breaking the silence
sorry to take so long to blog. i have actually been working. my students arrived yesterday and i have not had the best travel experiences this past month.
i should have know problems would arise when the week before i left i had some problems at work. and things always come in threes (which is why i keep postponing children, in my family kids come in threes too). but i ignored the portents, the omens and the crows flying in the air. and alas, i have two more stories to tell you.
for those of you terrified of traveling, these stories are lessons from which you can learn, since some amateur mistakes were made... on my part and on the part of someone else.
thomas had to work in dijon for a week and i accompanied him there. he bought tgv tickets to go from dijon straight to the airport in paris. keep in mind that we were to arrive in paris at 8.30 and then have lunch with a colleague of mine, drop off a suitcase or two to stay with her, then catch a flight to berlin from a different airport. all was to go smoothly, but remember, things come in threes.
we were on the train maybe an hour when i looked at thomas and asked if he knew where the passports were. he didn't, and well, it was too late to do anything. when we arrived at the airport, we literally unpacked our suitcases and came up with nothing. the passports, well, they stayed in dijon. and i had meant to ask thomas to grab them that morning, but said nothing.
i took a train back to dijon, while thomas went and had lunch and worked for a while. i had a twenty minute, yes 20 minute window to make it from the train station to the hotel and back to make my next train. the taxi driver did it in five. i think he had always wanted a fare like that.
my train was of course 45 minutes late getting back to paris thus forcing me to take a cab to the airport. i made it. we made the flight, but of course a member of the crew got sick and caused us to be delayed by an hour.
things were decent and lovely in berlin. i got the potato crack. thomas has the camera in china with him, but i will show you the potato crack salad. i probably had half the bowl myself. i digress.
when we got back to paris, there was no reservation for us. for a week. i had to figure out how to prove that i had confirmed my reservation, that i was in the right and that something had to be done. although things have turned out to be really great because of this loss of reservation, still, the frustration and the tears poured out of me.
traveling has not been working out for me on this trip. needless to say, i was so pleased to have my students arrive so that i could possibly have something to do and a routine established. i have needed it more than anything.
how have you been this month?
I hope things go smoother from here on out. If you makes you feel any better, your life sounds really exciting to me!