Day twenty-nine -Roclincourt

Bonjour tout le monde !
This morning, I woke up before my alarm clock around 8:15 because of all the noise the cars made outside the window. I caught Cedric just before he left to say goodbye, then I got ready and had breakfast with Annick. Annick braided my hair afterwards, and then Francoise came at 9.15ish. We hung out for a bit, and then went to the docks to catch the ferry to England. It took awhile to get through customs and everything, and Annick didn't see the lady at the UK window, so after French customs she sped off, and the lady yelled after her. Lol. Francoise and Annick made it through just fine, and I did too, but not before the lady asked me a hundred questions about where i was going, what my relationship was to these french people, if i had a job in the states, etc. It seemed a bit excessive, but whatever, thankfully I made it across the boarder. We drove onto the boat and then got out of the car and went up to the top so we could sit outside. It was nice out, and the sun warmed us up as we sailed away from Calais and onward to Dover. In Dover, we drove off the boat and Annick followed the cars in front of us to get a feel for driving on the opposite side of the road. She didn't understand the English all over the road signs, so that's where I came in! haha. We found the downtown area and parked a little ways away. Then walked around downtown Dover. We visited a church and wandered around a lot. We found a spot to eat lunch called C'est La Vie and we all ordered a sandwich and I got Dr. Pepper to drink! Wooo :) They don't have it in France, so I took advantage of the opportunity when I saw the bottle in the cooler. England is expensive we found out quickly, since the pound is stronger than the euro, and about twice as strong as the dollar. We went shopping after we ate, but didn't buy anything due to the poor exchange rate. Our parking meter ran out at 1.45, so we moved the car and drove up to the castle. It took us awhile to find the parking lot, since we missed it the first time and had to turn around to find it again, but we found it eventually. It cost 16 pounds per person, or about 32 dollars, to visit the castle, but my Frechies understood it to mean that it only cost money if we went INTO the castle, so we skipped the ticket booth and just walked in. Everyone had stickers except for us, but it started raining so once everyone had jackets on you couldn't tell anyway. Haha. When it got really bad, we went back to the car and waited out the storm. It didn't last too long thankfully, and we went back into the castle. The view of the city below was beautiful. We went to the restaurant to get a cup of tea/hot chocolate and then walked around until about 5, when we left for the return to France. This time, the road was more difficult to find, but once we did, it didn't take long to get through customs. The Frech patrol saw the French license plate and didn't even notice my American passport when Francoise opened the window. He just waved us on, which was nice. We had some time when we got to our spot in line, so Annick and I got out and took pictures and went into the little mall and I got magazines and Annick got a coffee for Francoise. Then we drove onto the ferry and headed back. This boat wasn't as nice as the one we'd taken on the way over; you could tell it was much older. We used some of the remaining Pounds we had to gamble on the ship, but after losing 5 or 6 pounds, we quit and just exchanged the money back for euros. Lol. We wandered around the ship awhile, looking at the perfume shop and stuff, then found a place to sit for the remaineder of the voyage. It wasn't as nice out this time, so we stayed inside for the most part. When we got back to Calais, we were one of the first cars out of the boat! We stopped by Elodie's place, got our overnight bags, said goodbye to Elodie, and then Annick dropped Francoise and I off at the town hall parkinglot, where Francoise's car was parked and we drove home, discussing my family and then French politics a little bit on the way. Pierre was there waiting for us with one of the neighbors who had been watching him. After a brief conversation she left, and we had omlettes for supper. Francoise bought me chocolate-pistachio ice cream cones, so I took one of those for dessert. :) Now I'm up in my room, looking at all my stuff sprawled out on the floor and wondering how it's all going to fit in my suitcase. I'll have to pack tomorrow and hopefully it will all fit okay!! Wish me luck!

a demain
miranda