THE ‘GETTING TO MAZAMET’

May 5-6, 2015

We left Mapleton on May 5, around 4:30am to make it to the airport on time. I said my tearful farewells and jumped onto my first plane to Dallas. It went quickly, and nicely. When we landed, I got out my phone to let my family know that I had landed, and then set my phone down next to me. I then quickly found the location of my next flight, and sat down to wait. It was then I realized that I had left my phone on the plane. I ran like a crazy person back to the plane to see if they could find it, but I had no luck. I had lost my phone.

There are a lot of emotions that go through you when you do something like this. You feel hot, and cold. You get sweaty and shaky. You wonder how you are going to be okay without your phone for who knows how long. You feel like an idiot, and you want to kick yourself. You feel sad and unmotivated. Luckily, I had decided to bring my laptop in my bag, so I was able to contact my family and tell them what had happened. From that point on, I had to simply go without.

The next plane ride, I mostly felt sad and upset. I flew to Newark and from there boarded a plane to Paris. This was the most amazing flight that I have ever been on. While flying is never really all that fun, this flight was incredible. While boarding, looking around I was the youngest that was going to be on this eight-hour flight by far. Everyone looked over 65, and on top of that, most everyone was speaking French. And so my immersion story began.

All around me were many old French people, talking, laughing communicating in a way that I was completely at a loss for. However, my streak of luck continued as I found that most of them spoke some English as well. One gentleman that I sat by in particular was especially hilarious. His name was Jim. Jim was born in Budapest and lived there until he was 18 when he then moved to New Jersey. He had an accent that was unique to only him. He was extremely hard to understand and extremely easy to listen to. He talked and talked and talked. For the entire trip he told me of his family, his current life, past trips and his personal history. I hope that someday I will be able to talk to that wonderful man again. He was so full of life and happiness.

Sometime on the plane ride, they brought out some ‘dinner.’ But mostly they just brought out wine. They passed around personal bottles once, then twice, then three times, and after that I lost count. I don’t know how many bottles they all drank, but the empty bottles were rolling around on the floor. They just kept drinking, laughing and talking with everyone. It was like a giant party on a plane. They were all standing up, meeting new people, telling stories and drinking, drinking, drinking. It was almost magical. The flight attendants were men, who didn’t understand why I kept refusing the wine. They too were drinking and roaming the plane like passengers. They both kept trying to speak the little English that they knew to me. They tried to ask me where I was headed, and then tried to get me to come with them after we landed so that they could show me their ‘way of life.’ The cuties. They said to wait for them by the plane, but when I got off of the boarding ramp, I made a mad dash for the airport.

I then had to wait nearly 6 hours for my next flight. This last plane held maybe just 20 people. It was very small, and old as well. The next thing I knew we were landing in Castres.

Marie, Mathis and Rodolphe were waiting for me at the airport when I got there. They all immediately kissed me, picked up my bags and sat me in their car. They are beautiful, kind and interesting people with the most magnificent hearts.

I have arrived in Mazamet.