turns out we're not telepathic

we've gotten to know a bit about how we travel and potential problems that may arise from our oddities and quirks. usually with enough planning and forethought we can avoid these problems. this was not the case as we left to catch our train to bordeaux...

usually we try to have our bags packed the evening before our travel day so that the morning can be dedicated to showering and eating a good breakfast. this time however we were out late trying to find a way home from our date with ron and al after the metro closed...without a map, of course. so this meant an early morning and a scramble to get packed. to add to the scramble the plumber guys, that were working on demolishing our host's bathroom, showed up an hour earlier than usual.

we left the apartment with 50 minutes to catch our train. according to anyone else you would ask...plenty of time. we'd booked our tickets online so all we had to do was show up, print our tickets, and find the correct platform.

when we arrived at the train station panic started to churn in my stomach...the station was massive! and confusing! and all in french! we stood in line at the yellow ticket machine for a few minutes but when that was taking too long we looked for alternatives. i mean, who knows if we were even standing at the right machine! an official looking train guy walked by so we asked where to get our tickets. he pointed to an elevator and told us to go to the second floor and we would see the ticket office to the left.

at this point we had about 20 minutes to catch our train...

there were 2 couples with strollers waiting to catch the elevator up. we tried to cram in with the second couple but we didn't all fit.

corina in a fog obviously not thinking clearly when she says:

"jay catch the elevator after me and meet me at the ticket office. i'll run ahead and get in line."

so i hit the second floor running...couldn't see the office right away so i asked for help (which by the way is weird for me). finally in line i started to think that maybe jay wouldn't be able to find the office. merde! it was my turn to the ticket window and the agent was ready to print our tickets when she asked to see the credit card that was used to reserve online. merde! jason used his card! i couldn't get the tickets without the number...a security measure she said. i started sending urgent telepathic messages to jay to stay at the elevator. i ran back and jay was no where to be found. circling the area around the elevator, escalators and the train schedule tv's i had the sinking feeling that we wouldn't find each other in time.

as i rounded the escalators for the 3rd time i saw jay down on the main floor pacing in front of the elevator, grocery bag thrashing around and feet stomping. i yelled out to him and jerked my thumb up indicating he should get his butt upstairs asap! we found a machine that was free and printed off our tickets but it was all in vain...we missed our train.

jason's rebuttal:
Now, according to the rules: when person A, is seperated from person B the person who is left behind ALWAYS stays put no matter how many telepathic messages they receive telling person B to move there but! If you don't believe me it is in the "How to travel together safely" manual under the rules: section 5 paragraph 13.

For a change, I was not the one running around. For some reason I was calm...well, calmer than Corina. I only started to panic when Corina was not coming back for me. I will admit though, I overtook her on the panic scale. as I paced and swung my shopping bag I kept thinking "I'm doing something wrong" even though I was following the rules...sigh.

jason doomed to wander in the fog forever

In case you are wondering, we did make it to Bordeaux.

miroir d'eau in bordeaux

we drank wine, ate cheese and had 3 wonderful dinners with our cs hosts berenise, ben & their fluffy cat, sardine. they suggested we go to saint-èmilion for a wine tour so we did :)

saint-émilion cobbled streets

bordeaux wine country (view from saint-émilion)

santè,
corina & jason

btw, there was no meltdown resulting from this episode and we are already laughing about it. wonder what that means...