Amusing public transportation stories...

So, I take the bus to work every day, and the train to Rouen at least once a week. It's quite interesting what can happen on the bus or the train. We'll start with the bus:

-There is a man in Elbeuf who really likes me. He's never tried to really talk to me, but whenever we ride the same bus, he stares at me, unblinkingly, with the hugest smile on his face. He proceeds to talk to me, or himself, I don't really know which, in some foreign language I don't understand. When he sees me through the bus window he does the same thing.

-I have gotten on the wrong bus before. No idea how. It took me in exactly the wrong direction and I had to talk 45 minutes to get home.

-The bus doesn't necessarily come when it's supposed to. I run. A lot. Or wait for a very long time. Amazingly I've never been late for work, but I have missed several trains because of this.

-One day when I was waiting for the bus, I was resting my foot on a cement ledge that ran the length of the street to fix something on my bag. A man came up and told me to move so he could sit down because he was very tired. Now, something was wrong with this picture, as the ledge ran the length of the street, so he had meters and meters to sit down on. He asked me what time the bus was supposed to come, and I told him. He continued to stare at my butt and my thighs as he talked to me, so I moved away. The bus came. I was relieved. Then on the bus, he felt it was better to yell at the driver to stop when he wanted then press the "arret demande" button. Interesting man

Ok, now for the train. The best story happened the same day as the last bus story.

-I was going to Rouen. The train was almost to the destination, so I moved to a seat by the door. There was a strong smell of marijuana in the air, but as I was next to the bathroom I figured someone had been smoking there. No. Just as the train was about the stop, a man falls down the stairs with a joint in his hands. He is obviously not sober, but I am forced to stand by him because there are so many people and I can't get away. I figure I can lose him on the stairs. I don't know if he decided the stairs were too difficult or what, but he leaned on the railing, and began screaming. At what? No idea. But I don't think he made it up the stairs.

-Ok, not much on the train can top that story. I did have a women push me down the stairs to get out once, as she was saying, "It's time to go go go" in English. Maybe hostility toward Americans, or just basic unpleasantness.

That's all I can think of right now. Just a stupid post for my sister to read as she waits to give birth.

Random story

So, this is something I should have posted long ago, but now I feel like the entire story is over, so I will write about it in detail.

Starting near the end of December, Sid's apartment had a fly infestation. Fly AND larva. At first it was unsure as to where they were coming from, but then we realized they were dropping from the ceiling. Of course it's an old building, so naturally it was assumed that there was a problem with insulation. Disgusting. Nothing was safe from these creatures, vacuuming insued day in and day out, multiple fly swatters were purchases along with bug spray. The apartment agency was called to get an exterminator to come in. In France, these things often take time. Within several weeks an expert did come, only to say "Yes, there is a problem, but I can't figure out why." There was no way to stop these things!!

So, I believe it was December 21st, a night when I was not there, Sid and a friend of his saw that the window to the upstairs apartment was open. Then, Sid thought to himself, "I haven't seen the neighbor for quite some time."

The building is not an average building, kind of difficult to explain. But Sid's apartment is 2 floors, but the second floor not being part of the original building. There is a window in the bathroom on the second floor that looks out to the window of the neighbor's apartment. Skylights to Sid's kitchen are between the two windows, so it's possible to walk from one to the other. Sid and his friend, after knocking at the apartment door and getting no answer, decided that it would be a great idea to walk to the neighbor's apartment to see what was going on inside that could be the cause of the fly problem.

Sid, with a flashlight in his hand, stepped into the apartment and was immediately hit by a rotten stench. He scanned the room, and his light beamed onto the decomposing corpse of his (former) neighbor. Half of her face no longer had skin on it, and he could see the bones.

And the reason behind the fly problem was solved.

Obviously shaken, he dropped the flashlight and jumped out the window. Afterwards, he reentered the apartment to find it as it was that important to him.

The police was called, and they came. But they only looked in the apartment through Sid's window to verify that the corpse was there. They were going to leave it to the firefighters to go into the apartment.

