The last few weeks...

Sitting in airports is always an interesting way to pass some time. Currently, my “home” on the go is the Frankfurt Main airport in the wonderful, candy gumdrop filled world of Deutschland or “Germany” for those of you who don’t sprechen the Deutsch. This particular visit to “Germany” was very interesting for a number of reasons that I will choose not to delve into at this juncture but will hold until the end of the post so that you, the cherished reader, can tensely wait with baited breathe my musings on the subject. But for the moment, I will fill you in on the last several weeks of shenanigans, tomfoolery, and bally-hoo.

Immediately after my last post, I met my group of kids from the U.S. who had decided to embark on the Paris and Paris Language trips. Earlier, I had talked with my friend/coworker Phil about what we needed to tackle with this group of kids. First and foremost on our minds was a 13 year old boy named Jerry who, by all accounts, was small, intelligent, and most importantly, very young. A young child poses their own unique questions when it comes to international travel. Some of these questions are easily dealt with and others can become incredibly difficult. This young man was no problem to us whatsoever and in fact, we learned more from him than he learned from us.

After the kids arrived, we spent time around Paris, seeing the museums, parks, street festivals, and boat cruises. This trip was especially good for me because it gave me some time to spend with my friends Taylor and Phil and catch up a bit on what had been going on. Taylor, a student at NYU, was in the process of trying to manage her move to Paris and Phil was just being Phil. We spent the majority of the two weeks trying to figure out where the cleaning ladies were from and why they kept asking us when we were going to leave (Tu Pawww Kaww!!). Either that was the only question that the poor dears could formulate in French or they didn’t like us. I personally lean towards the language answer because they helped themselves to plenty of our stuff.
Following these great several days, we said goodbye to these kids and Taylor and it was just Phil, Jerry, and I. Since we had a day to ourselves, we decided that it might be a good idea to catch a movie. Initially, we tried to go see Fatal, a French movie making fun of American rap stars, but then we decided that it might be best to go see Twilight.

Ok, stop the shocked, amazed face. Yes, I went to see a Twilight film in a theatre. In my defense we had a 13 year old with us and it had French subtitles, so there was an educational language element involved. But I digress.
That was most definitely the worst movie I have ever seen. One phrase sums up its incredible nullity.

Lame shirtless werewolf guy to cold vampire bag of douche while cuddling next to said bag of douche’s pathetic, insecure, social pariah of a girlfriend: “You are just mad because I am hotter than you.”

French Subtitle: “Je suis plus chaud que toi”

English translation of French subtitle: “I’m hornier than you.”

Et voila! Behold the beauty of translator/Google error and another reason that Twilight will never be taken seriously by “yours truly”.
After this debacle and waste of my carefully saved euros, we headed off to dinner and then back to the hotel to get some sleep. The next morning, I awoke and went to Charles de Gaulle in order to find some of our campers for the next trip. After spending about 6 hours in the Airport, we had everyone and headed towards Paris. Sadly, one of our campers was not feeling well, but after some rest, she was back to 100 percent. Over the next few days we hit everything again. The Louvre, Eifel Tower, D’Orsay, Montmartre, etc. It was a great few days ended by watching the 14th of July fireworks at Concorde and meeting my friend Stani whom I hope to see again in Amsterdam.

Then came my favorite part of the summer, Nice! I love Nice. The people, the water, the food, the atmosphere….the girls…uh hem. It is a beautiful city. The first day, we spent 3 hours at the beach and had a delicious dinner at L’abbaye in Old Nice. I got to see my friend Patya again which is always wonderful, and then we gave the kids freetime to walk around the city. The next few days were spent seeing Monaco, VilleFrance, St. Paul de Vince, Eze, and the beach. It was so relaxing and the food was amazing. If anyone ever goes to Nice, please let me know so that I can give you delicious restaurants and the names of wonderful people.

Then came the part that I hate the most: saying goodbye to the kids. It is really difficult sometimes to say goodbye to kids. I know I haven’t brought it up really in any earlier posts, but it is the one part of this job that I find the most difficult. It is wonderful teaching kids about all of the things that are great about Europe and seeing them soak it up like a sponge. But then comes that day in the airport where you are all sitting around talking about how much fun it all was and knowing that in a few minutes they will be gone. That was yesterday and I would be completely lying if I said that saying goodbye to them was not extremely difficult, especially Jerry. However, there is also a good feeling involved because you know that you have given them a new perspective and that will stay with them forever.

And now for the part that you have all been waiting for.

After making sure that my kids were on the plane, I headed for my hotel in Frankfurt. As many of you know, I am not the biggest fan of Germany, so I was headed into this with more than a little apprehension. Upon arriving at my hotel, I immediately turned on the Tour de France and took a 4 hour nap. My coworker Lucien and I then headed out to Frankfurt and had a delicious meal and started up a conversation with a group of people next to us. As it turns out, one of the people had just arrived in Germany that morning and was trying to get into school. The whole reason that he was in Germany to begin with was because of a girl and he was doing everything he could to make sure that he could stay there.

Following a great conversation revolving around the downfalls and victories of the capitalist system when it comes to healthcare in the US, we said goodnight to our new friends and headed for an Irish bar down the street. I must say, that the few hours that I spent at this bar completely changed my view of Germany. Though it was an Irish bar, many of the people in the bar were German and were some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. We exchanged stories and talked until about midnight when we had to leave. It was a great evening and we met some amazing people. Once we got back to the hotel, we crashed and then I got up and came to the airport, where I am currently writing this blog.

This two day stent in Germany has been great. I got to practice my German which has become more than a little rusty and I had a complete perspective change. Both of which, I feel, are very good and one was perhaps more than a little needed. So, Here’s to Germany and Irish bars and Magners Irish Cider and Guiness and nice people. Thanks for the good times and hopefully I’ll see you again soon.
To the rest of you, thanks for reading and I’ll talk to you soon!

- Pondhopper.