The 24 Hour Challenge Has Nothing on Me!

How long have I been awake? Good question. I have no idea. I do know, however, that I’ve taken 1 dad-manned car, 2 airplanes, one taxi and a long walk to get where I am. It all started around 9 am Wednesday morning and as I write this for you my computer is telling me it’s Thursday and 7:55 pm. Flying through the night can do crazy things to you! For instance, did you know that trying to speak a foreign language, after traveling for a full day and night is a pretty comical thing to watch (when you’re not the one struggling through it, tehehe). My cab driver from the airport to the hotel was one of the nicest people I met all day (2 days?), and I met a lot of people within the last 36 hours…I’m fairly certain that’s the hour count. Don’t worry, I did nap, but I’m trying to stay awake long enough to go to bed here at a reasonable time in order to switch to French time quickly. Anyways, this cabbie was wonderful. He asked me simple French questions, didn’t laugh when I stumbled over simple grammar and he introduced me to the city via car. As Kathleen and I say, “We speak fluent Franglais.” And yes, my friends, Franglais is certainly what I have been speaking. I’m fairly certain I’ve begun sentences in French today and ended them in English, I blame the lack of sleep – but tomorrow we’ll find out if that’s true ;)



My first flight was 6.5 hours long. Long enough to watch three movies and eat dinner onboard which was very quickly followed by breakfast since we literally flew through the night. It was crazy! We left Jersey and it was light out. Then it set as we flew over the ocean, and right as we landed in Brussels the it was coming up again. Crazy. I know. But after some sleep maybe the concept won’t feel quite so elusive.

The line for customs in Brussels was uncomfortable to say the least. There was a huge amount of people crammed into way too small of a space…and guess who picked the line with the chatty customs agent who nicely (but not without taking up a lot of time) asked everyone about themselves? Oh, that’s this kid. But after being in that kind of cramped, hot space everything else seemed pretty cool (temperature wise at least!).

My hotel room for the next two nights isn’t air conditioned, but that’s to be expected. And provided that the couple one floor up and one room over from me doesn’t repeat their performance of Afternoon Delight, I’ll be all set to fall asleep listening to the silent bustle of Aix with a cool breeze lapping at my window…which coincidently opens directly to the outside world and has let a daddy long legger take up residence in the top corner of my room...but with no RJ/Tina/Dennis to relocate him I think I’ll let him stay there as long as he doesn’t break our treaty about keeping to our sides of the room (I get the floor and he gets the ceiling). Also, the man who owns Hotel Paul is very nice, a sweet older gentlemen who has been very willing to help point me in the right directions in town…well the right direction isn’t exactly what I get from him. I’ve learned from the three sets of directions he’s given me (in English mind you, I’m still comprehending that one fairly well) were all at least one block off from the place he circled on the map. Once today his directions led me down a very quiet side street where I was supposed to be able to find wireless internet access. All I found were three Frenchmen who took it upon themselves to tell me that I have “Zee mohst bezutiful bleu eyez I haz evah sen!” I did find a place to get on the internet to send two emails, which was a feat in and of itself since I was using a French keyboard (wireless internet, I will find you tomorrow!) and I couldn’t figure out how to get the @ sign to show up. And the a’s and m’s are in different places so most of my words including an A turned out like something not even resembling franglais. And periods have to be made using the control key as well…needless to say almost all of my sentences were like this: long dqy todqy, love yot very mucb, tqke cqre,” No periods, just a lot of commas and dashes!

So after getting lost a few times, finding food at an open air market and lunch (or at this point dinner’s midnight’s snack’s breakfast) at a sidewalk café, getting to my program head quarters 5 minutes after it closed, not finding adequate internet, finding out the hotel I’m at doesn’t allow the use of phone cards (*808 you’re my best friend!), and asking a woman if I could hold her hand (I think I was asking for a chocolate croissant, which I did get in the end, but after something getting lost in translation), and taking the greatest shower of my life (showering after the longest day of travel ever is one of the best experiences, even if I can’t bend over in the shower to pick up my shampoo without conking my head) – even after all that…needless to say it was not an ideal first day…I’m still hopeful for tomorrow. I’m exhausted emotionally and physically, but in the end I learned something, that even when you’re in a foreign city, surrounded by complete strangers who speak a different language, there are still people out there who want to help you.

I befriended a man traveling back to Spain today. We waited in the awful customs line together and then again at security (where I was randomly chosen to be frisked) and the whole time we gave each other looks like, “Well, we can’t hurry this process along so we might as well keep smiling and try not to get too down.” He barely spoke English, and I speak practically no Spanish, but we were united in our struggle to get through the airport. We kept each others’ spirits up without much conversation, but some dancing to iPods was definitely included. I feel alone, not knowing anyone yet and still having an entire day ahead of me to explore a city I’m pretty sure I covered every foot of today, but it’s okay because I’m not actually alone. There’s always someone else out there going through the same exact same thing as you, and together you can keep smiling because tomorrow has got to be a better day.

Thanks again everyone from home for you nice good luck texts today (well, yesterday morning now), they meant a lot to me. And thanks for the facebook notes and great emails (Thanks for making me smile via email Dennis!). I promise to keep in touch once I find an internet hookup for my laptop.

Tomorrow is another day, and thank goodness it’ll only be 24 hours long.