We don't really know who got her out. But she is out. The flies are no longer a problem.

So, to fill in the blanks. This neighbor was 65 years old, and had basically no friends. She had been dead between 1 1/2 to 2 months before Sid found her. Sid had seen her many times, and it seemed she had a serious drinking problem and also smoked all the time. Several days after she was found, her sister called Sid (the police had given her his number...what?) to get the story from him. They had been corresponding through letters, the last one received the end of October from the dead woman. The sister had been worried, trying to call her, as they were supposed to spend Christmas together in Paris. In fact, she had arranged for someone to come check her apartment the day after she was found.

As far as we know, they have not determined why she died (and probably will never). But she was clutching the telephone in her hands and the phone book was open. It's speculated by her family that she choked, but I don't think it's for sure.

Last week the woman's nephews came to clean out the apartment. They wore masks because of the stench, and left bags of her stuff to be thrown away. They did it very neatly and, in my opinion, the best way possible. But of course France has its own poor and homeless people, and in no time the bags were torn open and her things were everywhere. I was there that day, and saw so many people rummaging through her things. I wanted to tell them the story to dissuade them, as I was disgusted at the thought of touching those things. But as they were strewn on the ground, I saw the blanket on which she died, stained black from her decomposition. And also the telephone that she had held in her hand, with pieces of her still on it. And these people going through the items didn't know what it was. Undoubtedly people touched the phone and the blanket. Disgusting.

I hope I wasn't too detailed in my description. It's been quite the adventure, I must say, even though for the most exciting part I wasn't present.

So this is Christmas....

in France.

Yes, it's been awhile since I last posted, but I've been away for the last 2 + weeks doing various things holiday-style.

It's slightly strange being in a place with green grass and no snow, especially since the temperature is about the same as it is in Minnesota. It did hail at one point this break, however.

So, December 23rd Sid and I went to CDG airport in Paris to pick up my parents. Their flight was delayed 5 hours, but we had been forewarned thanks to text-messaging and didn't end up waiting that long. We got back to Sid's family's house in the evening, and they soon went to bed. Well, what am I saying, I did, too.

Something random from the airport: I ended up standing next to a girl from Edina who was waiting for her parents who were on the same flight as mine. I had a feelings she was American (it's kind of a game for me...spotting the people who aren't French before I hear them speak), but it was really a random coincidence that she was from Minnesota.

Christmas was spent at Sid's family with him, his parents, his two sisters, and his 3 grandparents. Mom, Dad, and I went to a Catholic church service with his grandparents on Christmas Eve at Damville, a small village about the same size as Blue Earth. There was no heat in the old stone building, and the organist played about as many wrong notes as she did right notes. It was hilarious. And the most I could do was not laugh.

We all exchanged presents on Christmas Eve. I had the idea to start the stocking tradition in the Freger family, so we (Mom, Dad, and I) gave our presents in stockings. It was very nice. Afterwards (at probably 10 o'clock, maybe later) we started the Christmas feast. Foie gras, salmon for starters. Then duck and potatoes, and 3 choices for dessert. Mom and I made pumpkin pie, so there was one American tradition present. I don't think French people like pumpkin pie, but they ate it.

After Christmas celebrations, Sid and I showed Mom and Dad Evreux and Rouen, and it was the beginning of many cathedrale tours. We hit 4 Notre Dames, I believe.

Ok, to not bore you, here's a quick list of where we went: Evreux, Rouen, Caen (WW II memorial, D-Day beaches), Rennes, Vitre, Mont Saint Michel, Honfleur (where they spent New Year's Eve while Sid and I went back to Damville to a party at his friend's), Elbeuf-Saint Aubin (my home), and ended in Paris. We were all exhausted when we hit Paris, which is too bad. But it was still a good ending to a fabulous vacation.


Oh, I don't want to forget. We trespassed. There are ruins of the castle of Robert le Diable that used to be a tourist attraction but are now shut down. Dad, however, decided to just walk around the fence the was put up and it wasn't too hard to get in. Hehe....