Angers

Baudouin and I woke up on Monday morning as Paul was getting ready to leave. My original plan for France had been to stay in Paris the whole time and see Baudouin on that weekend because I knew he was very busy studying for his final exams for his masters. Well, the day before I left Seattle I got an email from Paul saying that he felt bad but had totally forgotten that he'd made plans to go on a trip with a couple friends leaving on that Monday. So I frantically tried to find somewhere else to go and contemplated heading down to Montpellier to see another French friend from Cameroon, Tim. Unfortunately, he was studying his tail off for his final exams and wouldn't really have been able to host me. Luckily, though, Baudouin pulled through and said I could stay at his house as long as I didn't have a problem with him studying all day.

So that morning Baudouin and I took the metro over to a place where we were meeting a guy who was going to give us a lift to Angers. Because the trains are so expensive in France, there's a new system emerging where, if you've got to drive to a certain town, you can post that on a website and ask people for some gas money to help get you there. With how expensive the trains are, I don't imagine it's too hard to find people to go with you. So Baudouin and I got some coffee and croissants and then met up with Sven and Daniel who were also heading to Angers. Sven was moving to Angers soon so I think he was trying to scout out where to live, etc. and I'm not sure what Daniel, who was Colombian, was doing there. The ride was pretty nice and we had some nice chats along the way.

Once we got to Angers, we said goodbye to Sven and Daniel and headed over to Baudouin and Annga's apartment. Annga made a bit of food for us, some curry and rice, if I remember correctly. I then took a shower, and walked around Angers while the two of them stayed at home and studied. It was a beautiful sunny day, if a little crisp out, but I left the house in just a t-shirt. Well, after walking around the town for a bit, I started getting a little chilly so I popped into a store and got a long-sleeve shirt that was on sale. I eventually found a cafe and sat there for a couple hours, reading, writing, and enjoying a bit of red wine. One interesting thing I discovered on this, my third, trip to France is that a glass of the house wine is generally the cheapest thing on the menu. My €3 glass of wine was cheaper than a latte and about the same price as a coke.

That night Baudouin's indoor soccer team had a match. Baudouin had severely twisted his ankle not long beforehand so he was sitting out this match. Baudouin had also not told any of his friends that I was in town--I'd met most of them the year before. When Fabien pulled up outside of Baudouin's apartment to pick us up, he was really surprised to see me! Big hugs and kisses on the cheeks were exchanged, as they were at the indoor field where I saw Sebastian and a few other guys I'd previously met. The match was good, I'm pretty sure that Baudouin's team won, though at about halftime we retired to the little cafe and each ordered a burger. While we were sitting there we saw one guy from a different field being carried off and in incredible pain. Turns out that he straight broke his leg near the ankle. Like, broke the bone straight in two, the ankle lower half going in a different direction. It looked terrible and the ambulance certainly wasn't making haste to get there. Anyway, after the match, I could really tell that Fab wanted to hang out some more and party but I was pretty tired from our long weekend as well as the drive earlier and so we instead promised to meet up the next day. I read for a while back at Baudouin's and then fell asleep.

I slept in a bit the next day and around 1 Fab came over and picked me up. My dad's only request for my trip was to find him a soccer jersey from somewhere around the world, and I was more than happy to oblige him. So Fab and I headed over to the SCO Angers store--SCO Angers is the local soccer team and they're in the French second division. I picked up a jersey and then Fab and I went and got a Kebab for a little late lunch. After that we played a bit of pool at a bar that had, bizarrely enough, some MLB games on. After a few games of pool we went back to Fab's house where he made some dinner.

After dinner we headed over to Matthias and Amelie's house, some old friends of Baudouin and Fabien. They had already heard the news that I was in town (I think Annga told them!) and were having a petite soiree, and invited a bunch of friends over. I felt much more comfortable speaking French that night than I had in a really long time, which I think is a little weird considering that I hadn't regularly spoken it in over a year. Baudouin and Annga had to leave around midnight because the had a full day of studying the next day. No matter, I stayed until around 2:30 talking music with Matthias and Sebastian and sharing some bands. I eventually left their house and right when I thought I was lost heading back to Baudouin's I realized I was in his old neighborhood, which right on the way, and I was able to find my way back to the apartment.

I slept in a little bit again the next day and Baudouin got back from school as I was getting up. I had a little coffee and then borrowed Baudouin's bike to head over to the train station to get a train ticket. Well, on the way there I took a bit of a spill as I was trying to hop from the street up onto the sidewalk. I knew it was going to happen and luckily I wasn't really hurt, my palm was just a little sore. The biggest injury was suffered by my pride.

Anyway, after getting my ticket I went back to Baudouin's and then Fabien came over around 3 to pick me up and we went and we watched This is 40, though it was dubbed in French. While it wasn't the most complicated plot line, I was pretty proud of myself that I understood most of the movie. I also discovered that I'd given Fab all of my music the previous year when I'd been there and he still had it on his computer under a folder titled "harley musique." Since my last hard drive had broken, I was really excited to get it all back. Unfortunately, my new hard drive, being formatted for a Mac, didn't work on his PC. Oh well, I told him that next time I came back I'd grab it from him.

Around 8 we went to an Irish bar called James Joyce and watched the Barcelona vs. Bayern Munich game with Baudouin, Seb and Annga. After the game, I hopped on the back of Baudouin's bike and we started riding back to his house. Well, a little over halfway there, a police car pulled up, filled with four policemen. (Question: What would the policemen have done if they'd had to detain somebody? Put him in the trunk?) The police honked at us and then sternly lectured us that we weren't being safe with me on the back of the bike. Baudouin and I apologized and then just as quickly as it'd started, the cops pealed out and left us. Not wanting to get into any more trouble, we walked back the rest of the way and Annga also dismounted and walked with us. At their house, I gave them a bottle of wine I'd picked up as a thank you for letting me stay with them. We had a couple glasses of wine and played some darts before going to sleep.

The next morning, Baudouin and Annga accompanied me to the train station where we had some pastries and coffee while waiting for my train, which ended up being about thirty minutes late. I could be wrong but I think I ended up making a good impression for Americans on Annga. Over coffee that morning she was even talking about how they might try to come to the states next year for a visit to Seattle. I feel like my own personal mission when traveling is to show the peoples of the world that not all Americans are closed-minded, gun-loving, Hooney boo-boo fans (yes they do have that in Europe now). I had a bit of a difficult time saying goodbye to Baudouin. He and I had spent a good deal of time together in Cameroon, frequently even staying over at each other's places. But we had to say goodbye, this is life. I feel very fortunate to have so many special people in my life, so many good friends, but it just makes it so much harder saying goodbye to them. But again, this is life. We said goodbye, I got on the train and waved to them out the window. Back to Paris, then to Rwanda, via a brief stopover in Addis Ababa.