HOME.

WE MADE IT HOME!!! HURRAY!!! I am currently laying in MY bed writing this blog entry. It's glorious to the extreme. So. Happy.

So yesterday and today were filled with airports. Well only like 3 or 4, some for much longer than others. So yesterday morning we left our hotel on a shuttle for the airport that we had booked the previous night. After picking up some other people at other hotels, we made our way to the airport where we had been hearing people were stuck for days waiting to get out of Paris. But we were keeping a good thought about the whole thing, however what we arrived to was chaos. There were gillions of people EVERYWHERE. I had to leave mom and the luggage and go find someone to ask where the heck we were supposed to go, since we were in France and there weren't any signs.
French attitude (with heavy accent): SIGNS?! HOHN! (nasally sound) We are too good for signs! You figure it out on your own you stupid Americans! Ohn hohn hohn!!
My response: I kill you!

Anyway, after finding someone we realized we were actually in the wrong terminal, so once we got to the right one things went much smoother. There were fewer people where we were, so we checked in and made it through security without a hitch. Our flight had been delayed by 2 hours right off the bat, which was annoying but not exactly surprising. But our flight had also not yet been assigned a gate, which I found to be rather odd but Mom said that happened to her at Heathrow over the summer, so we just had to wait and watch the TV monitor. So we shopped and ate lunch and watched the screen with no avail. FINALLY after probably 2 hours or so, we decide this is just getting ridiculous and we go up to a worker-man who just finished sending off a flight to Seattle at one of the gates, and he actually said that our flight to Boston was going to be leaving from that very gate! Perfect! Then, not 30 seconds later he looks at his computer screen and goes, "Oh wow, they JUST changed it and now it's in another terminal. You have to go out past security, take the train and go back through security to the other side of this building/terminal/thing." I'm sorry.....WHAT?!? We have to LEAVE security and go through it AGAIN?!?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW?!?!? IS THIS ANY WAY TO RUN A HUGE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT??!!? I tell ya. If I ran the world, things would run so much smoother...

So basically I was pissed. Mom can vouch for the angry and racist (would we consider France it's own race? I feel like not, but then what would the correct term be for hating only the French? Frenchist? I have no idea) remarks that I was muttering under my breath the entire walk to the other terminal. Short version: France and I were not friends right then.

Anyway, we went through security AGAIN and found our gate and it turns out that a flight to Washington DC had just been canceled so there were a million people all trying to get on our flight to Boston. So it was a little hectic. Then we sat around and waited as our flight was delayed yet ANOTHER hour, so now we were going on 3 hours late. Then the time approached when we were supposed to be boarding, so people just started gathering and getting in lines (more like mobs, the french don't really do lines. I think they might actually not know what a line is because they're always trying to get ahead of each other) but they never even announced over the speaker that they were boarding! They just started taking people and you had better figure it out or you were gonna miss it! It boggled my mind, yet again. Also, I will never understand why people push to get onto a plane. If it's Southwest, I kind of understand since it's open seating. But if not, you're essentially pushing and shoving to sit and wait in a seat that you will be sitting in the for the next 7 hours. Why are you trying to crush everyone in your path to get a jump start on that? Those seats are NOT comfortable...but I digress.

Anyway, we made it onto the plane, took off, and landed in Boston. PRAISE HEAVEN. I watched 3 movies. It was sweet :) Actually, this is was a huge achievement because we had actually made it out of Paris on the day we had planned to leave Paris. There were people that had been trying to get from Europe to the States for DAYS. One woman we talked to had been traveling all over Europe for 4 days just trying to get to Boston, she started in Germany and had been to Zurich, London, and now Paris in 4 days. So we were incredibly grateful to have gotten out on the first try, even if we did miss our connection to Atlanta and then home last night. We just stayed with my aunt and uncle in Boston, no sweat.

So today, we got up and went BACK to the airport. Weeeeeeee......I love airports....not. So we're waiting in the security line and there's a woman in front of us drinking coffee. As we get closer, one of the workers tells her she's going to have to throw away her coffee before she goes through. Now, we've been talking and she says she's flown to Europe and all over the country, but what is her response to this worker? Wait I can't take my coffee through? What about this unopened bottle of water I just bought????

Um, Hello???! Have you ever been to the airport before? What a dope...

So today was chock full of flying and impatience with the general population of this world. Some people just aren't the brightest crayons in the box my friends. Another funny story: We arrived in Atlanta and were waiting in line for the Ladies' room (since there's ALWAYS a line) and this was a hefty line. Quite long, and definitely going out the door. But what happens? A woman just comes walking in and starts passing people in line and then goes, "oh wait, is there a line?" No, didn't you know? Standing in hallways at the airport is the new thing! It's the greatest hobby and you even lose weight too! BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! Join now and you'll get a free bathroom break! OF COURSE THIS IS THE LINE YOU MORON!!!! I tell ya....I even had a girl tap me on the shoulder whilst we were in line and ask if this was the line for the bathroom!! No, I'm waiting in line to look in the mirror....WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE WOMAN?!?! Sweet heavenly porkchops...

