September 30, 2010

So much has happened in the past 3 days, I hardly know where to start.. Au début, je me suis entré l’aéroport à Budapest, puis ils m’ont fait payer pour les bagages, parce que mon sac à dos était trop grand.. ça coute 22 euros.. pour la vol en Budapest à Genève, puis encore un 22 euros en Genève à Toulouse… Un début trés positive, sans doute =/. The flight from Budapest to Geneva was pretty uneventful, I was asleep for most of the time, but as we came closer to the city, we passed over some notable lakes that were so clear, if I were an eagle, I would have been literally able to see the non exisitant ray that was hiding in the sand on the bottom of the lake. There were a multitude of boats out on the lake, creating beautifully fractalic wave-shapes on the surface of the water. When I came out of the plane, and lifted my head outwards, an amazing sight met my eyes. It reminded me of Milan, all the mountains coming straight up out of the ground all around, the city laying low in the valley.

I had about four hours to waste at the airport, some of which I would have liked to go see the city, but I was afraid I wouldn’t get back in time, so instead I just went outside the airport with my really expensive bag (I was considering throwing some clothes out, maybe to the total value of about 20 euros, so I’d be able to take it aboard and lose only 20 euros not 22..) The air was very pure, but only farther away from the benches, where it was less toxicated by the constant smokers’ traffic.

Meanwhile I reflected on how I could condense my bag, perhaps roll my shirts up tighter, pull the strings tighter to make the bag appear smaller, then put it lower on my waist so that it does not poke over my head, even took out my belt to tighten it across the middle so it may perhaps fit better into that metal handbag-measure-thing by the check-in counter, and of course stuff as my of my non-duty-free objects into the duty free bag I nicked from the duty-free shop in Budapest.. Apparently you’re allowed to take an extra duty-free bag onto the plane besides your hand bag.

Of course after an hour of condensation, sweating a bit from the “weight-lifting”, I still failed to condense, thus paying the 22 euros once again.. Ah ok. Next time I will bring one underwear and my toothbrush, and wear everything else on my body. See what they say to that 😉

Once we finally took off, I took a look out my window, and was once again awed by the Alps. They never seem to astound me. These were farther in the distance, but so majestic, rising above two layers of clouds, one of which I’m pretty sure was Mont Blanc, parce que c’etait si haute, plus que les autres, avec un capuche des nouages sur le sommet.

Arriving at Toulouse, I instantly picked out Andrei, even though the only identifier he told me was “je suis tres grand, peu prés de 6 pied et 5 pouces…” He was very relaxed and extremely nice right off the bat, took my bag off the carousel, and headed out to the car. I told him I want to learn to speak french better, and so we continued in french, me understanding every third word, him listening hard when I attempted to put together a sentence.

That night, I was greeted by a traditional French dinner, one with so many courses I lost track, and a different kind of wine in a different kind of glass each time. By the time we were done, I think about 3 hours had passed, but I learned a lot, and warmed up to his wife and her two kids. They were extremely welcoming, the kids well behaved.

Next day I walked around a little in le centre-ville de Toulouse with the Andrei’s wife and the youngest son; he did not have school because it was Wednesday. I’m sure some of the photos I put online will be ones the little 5 year old took. Il était trés intelligent, et curieux.

Au fond, les deux jours que j’ai resté là, je crois que j’avais appris plus français que j’ai jamais appris pendant un semestre.

By the end, Andrei, who is a professor and also researcher in digital imaging/technology/crazy smart stuff, convinced me to consider going to school there in Toulouse, for at least a year, to at least get a liscense – or basically 1 year of “fill in” studies that I will need anyways before getting a masters in this stuff, since I only really studied two years worth of information technology at Syracuse… maybe I’ll do it; I don’t see anything negative in trying it at least, I’ll be able to speak french better if nothing else by the end 🙂

Today I finally got to near the city of Cahors (30 min outside) in a little village called Lentillac du Causse, with my host family where I’ll be making a web site for their apartment business, and if I have time, their adventure-sport business. We wasted no time in talking about it; I have started brainstorming, exploring my options. We have already bought the URL for it: cele-holidays.com.

One thought on “September 30, 2010

  1. The idea to wear all you want to take with you tickled my imagination. Besides, it would be totally fair to be weighing 20 pounds extra considering the average bodysizes.
    Anyways, I’d dare you to make an airline mocking movie, where you’d literally put on your things one-by-one and trudge yourself to the security and through gate, plod along the hallways, and in your hands you’d be wearing a sweet Gucci purse to then wedge yourself between two passengers while taking your seat with a satisfied smile.
    …ohh.. and don’t forget to include a scene where you make sure that your purse fits in that handbag-measure-thing.

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