Frustrations at Cinnabon, a lot of puking and even some crying

I write you this current post from France! Bonsoir! I am here till December 22, then on to Canada for Christmas. It's been a while since I last posted, since I was very busy with wrapping things up before I left (ie. marking badly written papers, packing way too much shit in my suitcase and plugging all my drains so I won't come back to an army of giant roaches having taken over my apartment.) Please see below for an example of the last part:



I met up with a friend and we went to Cinnabon in the mall, because, well...why not? I went up to the counter, ordered my Cinnabon and drink and then tried to pay the man. He just said, "No, Madam. Please sit" I asked him why and he just again said "Please sit." I tried to take the Cinnabon and he took it back and told me to sit. With my angry *I want my godforsaken Cinnabon* face on, I sat. And waited. For 5 minutes. Until the Cinnabon WAITRESS brought me it. From the counter. Two feet away. I ate it, and then ready to go, had to wait for a cheque, then wait for change...another 10 minute thing. The set up is exactly the same as in North America. The gleaming counters, windows displaying the hot, icy Cinnabons, beckoning you. But then they have to go try and be fancy and fuck it all up. Whatever Abu Dhabi. Shit or get off the pot.

After doing all those necessary and let me tell you SUPER fun things, I was off to catch my flight to France. First I had to return my rental car. Seems simple enough, right? Not so. When I got to the car rental office it was surrounded my construction, so I finally found a parking lot of the other side of the building and parked there. Then I had to figure out how to try to cross the construction site to get to the office. It was like some sort of pathetic video game with me ambling along, coming to barriers over and over again, asking people who did not speak English where to go, and finally walking all the way the fack around the building, down the side of the road where people were trying to kill me and to the office. Then the guy had to get his little paper and walk the same route all the way back over to the car to check it. All the while, I waited in the office and prayed he would not notice the dent in the bumper or the broken trunk. I really hoped this because there were two other teachers in the car rental place attempting to call the Abu Dhabi police department in order to get an officer to come to the rental office and make a police report so that they would not have to pay for scratch marks on the car door. This poor woman was on her third call, fourth person at the AD police station enunciating as clear as was humanly possible "I AM AT CAR RENTAL PLACE. NEED OFFICER TO COME HERE. NO ACCIDENT. SCRATCH. ENGLISH?" She just kept getting placed on hold and then someone told her she should learn Arabic and hung up on her. Note to self: never call the police for anything in Abu Dhabi. Probably best to just duke it out with the assailant than to call them. I left before I knew what came of her situation, but I wished her luck with a knowing look first.

Upon getting to the airport I was pleased as punch to score a recliner chair and was amused to see that there was an indoor, enclosed smoking area inside the terminal, clever. My flight went off without a hitch for the duration of the trip but that all came crashing down (no plane crash pun intended..) when we tried to land in Paris and due to strong winds had to attempt landing FOUR times. On attempt number 2 I started feeling sick, attempt 3 started puking and continued to do so until we landed. I have never been airsick before but it was the constant up and down that got me. Unfortunately for the guy sitting next to me, shortly after I started puking, so did the girl on the other side of him. Not only did he get the bitch seat for 7 hours, he got to experience Barfy Mcgee 1 & 2 for about 45 minutes. He even gave us tissues and patted our shoulders a few times...nice guy!

When I got into the airport finally I had little time to get my bags (which were of course delayed due to the pouring rain) and go collect my train ticket to Marseille. I had booked it online previously, but it had got put under the wrong name and this caused a lot of french speaking and confusion on the other side of the glass, until they finally changed the name and reprinted my ticket. I had 5 minutes to get to my platform and get on the train. I got to the platform and everything was in french (obviously) so I asked two men standing there if I was in the right place. They sneered at me and told me to check the board. Like...really? If you know enough english to tell me to check the board couldn't you tell me whether or not I'm in the right fucking place? So I'm standing there like an idiot trying to read a french board when the train pulls up. I ask the conductor man (or who ever he was and he says no, you are over there...pointing across 4 sets of train tracks, naturally). The train should have already left at this point so I run over to the elevator to try to get up and over to the other side. There are approximately 50 MILLION people waiting for the one elevator which holds about 5 people..so I think, eff this, and start hauling my 56 pound suitcase up the 2 flights of wet, slippery, metal stairs in the rain. A guy starts coming up the stairs behind me, and I think, "Oh good, he can help since it should be pretty apparent that I'm about to die..." and he says "Excuse Moi!" and hops OVER it and goes up the stairs. If I wasn't so rushed and also carrying a 56 pound suitcase, I would have literally thrown him off the steps onto the train tracks below. So I finally get up the stairs *Hurray* and hurry over to go down to the other side. I'M GONNA MAKE IT! I think, as I step down onto the platform and the train starts chugging away. I'd like to say I took a deep breath and stayed calm, but instead I yelled FUCK! SERIOUSLY! and started hysterically crying. I went over to the info booth lady and explained and she said "Go back to de desk", completely stonefaced. So, back UP the stairs and to the desk I went. I must have had my *best don't fuck with me* face on because the lady printed me a ticket for the next train right away. Having an hour or so to kill, I went to go get some food. I figured this would be easy since I had Euros...but of course I only had 100 Euro bills which no one would take. I tried 3 places before again, sitting and crying, and then going back to my train platform. That, my friends is the story of my travels. Why are my travels always like this? Maybe I should stop travelling... Not really an option with my current lifestyle.

Things got much better once I reached my final destination in France :) Here's to hoping I won't have the same issues when flying to Canada..Insha'Allah ;)