iseecerulean

We had another meeting last night about our trip to Paris. Kate brought home the agenda last week. It started out with 'I'm recovering slowly but surely, am back to school…' What?!? Also on the agenda, going over our flight and hotel info, our itinerary, and the list of restaurants we're going to be dining at.

She was talking a bit at the meeting to one of the other moms about the recovery time from her major 7 1/2 hour long surgery...she didn't say what it was for and I didn't ask...but she assured us by the time we left she'd be able to handle all the flights of stairs in the Metro. Wonderful. I sure as hell hope so.

We got our hotel and flight times...no flight number or gate number...which I'd have liked to get, since I have to drive down there. We were planning on renting a couple of 15 seat passenger vans so we could drive down together to avoid the hassle of trying to meet up at the airport in Detroit, but Betty couldn't get any vans. So all I know is I have to be at the Detroit airport international gate at 6:00 p.m....our flight leaves at 9:40 p.m. I'm sure I can find it, and find Betty, but still....I hate driving in big cities and I'm nervous about getting lost...plus, we're going to have two other kids riding down with us.

We never got an itinerary or list of restaurants. The restaurants I don't care about...and I know the sites we're going to see, and it really doesn't matter to me which order we see them in, but I'd have really liked to get an itinerary. I wanted to check to make sure all the places are going to be open on the days she's scheduled us to go. I know she's most likely done that already, she's well traveled, but for my own peace of mind I'd like to be able to double-check.

A couple of other things that the kids had asked for in prior meetings was a list of things to pack and a list of French words and phrases...she didn't make a packing list, but she verbally went over it, which consisted mostly of lengthy diatribe on what not to take and why, which segued into a lecture about what not to do and say in Paris and why...and she said she'd have the list of French words to study on the plane. Did I mention our flight leaves at 9:40 p.m?....I'm not going to be able to study a damn thing in the middle of the night on a plane. I've already looked up what I want to learn on my own anyway, so I won't have to, but still...

Part of me is sure everything will be fine, but I'm all anxious about it now and probably won't settle down until we're in the air. Sigh.

We leave the 17th. We're flying AirFrance...a direct flight from Detroit to Paris.

I don't need a packing list, but she should have provided one for the kids that asked for one. I'm not sure if I'm going to buy a power converter or not. I don't use a blow dryer (my hair is so baby fine it dries in a matter of minutes), and I've got an extra battery for my camera...but if a converter is cheap I should get one to charge my camera, just in case. I'm going to have to buy a couple of those neck pillow things, because she told us the airline doesn't provide pillows and blankets anymore. (This whole safety thing has gone a bit too far if you ask me.)

I'm going to have to leave here between noon and 1:00 to get to Detroit by 6:00. No daytime sleeping for me. I'm sure I'll be tired out by the time we get to the airport. Our flight leaves at 9:40 p.m. Thursday night...we arrive at 11:30 Friday morning. I'm planning to sleep on the plane so I'm rested when we get there. I'm going to take both earplugs and my iPod on the plane.

No, this isn't with a French class...it's not technically a school sponsored trip.

Honestly, I think the trip itself is being very well handled, it's the prep for the trip that's fallen through the cracks. She gave us her email address at one point...I'm going to email her to ask for the itinerary and more flight information.

"Inusual epaulettes" HA! Now that's funny.