There and Back Again

     Well, it already happened. On our first full day in France, we got lost. We had been waiting for about thirty minutes at a plaza in Metz to take a tour we had signed up for. Our tour group was supposed to start at 7:45pm, but it was running late. At about 8, we decided to just go back to campus because we'd already walked around Metz, and we'd have the whole summer to come back and take a tour if we wanted to. We were ready to just get back to the dorm and relax. We were given a list of buses that would take us back to campus, so it would make sense for us to just get on the bus and go back [Que Ethan stage left].

     A bus pulls up, and some of us ask each other which one it is. Ethan assured us it was 51, so we got on the bus. About fifteen minutes into the bus ride, we realize we're on the wrong bus. It was bus 11, which may have been the only of about 6 bus routes that would not take us to campus. We got off at the first non-sketchy stop. As we discussed a map, a man who had just gotten off of the bus starts speaking to us in French, trying to help. I wish I had a picture of the man. Ethan described him as "The dwarf who saved us". He was short and stocky. He had tattoos on his arms and beer suds up his nose. I would have been a little be worried for our safety if we hadn't been in a somewhat public place.

     Before we came to France, I was under the impression that most people knew English, and that the language barrier would never really be an issue. I was wrong. This man kept talking and gesturing until we finally understood that he was going to take us to someone who speaks English in the nearby grocery store. He tried to make small talk on the way, but all I could understand was that he likes Beer and Las Vegas.

     Once we were in the store, he starts speaking to some employees who then make a phone call to someone else. The man on the other end of the phone call (maybe a manager) decided to come to us. When he reached us, his first words were "speak slowly". We explained our situation and where we wanted to go, and it took a while for us to understand what exactly he was telling us to do. We eventually ended up getting on a bus back to where we started. From there we waited about an hour for the next bus back to school. It took longer to get back than it should have, and I'm pretty sure at one point the bus driver was just doing figure 8's in some round-a-bouts.

     Overall we were only lost for about an hour, so it was nothing to panic over, but we'll definitely need to be more careful from now on when using public transportation. Of course, we had to give Ethan a hard time about his decision to get on the wrong bus, but his defense was that he got us to the only person in France who speaks English. Thanks Ethan...

Here's an unrelated picture of Elizabeth paying to use a restroom in Metz.