Ben is in Europe!  After a long plane ride, and having no idea where I was going in Paris, I arrived in Toulouse France.  I picked up my baggage and met Brandon and Romain at the airport. We then did a quick tour of Toulouse and met Felipe at the train station.  Our group was complete!!!   It was nice to see both of them and on foreign soil no less.  

 

We then headed to the house Brandon has been living at for the past 6 months.  His French family is amazing. I had met the mother, Jac, and one of the sons, Romain when they came to the states for a visit, but never met Michel or Giluamme <sp?> until now.  They welcomed us right in.  I had mentioned to Jac that I liked cheese and was eager to try many of the French cheeses and had a whole tray full for me to try.  They were awesome, well most of them anyways there were a few that were a little too stinky for me. That night was the French National Rugby championship.  The three of us went with Romain to one of his friends to watch the game and meet some other frenchies.  Not knowing the language made it a little difficult to really talk to any of them, but I was able to get by with hand signals and Brandon and Felipe interpreting.  I learned that the French are unable to say the word "squirrel" in English.  For some reason it comes out more like "skwooorl"; they can't quite get the "q" sound out.  I also learned that they all take the same English courses with the same video.  Brandon showed me that you can ask any of them "Where is Brian?" in English and they all respond "Brian is in the kitchen."  

 

The next day the Loriots had a French BBQ planned complete with sausage, steak, cuscus, cheese and wine.  The food was good, especially the sausage. My only problem was that I didn't know they were serving it in four or five courses, so each one I thought was the last and filled myself up.  From there we headed to the train station to see when we could leave. It turned out our best option was to leave that night at midnight and sleep all the way to Lyon.  We had planned to leave the next day so we had to rush back, pack, and say our goodbyes.  Brandon has been here now for 6 months and I think it was a little sad to have to leave.  Jac and Romain drove us to the station and bid us bon voyage! Now I had been warned before that the bums will just use the restroom anywhere, but it all was confirmed as we unpacked the car at the train station.  As I was putting on my pack, I looked over and saw a big white butt!  Some lady had just popped-a-squat right there behind a car facing the main street. It took me a minute to register what was going on but she was definitely peeing right there on the street where everyone could see. After that delightful view, we said our final goodbyes and jumped on the train.  Sleeping was another matter.  The seats were able to recline but impossible to sleep in.  I think I got about 2 hours of sleep over all.  Next thing we knew we were in Lyon France.

 

The stop in Lyon was for a quick walk around and for Felipe to sign the lease on the apartment he will be living at while he studies French after our trip.  Lyon was nice with a huge church sitting atop the mountain.  Unfortunately we only had enough time to sign the paperwork and see the church.  We quickly realized that walking is highly overrated.  A sad fact to come to terms with on the first day.

 

From Lyon we jumped on another train to Geneva and were quickly there.  Geneva was the destination for our first hostel stay.  On our train ride there we had to endure some English speaking kids who sat there and bashed on the USA though they obviously didn't know anything about it.  Had we not been so tired, we would have argued with them.  Sometimes I like not knowing what people are saying. From the train station we were able to find the hostel, drop our bag and head out on streets.  Our first stop was the giant fountain they have on the river.  It wasn't so much of a fountain as just a giant jet of water shooting straight up amazingly high.  We then found a small Brazilian store so Felipe could get a taste of home and Brandon and I could watch the USA vs. Czech world cup game.  USA lost, but it was fun to watch.  We walked around a little more, talked to our Swiss roommates at the hostel who were there taking exams (yeah they have to travel to take their exams), and called it a night. Next up... Zurich and Liechtenstein.