Brest

April 17th
Brest, France

Today is the beginning of what I’m sure is going to be an interesting end to my contract. I’m scheduled to return home tomorrow, but thanks to a certain volcano that doesn’t want to stop erupting in my general direction, it doesn’t look like I’m going to fly home any time soon. That in mind, and me not knowing what the ship was going to do about it, I decided to skip my tour that day and go into the city of Brest and find an internet connection to ascertain what my next few days would consist of. I was afraid the ship was going to drive me to the airport and say good luck…the airport every news channel says to stay away from because everything’s cancelled. And when the people on the ship gave me no assurance of being looked after once I signed off, I didn’t have a choice but to find out my options.
So I took my shuttle into the city and walked along the main street till I got to the first café with wireless. One problem though, I don’t speak French to ask about the wireless, ask if it’s free, or what stipulations there are. Actually, I can’t even pronounce the word right: I walked up to the lady behind the counter to ask about Wi-Fi. So, I said Wi-Fi in a question tone. She looked confused. I said it again, same response. I pointed at the sticker on the door and again said Wi-Fi, blank stare. I then went to the window and tapped on the sticker. Well, it’s not pronounced Wi-Fi in France, it somehow became “wee-fee”. Now that she understood what I wanted, she went off in French about it, meaning it was my turn to return those same blank stares. Usually, if I’m trying to talk to someone who doesn’t speak English, I use single words and a lot of hand gestures…she tried to handle my French deficiencies by speaking in really long sentences really quickly. I ended up with a little brochure about how to sign on, which I didn’t need, all I wanted to know was whether it was free. Well, it was, so I sat down, ordered the most amazing croissant and most expensive fruit smoothie ever, and proceeded to figure out my future. I figured a good step one would be to call the emergency travel number the ship gave me, so I did, and found out that they were planning on putting me in a hotel till I could leave. Mission accomplished! Why the ship didn’t know this is beyond me, but I spent a little more time online before packing up and returning to the ship with the confidence that I wouldn’t be thrown off the ship the following day with a cancelled plane ticket and a “good luck”.
I walked back to the shuttle drop off, passing some music stores that I briefly visited, again with my French being the downfall in my plan. And before getting on my shuttle, I came across what seemed to be some sort of fair for kids, but a super active fair. One in which kids were learning how to ride unicycles, fencing, row machines, balance on yoga balls, play basketball, jump on trampolines, and more. It was amazing to see so many people out being that active, and just creepy to see 10 kids trying to ride unicycles. I don’t know if the French culture just trains everyone to be in the circus just for the fun of it or if I just stumbled on a collection of kids who’ve all inspired a strange affinity in their community for trampoline back flips, but regardless, it was neat to see.
And that’s it, I played my final two shows the night, packed my stuff up, and I was done with my contract. Now I get to sit back and see how long I end up being stranded in England, woohoo! Seeya