So anyway, we finally got to St. Louis, got in the car, grabbed some delicious pizza on the way home, and now we're here. Laundry. Shower. Bed. It's so good to be home. :)

SHOVE IT UP YOUR NOSE!

Today we got up and left Tours (HURRAY! We didn't really like it there..) and got on the road back to Paris. Mom has finally gotten the hang of driving in France, as she now doesn't care if she cuts people off, gets in the way, or basically does whatever she wants. This is how all French drivers drive, so it takes some getting used to. But today, as we were leaving Tours, we realized our turn was on the left and we were on the right side of the road. So we had to make our way across 2 lanes of traffic rather quickly. Fortunately, Mom just went for it and responded to the honks with "EHH we're tourists, leave us alone!!" It was AWESOME. I died laughing naturally...There were also some cuss words strewn in there that I will spare you for the sake of the children. However, we were discussing how we could avoid using cuss words in our email/blog updates, and I told her about how at camp we have a song that goes "Brown squirrel, brown squirrel, shake your bushy tail. Take a peanut in your hands and SHOVE IT UP YOUR NOSE!!" So I told her that some of the counselors at camp would avoid cussing in front of the campers by saying "OH SHOVE IT UP YOUR NOSE!!" So that was the phrase of the day today, and it was HILARious...

Also on the road today we saw SNOW PLOWS. Now if you read my previous post from when we were in Paris last week and my comments on how they don't plow or shovel, this will make more sense. But we saw like 3 or 4 snow plows today plowing the other side of the highway! We both saw them at the same time and were like, "Oh my gosh..PLOWS!!" It was incredible.

So now it's time for some gratitude. The closer we got to Paris today, the more snow we saw. Apparently, the snow up here, and the rest of Northern Europe, as been creating a bit of mayhem for travelers the past couple days. However, we are determined to keep a positive attitude and know that we will have safe and harmonious travels today and tomorrow! So as we got closer to Paris and saw more snow, we started saying out loud that everything was going to work out and that we would be provided with everything we needed. Our plan was to go to our hotel first, check in and drop off our bags, then go fill up the gas tank and take the car back to the rental car place. Now parking in Paris is...interesting. Spots are non-existent and most people just make up their own spot by parking on the sidewalk or just double parking and wreaking havoc. So if necessary, we were prepared to do this just to unload, check in real fast, and then be on our way. So we made our way through the traffic, found our hotel, and there was a parking spot RIGHT IN FRONT of the hotel!! It was PERFECT!! We were super grateful!! So God in action #1. Now to #2. Find a gas station. If you haven't figured out, there is zero extra space in the city, therefore we thought we would have to go out of the city to find a gas station. So we looked on the GPS and there happened to be one less than a Kilometer away! We made it over there, filled up and payed without a hitch! Gratitude moment #2. Then we had to get back to the rental car place, which is in a much more populated part of the city, about 10 minutes from where we were. Also, since there's no space, the rental car office is in a different location than the cars. Now, the GPS knew where the office was, but didn't direct us to the parking garage where the cars were stored, which is where we needed to go. But once we made it to the office, we were able to find the garage without a hitch and returned the car no sweat. Gratitude moment #3. At this point, we were planning to take the metro back to our hotel, and I had been looking ahead of time to find where the closest stops were to where we were, and where out hotel was. But the station we were going to was a big station with lots of different lines all crossing each other, which can be pretty confusing. But in the snowy slush, we made it to the metro and found the right line with ease. We made it back to our hotel without a problem and were dancing in the elevator because we were SO HAPPY about how it all worked out!! It really couldn't have been any more perfect and we are SO GRATEFUL!! What could have been a pretty stressful situation turned out to be such a smooth transition. HURRAY!! So now we are knowing that everything tomorrow with our flight will just be a continuation of the smoothness that we have experienced today! DONE. :)

I also wanted to comment on the car that we rented this past week. It was a Peugeot something-er-other, some kind of station wagon type with a hatch back. Basically it was the smallest thing we could get that had an automatic transmission, and for France it was still a good size car. We definitely wouldn't have wanted anything bigger. But as for this car's transmission, technically mom didn't have to manually shift, but boy oh boy you could feel the car shifting. It was just like mom was actually shifting, the same lull for the clutch and the jolt into the next gear. So when we would be speeding up to merge on the highway, it took WAY longer than a US automatic car because you had to wait for the car to awkwardly shift. Anyway, we started calling it by name saying "C'MON BESSIE!! YOU CAN DO IT!! GO! GO!" Oh man, it was so funny. So the car was officially dubbed "Bessie". We loved that car, but mom was ecstatic to give it back today because that meant no more driving in France! Well, I think she was more grateful to not be driving in Paris more than just France in general.

So anyway, we're off to the airport tomorrow to head back to the States! It's been a fantastic 2 weeks and we have had a blast, but we are definitely ready to be home. But everything will work out tomorrow with the weather and the plane! Keep a good thought for us! :)