The Arrival

Bonjour de Bois-Guillaume!!! (bwa- gwoo-yon)
I feels good to be writing again. I already miss you guys so so much. I will start off from the moment I got on the plane in Philly.
If I didn’t talk to you before I got on the plane, lemme tell you that I was feeling anxiety. I stepped onto this massive plane and headed back to Row 26B. The plane was full of high school girls taking their spring break in Paris. Very nice. But I was not to be seated next to one of these girls, my seat was next to the girl from The Christmas Story. The girl who says, “I like the Wizard of Oz….” could have easily been her twin sister. But soon into the flight, I started talking with this girl and she couldn’t have been any nicer. She is a citizen of a southern French town and she was telling me all about France. What to expect, weather, customs, common courtesy, etc. She was just the nicest girl. We watched Rush Hour 3 on the plane and I got a good start on 1984 (Ian, she studies English Literature, and that book you gave me is a first edition and she informed me that it was worth at least 2,000 dollars.) Well it’s mine now. I finally managed to fall asleep for a couple of hours and before I knew it we were flying over French soil. I had told this girl that I was supposed to meet Jean-Luc (my coach) at the airport and he was going to drive me north to Rouen (Rwo-uh). She was saying that I might have to wait in customs for a bit but since she is a citizen she was going to inform him that I had arrived to to still wait for me if she could spot him out holding a sign for me. Let me just tell you that I might as well been a French citizen because when I went through customs, the officer barely looked at my passport, no stamp, and told me to go ahead. So I went ahead to the luggage claim and was frantically looking for my bags. Thank god all of my bags were quickly spotted and I nabbed all of them. So I am toting all of this luggage through the terminal and was about to head out to the arrival area. Now to find Jean-Luc Paturel.
Sure enough, there was a little bald French man holding up a sign that read, “Mr. Lewis.” Haha, I was just as shocked as he was when I went up to him. I guess we had different images of each other in our heads.
In a heavy French accent, “You look like an 18 year old!”
“Well Jean-Luc, not many 18 year olds can send a baseball 450ft over the fence.”
“Hahaha, that’s what I like to hear! Let’s go!”
So we piled all of my luggage into his small 4 banger car and headed north to Rouen. The landscape in France is beautiful. Lush green plains stretch across the countryside. I learned that driving in Europe is kind of a cluster fuck last summer and nothing has really changed.
I was thinking, “Jesus Christ, Jean-Luc! This isn’t the fucking Enterprise! (Star-Trek) Slow the fuck down!” He was weaving in and out of traffic through the rain like nothing was a problem. So after about an hour of driving and talking we were coming up on Rouen. Rouen is known as the city with a hundred cathedrals that sits in a valley. Sure enough, we came out of a tunnel to see a beautiful sight. The entire city was sitting below us. Cathedrals, the Seine River (Suh), and winding city streets are laid below us. The main Cathedral, where Joan of Arc was burned, towers above everything. When we got closer into the city we eventually drove by it. Absolutely beautiful. It is so immense with intricate design, it made me think, “Wow, this is going to be my home for 7 months…” Absolutely breath taking. After maneuvering through some narrow streets, Jean Luc informed me that we would have lunch at his home with his family. I was absolutely famished.
The architecture in Rouen reminds me exactly of Firenze, (ha, see what I did there). Benedict, his wife, was the first one to greet me with two little pecks on each cheek.
“Tony, you have to know that you greet every women in France with two kisses.” I quickly took my outstretched handshake back and gave her two little kisses. They all laughed, as I was blushing. The next family member I met was Arther, (Our-tour) his 16 year old son who was our 1st baseman. “Ello Tonee. So nice to meet oo” Then I met his daughter ,Sarah, (Sa-Ra). She is 18 and very pretty. She is our statistician. After we said our hello’s, we all sat down at their dining table for lunch. The first dish was a mixture of corn and fresh tomatoes, followed by small round steaks and then a healthy proportion of fresh pasta. Not your double-cheeseburger shit, I couldn’t be happier. My first authentic French meal. After we sat and talked for a while, well….it was them doing all the talking and me just sitting their acting like I knew what the hell was going on.
Benedict, “Tonee, you have to learn French you know...!”
Yeah. I’m workin’ on it.
Jean-Luc then drove me to our field. I wasn’t expecting too much but I was pleasantly surprised by it though. I was expecting Central High School but got equivalent to Meador Park. Not great, but not bad by any means. No stands haha, but green grass and a short right porch. After we walked around the Bois-Guillaume complex we headed to my house. I have to tell you that Bois-Guillaume is a suburb that sits on the opposite hill of Rouen. It is a really nice suburb that overlooks the city. My house is very, very nice. An cute little old French lady greeted us at the door and we walked in with my bags. Her and her husband live in the downstairs of the house and I would share the two bedroom loft with another female roommate who I have yet met. My roommates’ and my schedule are completely opposite. She works as a waitress at night and sleeps during the day. I work with the baseball team during the day and night and come back pretty late so we rarely are going to run into each other. So, no Bibette for now.
After I got settled in, Jean-Luc drove me to our first team practice inside of the gym of the complex. The complex is a two block walk for me. Very close. There is a post office, supermarket, and little shops that line the street as I am going to walk to the field everyday. I will tell you about my practice, the team, the softball/younger team that I coach, and the following day’s events in another post. I love you all and for now, I have no problems where I am at all. Love you guys, bye.