well, i’m back. 7:00 houston time, 2:00 a.m. in aix. i’ve been home for about three hours now, after 16 hours of travel.
nick and i decided to come back to aix last night instead of staying in marseille for two reasons. one, coming back to nick’s apartment was more comfortable. two, spending 50 euros for a cab to the airport versus spending 50 euros for a hotel room in marseille…well obviously i was going to spend 50 euros either way, so we might as well be comfortable in aix. we had a cab meet us at the place de l’hotel de ville at 5:30 a.m. (10:30 p.m. last night houston time, when the person picking me up at the airport this afternoon hadn’t even gone to bed yet) and i was at the marseille airport just before 6. nick and i had muffins and then i said goodbye. my flight to london left at 6:50.
i ate breakfast on the flight and then slept for an hour or so. i had two hours to wander around gatwick before boarding the 777 bound for houston. i love 777s. they’re big, they’re shiny and new, they have individual tv screens in the back of every seat. but even the coolness of a 777 wore thin after my london-to-houston flight.
that was a long flight. i mean long. those of you that have flown to australia or something will scoff, but this was the longest flight i’d ever been on. 10 hours. i ate lunch, and we were still flying. i watched a movie, and we were still flying. i read three chapters of a novel, and we were only crossing the southern tip of greenland. i slept for an hour and a half, and we still had three and a half to go. i went back to sleep, woke up again. two hours to go. i had afternoon tea. still flying. read three more chapters. still flying.
as a side note, greenland was cool. lots of mountains, lots of snow. it looked a lot like what i imagine the himalayas must look like. i must’ve snapped two dozen photos, aerial views of anonymous greenland mountains. i was fascinated.
finally, when i felt like i would be forced to live the rest of my days in a pressurized tin can, my ears started to pop. the flaps came down, i heard the landing gear, and we broke through the cloud deck about 300 feet above the ground. i was never so happy to leave an airplane in my life. we could have been anywhere, and i would have still been overjoyed just to get out of that can. ahhhh.
jason picked me up in his new truck and 45 minutes later i was back in my apartment. i left debbie and jason with a key so they could feed my fish and water my plants, but they went a step farther and decorated my apartment! i walked in the door to parachute men hanging from the ceiling, a pair of my tennis shoes sitting on top of the ceiling fan, punch balloons, a balance ball cowboy sitting in my papasan chair, sponge dinosaurs in the sink, messages saying “hi sarah” and “hee hee thanks for the keys”, and last but not least, a bathtub full of balloons.
i have great friends. i was sad to leave france, but walking into a decorated apartment makes coming home fun. people always surprise you. i had a great week abroad, but not for the obvious reasons. being in france was great, but what really made me happy was just seeing nick. he could have been anywhere in the world, and i would have been happier just to see my friend.
