Delta pays up

So I had a very bad experience with the checkin agents at terminal 2 at the JFK airport. They were really rude and mean and refused to help me with my luggage problem - I was trying to be nice, but they were not being nice in return. It ended in me having to run from terminal to terminal to sort out the problem and having an agent roll her eyes at me say rude things when I said (nicely) "I'm just asking because this is what i was told to do and I want to make sure my suitcase doesn't stay in NY".

I ended up writing a letter to delta after I got past security. I heard from them today and they are offering me a $100 voucher to be used in the next year. While this doesn't really help, I was happy to get an email from their head people saying sorry.

I'm kind of bummed because so much of this could have been avoided with just a little kindness, understanding and care from the agent at delta. I remember a gentleman in London last year saying something very nice:

We were standing in line and having to purchase 20 one-week ride passes for the subway. Due to the computer system, they cannot just punch in 20 and be done - each had to be paid for and activated separately and it was taking a fair bit of time. The people waiting in line behind us starting to complain that we were taking too much time - they actually starting using fairly bad language and then walked away. I felt bad that we were holding up the line and apologized to the ticket agent.

He said, " you have nothing to apologize for. We are trained that our line is only one customer long. We take care of who is in front of us and don't worry about anyone else until you are satisfied."

I thought that was nice.

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Watching the plane

I discovered that you could also watch the plane in flight thanks to a camera in the tail. So cool!

On demand

Look how nice this is! My own tv with on demand movies, tv and games!!

My plane

This is an airbus a380. HUGE!!

I've never ridden on a double decker plane before. It was massive with lots of space. There were three seats on each side and then four in the middle. I was on an aisle seat in the middle and the other aisle seat was occupied by a man. He said something about getting the two seats between us "blocked out" - I dont really understand, but those two seats were empty the whole trip. It was nice to stretch out on an eight hour flight!!

Finding Nemo!

In French!

Hotel in Paris

I got to stay in a hotel in Paris. It was just yards from the airport and nowhere near any tourist stuff or shopping. In all honesty, Paris is rather scary to me and the subway system is really confusing. I opted for locking myself in my room. :)

I had a good dinner at the hotel, called family and then watched Finding Nemo in French on the television. I understood some of it!

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Finally back in the USA

Currently sitting at JFK airport in New York City. It's a rather terrible airport. There was a fiasco with my luggage which resulted in me getting yelled at by the ticket counter lady -'I was being kind and reasonable, but she was just plain mean. Oh well. Perhaps she was having a bad day... Still doesn't excuse being rude.

I have a long layover in NY and then I fly to Burlington. Yay! I am excited to be going home.

One of my favorite things....

Sunflower fields in France. So pretty!!!

Back to the USA!

Just landed in New York City. As much as I love my trips and seeing my French friends, I am very very happy to return to soil where I can understand signs and don't have to rely on sign language to make my point. (This could all be helped with a good French language class, too!)

Pictures are probably out of order on the blog because gmail was having trouble connecting, but you get the point!!

Happy summer!

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Military at the airport

The Paris airport is just riddled with military men in uniform and carrying very large and formidable guns. This is a security measure.

I will never forget a student two years ago complaining to me ( as we were waiting to check in) that the guards were "too close" and could I "talk to them about putting their weapons away?" Uh. No. Airport security doesn't like to be spoken to!! :)

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I landed in Paris last night. I had to stand around for a long long time waiting for the bus to the hotel to arrive. I have free wifi here, but my emails that I drafted with lots and lots of pics to send to this site are no working - something mahout how the gmail app works in france. Oh well.

All is well and the hotel is nice. I watching finding Nemo last night in French. I thought it was funny that in the volcano scene, they still kept the "Wannahackalugie" but in a French accent. Lol.

Time for le petite de jeune (breakfast!)

Vineyards!

Its a bit difficult to see, but this is a vineyard - this is where they grow grapes to make wine. The white sheets keep birds away. There were also apricot trees and sunflower fields.

Driving the Mercedes!

Here I am driving in France in my fancy schmancy Mercedes rental.

About the concert

I meant to take pictures, but things are always so crazy and busy that I didn't dare take out my iPhone for fear that I would put it down and forget about it. Earlier in the day, I left my clarinet in a market when I bought water - I all truthfulness, if given the choice, I'd give up my passport first!! (it's cheaper to replace!) I got my clarinet backs fee minutes later but it was a heart stopper!!

The concert started at 9pm - quite late by American standards, but apprently common for French. We had to wait for the representative from the American consulate to arrive and he was a bit late, so we actually started closer to 915 at night.

The concert started with a ridiculous number of long speeches - mostly in French which meant that most of us on stage could not understand. It was easily closer to 10pm before the actual music began. The group played well. My French friend, Manon, played a clarinet solo (Rossini theme and variations, for my friends who know music). It was good. We had an intermission and then played again.

At the end of the concert, it came time to give gifts - Blue Lake honors all who help with hosting students by bestowing gifts of mugs, plaques and plates. This meant more speeches. We then played our last piece. The audience stood and clapped in unison - this basically means "one more, one more!"... So we played an encore (Stars and Stripes Forever) and they stood and clapped AGAIN, so we played a second encore. It was MIDNIGHT!!

After, the stage had to be cleaned, music collected and instruments put away. This involves getting all instruments, equipment and luggage into the trailer that the bus pulls behind it.

We also had to load boxes and boxes of food for the kids to eat on the bus - they would eat both breakfast and dinner while on the road.

We all said good bye and the bus left at around 1am.
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Beluga planes

You will need to expand this pic to see, but if you look in the far background, there are funny looking planes - these are the new "beluga" plane that airbus put out a few years ago. I dont understand the reason for the shape, but they are really really big and I think meant for cargo transport.

This was at the Toulouse airport.

Dropping off the rental

Here is a pic of my fancy car. It was big. (especially for France! Most people here drive tiny cars like my Honda.

Street concert

Our concert in front of Optic 2000 - the shop of one of our host chairman.

This is totally chaotic and you have to be very flexible - it's rare to run on time and there is a market day going on around us. Shoppers pass by and it's great marketing for the concert tonight!

The chapel

This is the chapel. In the case with the red background is the statue of the black virgin. It is very old and sacred, but I am not quite sure why. I bought a book to find out but haven't had time to read yet.

Rocamadour

Rocamadour is an old monastery. It is now a sacred pilgrimage place for Catholics to see a statue called "the black virgin" which is a statue of Mary and Jesus.

The chapel is built into the cliff. Very cool.