Humor, Rudeness, and Bowling

Barcelona! That was my goal today. Get a night train ticket to Barcelona. I needed to arrive there on April 10th to catch my hostel reservation. Sadly, the past month or so I’ve been needing to book stuff in advance. First it started as just the weekends were booking up at the hostels and then once the end of March came it was booking up during the week too. We are in Spring Break season and the weather is fantastic. This is a good combination when you are a student/family/couple wanting to travel. I don’t like it as much because it takes the spontaneity out of the trip a little. The plus side is that since I’m nearing the end of my trip I do still have a few select places that I’d like to see so this allows me plan to ensure I’m able to make it to the places I’d like.

Getting to Spain on the 10th and back to Strasbourg on the 19th is pretty essential to my plan…..at least financially. I had my Barcelona hostel booked as well as my Madrid hostel and if I don’t show up I’m out the entire booking. It’s silly, they don’t do the cancellation policies like we do back home. Sometimes though.

So I head to the Strasbourg train station to make my arrangements. Along the way I realize…..today is the 8th…..NOT the 9th! I have an extra day! Somehow I got a day ahead of myself. Good news for me! I arrive at the station and talk with a lady. While she is helping me I ask the question that has been on my mind since Brussels. I says, “How come I’ve been having a hard time with train reservations to and from Paris? The answer I’m given is that there are no seats left, yet on the train last night it was almost empty.” She explains to me that there are only so many spots per train that can be used for people who hold EuRail passes. The rest are for people paying full-fares. Now, that makes more sense! You would think they would open up a few more seats to EuRail holders if it looks like the train is mostly empty. Oh well…no worries! She was able to work some magic for me. So, I have good news, good news, good news, and more good news.

1. I was able to make a reservation for a night train to Barcelona on April 9th that will arrive on the 10th.

2. I was able to make a reservation from Madrid to Strasbourg on April 19th.

3. The lady at the office was able to route me through a city other than Paris which ultimately saved me about 50 Euros in the end.

4. I have an extra day in Strasbourg!

I took the rest of the day to run some errands, have a leisurely lunch, and catch-up on a few things. My lunch in particular was fun. I had a sandwich on Grand Rue in one of the outdoor cafés. I ordered a mint lemonade. This thing comes out and it is ooze green. It is bright! It’s starting to attract attention of the people walking down the road. I try to drink it fast so I don’t stand out too much. Well, when I think “mint” I think spearmint and NOT peppermint. This drink is strong! I had a hard time getting it down. It was fun…..yet very relaxing to sit and just hangout for part of the afternoon. I really like Strasbourg. It’s a very cool town! I also talked with Ma on Skype. I told her that the trip as been 100% worth it so far and that Spain should be fun, but I’ve done everything I wanted to accomplish on this trip. Looking forward to sleeping in my own bed soon and see my dog…..oh, and seeing family and friends too, I suppose.

In the evening Deb coxed me into going bowling with her and some of the American students in the NASA program. I kept giving her a hard time, “People are going to ask me: What did you do in France? I’m going to say, I went bowling. They’ll ask; Did you see the Eiffel Tower? I’ll reply; Nope, I just went bowling.” Well bowling was actually quite fun! I met Chris, Patrick, and Veronica. Veronica is from LA and is married to Patrick. Chris I talked for a long while before I realized who he was. Remember my first or second night in Europe when Deb took me out to dinner with a really cute French girl? Well, Chris was her boyfriend! I love when you talk with people for a long time and then find out something like that. We had talked about Chris that night at dinner back in January so it’s crazy that I got to meet him. I dig it! At the end of the night he even invited me out to his girlfriend’s theater performance the following evening, but sadly I had to pass…..train to catch. Patrick, however, is who I talked to the most. Patrick is part French and part German and he has a very different sense of humor. We talked a lot about the differences between Americans and French and how they joke with people differently and use sarcasm. I shared my “rude/please” story…..the one about my BFF Vincent in Brussels. He said that the French say “please” for EVERYTHING! He talked about his wife and how he thinks she is rude sometimes for never saying, “please” and then is reminded that she grew up in a different culture. He used McDonalds as an example, “You go up and say; I’ll have a Big Mac, fries, and coke to go”. I said, “That is perfectly normal American behavior. No one would think you were rude for saying that.” He said, “Yes, in America. In France it’s perceived as being demanding.” I thought that was so cool! Patrick was so funny and very nice. He even bought me a drink which is a French version of beer. It’s a orange liquor with beer. When the drinks arrived he picked up his glass and said, “Salute”. I picked up my glass, said “Salute”, and clicked it against his. He said, “Now that was rude”. I said, “What?” He said, “In France it is rude to not look the people you are toasting in the eye. You were looking at the glass.” I laughed and quickly joked, “Well, in America you look at the glass to make sure you don’t tap it too hard and spill your neighbor’s beer because that is rude.” He said, “No it isn’t”. I laughed. We clinked glasses again and this time I made sure I looked him in the eyes. It was hard. I felt so compelled to look at the glass. It’s like when I type. I look at the keys and not the screen. When I play piano I look at the numbers I’ve etched into the ivory and not the music. I need to see what I’m doing or else I become clumsy. Anyway, it was interesting. At one point I turned to him and joked, “Did you buy me a drink just so you could teach me a lesson?” He laughed. Oh, and the beer tasted pretty good….sweet in taste.

We finish a round of bowling and Chris won, I came in second, and Patrick followed me. We were about 4 points within each others scores. Very close. Deb and Veronica were a little behind. Patrick joked that since he was French that he had to be gracious host and stay behind in the score, but he couldn’t be too far behind so we didn’t think he sucked too bad.

Chris had to leave and the girls were done playing. Patrick and I continued with a second game. During the middle of the game Patrick goes up to bowl. He does and he comes back and sits down. I said, “Patrick, that was rude”. He said, “What?” I said, “In America it’s rude to bowl when the person on your right is going to throw the ball. It’s distracting.” He laughs and says, “In France we just bowl”. I said, “In America you get some seriously devout bowlers and you don’t want to piss them off.” We laughed. After that he had a hard time bowling while there was someone next to him. It was funny.

Patrick and Veronica were nice enough to drive Deb and I to the train station so we didn’t have to walk though the park in the dark. We said our goodbyes. I go to shake Veronica’s hand and she says, “We have to say goodbye the French way”. She then comes up to me and kisses on either side of my cheek…..I laughed and shared the story of my first experience with someone trying to do that to me in France. At the time I took a step back and thought, “No, we just met”. Ha! I thought that was funny!