The next day, Jeremie and I went back to Paris and had breakfast at a café. We then went to the special exhibit featuring Andy Warhol. I really enjoyed the exhibit. I was really amused by an American family that was there as well. They were from the south and the mother spoke French. The 12 year old daughter complained the whole time about how she didn't want to be in a museum and how dumb it all was and the mother just responded, "well, it's a good thing your admission was free then, wasn't it?" It just reminded me of old times...a few pix
We walked around and in and out of shops. We mostly just caught up. It's difficult to keep in touch with a 7 hour time difference (although, it's made a lot easier by the Internet) and with different schedules and work and homework, and so on and so forth. That night Jeremie made pasta for dinner and then we went out to a salsa club (there's not a lot to do on a Monday night) and got a few drinks and danced. Then we walked to the Notre Dame. There was a full moon and it was absolutely gorgeous. I was so disappointed not to have my camera, but I love that this image is in my memory.
We had to leave early in the morning for my flight back to the United States. The metro was packed because it was rush hour and so it was difficult to find a place to sit.
Once we arrived at the airport I had to wait in the long line. Although a lot of people in line were really frustrated with the way United Airlines was handling the checking-in process, I was happy with it. They were only letting one flight at a time check in and so the people who were going to Washington, D.C. had to wait a few minutes longer. They called us one-by-one to the machines and helped us check in. This was much better because those machines aren't user friendly and it took me a long time to get checked-in in Chicago when I used them. After you check-in you go to a different line where they ask you things like "Who packed your bag?" and "Do you have explosives?". Then you gave them your bags. When they separate the bags by flight like that, there's less chance of losing your luggage.
Then Jeremie and I had coffee and said goodbye. As I approached the stairs for security I was stopped so officials could go up first and then a lot of cameras, video cameras, and reporters came in and were followed by these officials. As I later learned, these were ambassadors from Yemin. This was the day of the Yeminese air crash.
Then when I got in the very long line for security, I asked if there was a different line for different nationals. They told me no. Then after waiting in line for 20 minutes, I found out that there was another line for Americans and I flew through that line and walked a long ways to the security line. I was standing next to a woman who owned a cooking store in Paris and was making her 8th trip of the year to and from Paris. She was giving me advice about what to claim when I go through customs. She was helpful. Then there was a lady who I hoped and prayed I wouldn’t be seated next to her. It took forever to get through the security line and this lady was moaning and groaning and being crabby toward everyone. It took so long to get through the security line because only one person was checking people and one person was looking at the scanner. This meant that anyone who set the metal detecter off caused the line to stop so the one security guy could check him or her and then resume the line. Needless to say, it took forever and luckily I didn’t sit next to the annoying lady. I did sit next to a really nice lady who had spent a lot of time in France and her daughter had studied abroad various times, so we had a lot to talk about. Her father was also a former Chicago Bear.
I had a two hour layover in Washington, D.C. and then made it to Chicago where Dad picked me up.
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