I think the subtitle of this post can most accurately be nominated "The night I almost had to sleep with the homeless French hippies." Don't get me wrong, I just *ahem* love the hippies. But being stranded in Rennes was not exactly how I wanted to make their acquaintance.
Saturday (yesterday) started out pretty well. I woke up and actually went running along the river next to our appartement. Now I'm sore, go figure. That's the last time I make a promise to myself to RUN the first 10 minutes without stopping. After getting ready I met Jessica and Sophia and Sarah and we wandered the shopping options in Rennes. I'll give you a hint, everything is super expensive. The problem is that everything is also on sale right now. And I would love to buy, for example, some boots and an umbrella that doesn't look like a dying bat. But I still just can't bring myself to spent 60 euros on something when I haven't had a chance to look at all the other options...
We had galette for lunch, yum. It's like a crepe, but made with wheat flour and usually has a sausage in the middle. Soooooo good. Standing in line made me feel really good because we were behind some Chinese students who were having major problems doing the French thing. It was even funnier because Sophia could understand their Chinese (her family lives in Singapore) and was laughing at them. After lunch and more walking Sophia and Jessica went home for lunch and Sarah and I met a group at the theatre to see Asterix. It's the third film, and has Gerard Depardieu as Obelix. Very French. I can say it was very French for two reasons. #1. Duh. French. #2. There were so many cultural references in there that I didn't laugh at that the rest of the room did. Then again....that's not really a huge change from home...
After the movie I hit up an Indian resto (comme ci, comme ca...I miss good curry big time now) and a wine bar with Mark, and then we met some more people at a bar. Around midnight I started to pull my stuff together to go, since the last bus up to St. Gregoire was going to be there at 00H33 ish. While I was getting up Mark decided that he didn't want to fall asleep in the bar, and Julia also wanted to go home.
A few days ago Julia had been out with Connor and Anna for Connor's birthday when a creepy dude approached them at the bus stop. The end of the story is that they tried to ignore him and Connor ended up getting a fist in his mouth. Understandably, Julia is still a little shaken and asked if we wouldn't mind walking her at least most of the way home. We did, and then turned back around to go to the monster bus stop, Republique. 00h30. We walk over to the bus shack and I look at the hours. Of course the hours on the shack don't match the more recent book's hours. I sat down and waited. After almost ten minutes I got up and reread a sign that was next to the hours, which I had skipped over a few minutes before.
"Uh...Mark? Read this..." It pretty much said, "Bus line 18 hates people who live in St. Gregoire. Go somewhere else after 22hoo for your stop. It's over there by a road and a post office." So we walked over there....and back....and then over to the left.....and the right. Pretty much all over the place. I started laughing. I tend to think that when not-so-great things happen to me, it's hilarious. I pulled out my phone and started to contemplate my options. Mark's night bus would be there in about twenty minutes.
"Ok...I could call my parents and feel like the worst American daughter in the world. I could text Julia and take her up on the extra bed offer and not get home until after 10 tomorrow. Or I could take a taxi...I'm afraid of taxis..."
Yeah, I don't understand that, either. Why be afraid of taxis? I have no idea. It's just this thing. I don't like them. I find them creepy. Plus they're not free. Creepy+not free=no thanks. So I stood there and punched my family's number into my phone. I held it so long without doing something that the screen went black. I wanted to light it up again so I hit a key; of course I hit the Call button, and before I knew it, the phone was connecting and I felt like the guiltiest girl in the world. And then no one answered. I laughed. We walked a little to find where Mark's bus would be, and then all of a sudden my phone was ringing, and I was talking to my mere, telling her that I missed the bus and was there maybe something they could do? Haha...so pathetic...
But then my pere was coming and Mark's bus was there. Mark left, I waited around for a few minutes under a monster light next to one of the stops. My pere came around the corner after about ten minutes. Or fifteen. I don't really remember. I, of course, apologized as profusely as I could in French (not much) and we drove home, talking a little. I think I got to bed around 1h45 or 2h00. And did I sleep in this morning?
Ha. No. Up at 9! Woot! Dumb internal clock....
No comments:
Post a Comment