On our final day in Belgium, we packed up and moved our suitcases downstairs in preparation to leave. It was raining, so instead of walking down to the buses as was our original plan, we had to wait for the buses to come to us and park illegally in the small road so that we didn’t have to carry so much in the rain. As we hurried on to the buses, I dropped my neck pillow in the gutter. I picked it up and resolved to wash it at the earliest opportunity.
It was a long trip from Belgium to France, during which we stopped several times. Our first stop was at two graveyards. Buses 1 and 2 went to one and buses 3 and 4 went to the other. A former student of our school was buried at each graveyard. One of the girls from Bus 3 was a distant relative of one of the former students buried at the graveyard that we visited. We had a small ceremony where the student gave a speech and we sang the school song and the national anthem. It wasn’t all too fancy, but it was certainly a very moving experience. If I hadn’t had to conserve my tissues due to the fact that I had a cold at this point, I would have shed a few tears.
Our next stop was a graveyard seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Apparently, a distant relative of Angus’ was buried at this graveyard, so we stopped for a short while to give Angus and his dad time to look at the graveyard register to find the grave and pay their respects.
Stop number 3 was at a fairly large town. If I remember correctly what Stevie J said, this town was called Lille. We had an hour or so to have a breather, eat, find a toilet and do a little bit of shopping. The toilet was a pay toilet and required 40 cents. The smallest change I had was a 1 Euro coin, so I shoved that in the change machine. I counted the number of 10 cent coins that came out to ensure that I didn’t get ripped off.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...
7, 8...
9...
10...
11!!
After we all made a trip to the toilet (our tour group made for a long toilet queue!) we had a look around the shops. We went into a game shop and saw Pokémon Black and White in French (Pokémon Noire et Blanche). We also had a look at some jewellery stalls, but none of us were really in the mood for shopping that day so we went back to the entrance where Stevie J was. Stevie J said, “You can tell that French people really like clothes, judging by the fact that 90% of the shopping centre is clothes shops!” (That’s probably the same for all countries though.) We ended up playing Cheat around the shop directory on the bottom floor until the security guard asked us to move off to the side. He asked us in French, so it was pretty good that we had Camille with us to translate.
Soon, we were back in the buses for the long trip through several toll booths to Senlis, where our hotel was. As we were waiting to receive our room keys, a few people who had already received their keys were making a big fuss about how there were double beds in the boys’ double rooms. Oddly enough, nobody was making a fuss about the double beds in the girls’ double rooms.
The hotel was more or less divided into two halves, with reception and half of the rooms in one building and the other half of the rooms in the other. I was in the same room (in the second building) as Jess C and Boyuan, and although we only had three in our room, we had a double bed and a bunk bed. It was fairly cramped in our room, but there was still just enough space to manoeuvre our suitcases, my clarinet and Boyuan’s violin.
Once we were settled, it was dinner time. After dinner, we went for a walk down to the fair. When we got there, it seemed as if the fair was closed, so we walked on past the cathedral in Senlis. It seemed huge to us, but then Mr Coy told us that the one we would visit in Amiens in two days would be three times larger.
As we walked back, we discovered that the fair was, in fact, open. A couple of people bought some lollies and things from the counter. Someone had a go at the skilltester (you know, those machines where you have to pick up a toy with the claw that can’t pick stuff up to save its life). Amy had a lot of goes on the Pokémon skilltester but to no avail, though apparently she has actually won stuff from skilltesters in the past. Eventually the climax of the night came: some people wanted to try the “ejection” ride, so the people working at the fair started it up for them. Two people could go at a time. When Jordyn and Courteney went up, one of them screamed. To this day, I have no idea who it was. Apparently it was Jordyn. If it was, that was one high-pitched scream, though I probably shouldn’t be too surprised: apparently Jordyn’s voice went up two octaves after the wedgie he got from the Big Swing on Health Camp.
Eventually the teachers decided that it was getting late and we had to head back to the hotel. On the way back, some people crossed the road at a junction because no cars indicated to turn into that junction. A truck then drove past, honking loudly, and the people on the road screamed and quickly ran off the road. The truck didn’t turn. I expected that the drivers of that truck laughed their heads off to wherever they were going.
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