The Adventures of Cindy Li

Paris travel with Veerle, Geert and Dave

June 19 , 2006

Once upon a time...

I went to Paris, France with Veerle, Geert and Dave. We took trains and wandered around the streets heading toward the Eiffel tower. We stopped by a restaurant and Dave wanted to order frog legs. He stared and said, “we’re in Paris...” How could I say no? The waiter brought us our food and we looked down.

A new food

It was escargot (Dave had eaten this before so it wasn’t a big deal).  Escargot, snails for those of you not into the fancy words in French. No frog legs in sight. So we kept them. Garlic parsley covered little morsels. Dave dared me and I ate it. See the photo… ugh.. OK so the trick is DON’T LOOK AT IT. If you actually want to swallow it. I swallowed. I didn’t chew. It was like a mushroom consistency. We had 6 and the next one I tried chewing it. I really couldn’t do it. It wasn’t slimy like I thought it would be. Dave, Geert and Veerle had a good laugh. Dave ate the rest. Thank god.

And now onto the Eiffel Tower

I promised myself that I would make it to the top this time around I was here in November 1999. It’s taken me 6 years to come back and purchase my ticket to the top. Dave, Veerle and Geert said they would help me over come my fear. We went up each level getting closer to the top and my hands shaking just a little more. I looked down just a teeny bit and there was another platform under us so it wasn’t that bad. I tried looking through the viewfinder to make it not real. We got to the second level and had to loop around.

“The two French men”

As we started looping around there were two French guys pushing their way forward to skip. The English man ahead said, “No, we’re all waiting for this line” and made the man stand in front of me. I thought maybe these two guys were trying to get to their friends but no they were just trying to skip. As we kept looping around I got angrier and angrier. The country that thinks the American stereotype is rude had just given me the best distraction they could have done of overcoming my fear of heights. I noticed this and they were standing in front of us just acting like they hadn’t just skipped in line.

What it took

I kept talking to Veerle and started saying, “man I hate it when people skip and think their time is worth more than mine. Don’t you?”
Veerle said, “yes I do.” I continued this line of talk every turn around the cue louder and louder as I looked for a person working at the Eiffel tower.

Do not make me mad

They had ticked me off, when we started looping around again I made sure that I was in the front and said,"excuse me” and held the guy in his place with the back of my palm on his chest. I said you skipped all of us and you have to stay here.  I held him there and let Geert, Veerle and Dave ahead where we should have been.  I was shaking. I hate causing situations of confrontations but I was on edge.  He said something like something like...why? I said you are in the wrong! You skipped us. He just had this look of surprise. I was still hearing my heart pound very loudly in my ear. I made eye contact with my friends and smiled. I would have been angry if I had continued to let him skip us. Let’s just say… the cue was a very long 30 minutes. They said in French that Americans were wrong I laughed because they were the ones that skipped.

The guy even put his hand out to me when I gave everyone else a mint in the group. Veerle told him sorry we only give it to nice people. You are not one. :P The guy was shocked she spoke. She told him about how I was normally nice to everyone but that he had stepped over the line. He said, woh she’s really mad. Veerle, “yup.”

Pet Peeve

One of my pet peeves is when someone thinks that their time is more important that the rest of us or that just because I’m American I can’t understand what they are sayng about me (I had secret weapons of translation, Veerle and Geert ;-) ).

Now I’m not going around and say that French people are rude but those guys are. So guys play nice whatever country you are from!

I did it!

I made it to the top and I wasn’t even scared. The adrenaline was rushing still from the confrontation and i could go to the edge without being scared. Yipeeee! God works in mysterious ways. :::kissing the ground when I reached the bottom again:::  ;-)