Living through a Scene in Love Actually

*this is actually verbatim what I wrote in my notebook … might get a little loopy based on our fatigue at the time – and what we thought was funny then most certainly won’t be as funny now *

We’ve spent the first 3 hours of our 9-hour overnight wait at Paris Orly Airport at a random arrivals gate. Every 30 minutes or so there is a new group of people who show up to wait for the arrival of their friends or loved ones. After watching them or their mannerisms for a while, it’s fun to finally see who they’ve been waiting for. My favorite was a twenty-something guy with roses. He anxiously waited while the whole plan seemed to have emptied out and kept switching sides of the line to get a better view of the corridor … but nothing after about 30 minutes. It was so sad … then he went to another gate but eventually came back … and finally the girl arrived! After all of that stress (for me!) the actual encounter and embrace were a bit of a disappointment, to be honest. But if you have to spend several boring hours in an airport, go ahead and plop yourself down at the arrivals gate. The people watching is awesome.

11:25pm – My dad just called to remind us to get rum or whiskey on our 6am flight to ensure that we sleep. Thanks, Michael J

11:28pm – Tina just called me a “little button.” She does not normally use such cutesy vocabulary. I’m going to try to convince her to go to sleep.

11:31pm – Tina just created her own crossword puzzle and is rather proud.

(okay, the minute-by-minute replay idea died quickly, thankfully!)

We inhabited a quiet little corner in the airport all night and ended up talking to the two guys sitting nearby. One turned out to be a Greek who is living in Rennes but on his way home for a wedding, and the other a Brazilian studying abroad in Normandy. They were both so friendly and we all talked for a while. Yeah, and I think we may have gotten invited to a huge wedding in Crete on Saturday night … too bad we’ll be back in Paris! Can you imagine the amazing travel story that could have resulted in? And the Brazilian gave me the number of an American kid to call up in Barcelona when I’m there next week. It’s so fun to meet other random, friendly travelers! I think we ended up getting an hour or two or sleep before getting on the flight to Athens.