clementine trees, and it was warm. There were hills everywhere and it is not at all what one thinks of when you think of France.
On my way to the stop Puget Theniers I realized I had my laptop which had the directions, address, and phone number. Bless my heart. I read a little on the train ride (after having a lolly and some chocolate to console myself [and I didn’t have lunch]), but mostly I thought and stared out the window a little bit because there was snow! And it was totally an old school train with an annoying horn and we went through tunnels. I like being in Southern France though because the people speak slower, so they are easier to understand. I asked a nice lady in an awful outfit when the stop was and she didn’t let me miss it. Florence and Brooke came to pick me up from the train stop (not really a station at all) and we went up up up the mountain to her house.
The family is very nice. They have two girls and a little nine-year-old boy. Jean-Claude, the father, asks lots of questions. My favorite was about smoking and that since I’m an American if I like whisky, lol. We had fish and rice with a light curry sauce for dinner. It was so nice to eat healthy (though I still love you England). We had cheese, yogurt, and fruit after dinner and then watched the end of The Simpsons (in French). Afterwards the kids stayed up and we watched an episode of Veronica Mars (which the girls adore) in French as well.
