It didn't take long to experience my first France adventure. Some classmates and I went to a restaurant called Le Pan and Cake; its across the street from where we're staying, and above it are some apartments. Once in the restaurant, we met the owner, and his daughter (they're wonderful people who speak English, which means it's a safe place). We were eating when this guy pulled up, and parked in the middle of the street. The doors were open, and everyone could see what was happening.
This guy got out his car, and yelled at the person living above the restaurant. He was spitting, veins popping out his neck, and turning red. He was mad as hell and wasn't gonna take it anymore (I learned later they're brothers)! He stopped yelling, and turned back towards his car, but must've forgot some curse words because he turned back around five seconds later, and yelled some more!
The owner's daughter was about to go outside, but the guy turned back towards his car again. I'm was about to take another bite of my sandwich when Mr. Personality turned back around, yelled some more, and kicked the car he was standing in front of. This made the owner's daughter angry (it was her car). She went outside, and yelled at the guy! They had an heated exchange (I pulled out the universal remote I keep in my back pocket, and tried to change the subtitles to English, but realized this wasn't T.V; the jet lag was killing me). He left, but turned back around (just kidding, he really left this time). I'm sure hurtful words were said, but I can't prove it without subtitles (in the biopic I'm already planning this will be the opening scene).
After leaving the restaurant I got on the elevator. When I got off on my floor, the hallway was pitch black (I had only been in France for a couple of hours, and was already having a horror film moment). I looked at the wall, and saw an illuminated strip. Being someone of superior intellect, I pressed it, and the lights came on (they're so green here...at least at first glance, but that's a story for another post). I walked into my room, sat down, and looked around; it still hadn't hit me that this was France. It felt like a dream; like I was a spy or extractor (and yes, these thoughts ran through my mind). It just seemed too cool; everyone was given envelopes with information in them (like I said, real spy stuff).
Because of the jet lag, I didn't look at my change. I looked at the change, and realized it was in coin form (hooray coins)! The coins aren't like puny, American coins; these coins have value. The biggest coin is 2 Euro, which is like 4 American paper dollars (or something like that). To put into perspective how strong the Euro is, 170 million Euro is about 120 million dollars (typing that sentence made me sad). Europeans could own America if they wanted (but they would have to share with China; let me stop talking bad about America before I'm not allowed back in).
Some of us went to the beach to kill time, but it wouldn't die. Though it felt later, it was only four in the afternoon, and by the time we left it was 6. By the time it was 11, my body decided to wake up. After taking a shower, I sat around until bedtime, but it was worth it; the sleep was glorious! I woke the next morning and couldn't move. After about 2 hours of staring into space, I got up, looked out the window, and saw the brother of the guy I mentioned earlier, and he looked creeptastic (as bad as I wanted to yell at him, I also wanted to keep my life).
Well, that was my day one in a nutshell. Next time, I will talk about something else France related. Until then, pray I don't cause an international incident.
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