Quite an Adventure - Back in France

Step one has been completed of our move to Croatia, but not without its fair share of adventure.  

• Yesterday we woke up and finished packing, which consisted of weighing, packing, weighing, packing,etc...  Our goal was to only check 4 bags (all weighing 50 lbs), 3 carry-ons and 3 personal items. 
• For lunch we ate our last Chipotle for a long time (thanks again Jon and Ang)
• Drove to the airport, arrived at US Airways desk, and began weighing bags:
• "This bag is 7 lbs over", she tells us, and we are ordered to take some items out.  Dave takes out 2 peanut butter containers weighing 5 lbs total (no worries though, all those who want to send us some more - we found 2 big ones at our apartment when we arrived!!)
• Every other bag she lets go through weighing in at 52 lbs!  Woo Hoo!  Thank you for a super nice ticketing agent! 
• We arrived at our gate, after having one of my very thoroughly packed carry-ons sifted through.  Boo.  
• We boarded our first plane only to soon find out that Dave's carry-on was too big to fit on our first small flight to Philly.  Boo, oh wait, Yea, we just got a free checked bag and won't have to lug that thing around the Philly airport (which we found out would be quite a task)!
• Then we walked about 5 miles in the Philly airport to find our international gate, and we finally found it - 3 gates from the furthest gate possible.   
• We were called to board 5 minutes after arriving there due to a very long waiting experience on the runway in Pittsburgh.  Something to do with someone's ridiculously large bag not fitting under their seat and having to move it overhead and it knocked us out of line to leave (thinking to self: SOOO glad that wasn't us).
• We finally make it on our long flight and see that we have 1 whole row to ourselves.  Weee!!!  That was exciting because we all had to try and sleep because when we landed in Paris, it would be 1:40 a.m. our time.
• JJ fell asleep for most of the flight, while Dave and I desperately tried to.  Dave couldn't, and I slept for a very short period of time.  I looked down at what seemed like our huge row and realized JJ was taking up 3/4 of it.  Even though I really wanted more room to sleep, I was so glad to see my little guy was sleeping.
• We arrived in Paris, a bit late, and were both sweating as we made our way to Customs.  This was because we realized our Student Visas had expired in December while we were in the states working on our Croatian Visas.  We didn't know what to expect, just hoped they would let us go through.  
• So, we arrive at the window, and I put forward my best and "have grace with me" smile!  He asks me in French where we studied.  I tell him Montpellier 3.  And then says in French, "not where, what?"  I say, "Oh, Français!"  To this, he chuckles and smiles and says in French something like, "Hmm...maybe a bit more work, then?"  Then he asks us how long we're staying.  I say no more than two weeks, because we're moving.  He says, "Oh, in that case, you can go.  You just can't stay longer than 3 months" and stamps our passports!  Weeeee!  We made it through!
• Then we wait for a long time for our luggage.  Apparently one of them was inspected, which is why it took so long.  We finally get them and realize we have 15 minutes to head over to the train terminal and make our 9:27 a.m. train to Montpellier.
• We don't see our friends, who said they could meet us at the airport to help with luggage and getting to the train terminal.  We realize it is about 45 minutes after the time they could meet us, so we think they may have left and we try to head over to the train terminal ourselves.
• Carrying our luggage was by far one of biggest challenges we had - somehow with no sleep, we made it work.
• We arrived at the train station and began running to the platform where our train was expected to arrive.  We realize we have 5 minutes to do this.  
• We approached the elevator and was so relieved to see that it was working (both times I've been there before, it was not), and we throw everything in to get down to our platform.  
• The train pulls up and we are desperately trying to find our car.  I run to everyone asking where our car is.  One guy tells us that it's very far, so we all start running to the end of the train.  How we were all running carrying two 50 lb bags and more, I have no idea, but we were.  Oh yeah, it's called adrenaline.  
• We finally made it to a bunch of ticket-collectors, and they tell us that the train is leaving and to just get on even though it's not the right car.  So we do.  
• Our friends helped us load our luggage on and, after seeing their faces for all of 5 minutes, we say goodbye through the doors of the train.
• The next thing we found out is that our ticket collectors love our "Frenglish".  They found it very funny, and finally they let us stay in that train car, for which we are truly grateful.  
• After we are seated I stumbled upstairs to get us food.  I buy: one tiny apple sauce, one yogurt, 1 small juice, 1 bottle of water, and 1 small bowl of fresh fruit, and that comes to 14 euros.  Do I care?  No, we're hungry and tired.
• We then began our 4 hour train ride to Montpellier.   
• We arrived, somehow managed to get all of our luggage off the train and saw two friendly faces as our friend and daughter came around the corner.  

• We are now sitting in our apartment surrounded by bags we brought and bags that were packed for us (from the tenants who lived here for 4 months).  They have offered to temporarily move out while we situate our things and re-pack everything in preparation for our move to Croatia.
• But yesterday, after operating on very little sleep, all we could do was find food and coffee, you know the necessities. 
• Skip ahead to 1:45 a.m. - JJ is awake and comes down about 3 or 4 times to see if he can get up yet. 
• We all finally go back to sleep and the next thing we know it is 11:20 a.m.!!!!  I remember this happened when we first moved to France.  We were bummed b/c we had wanted to got to church and we had made lunch plans with our French friends.
• So, now we had minutes to wake up, find clothes, and head over to our friend's house for lunch by noon!  Meanwhile we forget we don't have our car, that our friends borrowed it, so we try to call around to see where it is and also told our friend we would be late.  
• Finally, we decided that Dave and JJ would bike to our friend's house and represent us.  I was feeling a bit too shaky to ride, especially up the big hill, that I once got used to.  
• So, off they go, and I text in French to our friends to say they're arriving and apologize for being late.
• Moments later, Dave returns with a crying JJ.  Dave describes to me that JJ's foot got caught in the wheel of the bike.  After almost 10 months of riding like Europeans with JJ on the back of our bikes, it finally happened.  Apparently 3 people rushed to his side and helped him get JJ unstuck.  And then he walked the bike back with JJ on his shoulders.  Dave felt horrible, but JJ is fine, just has a bad scrape.  We have now vowed to never take him on the bikes like that again.

So, there you have it.  Our first full day, already filled with adventure.  

Next on the agenda:

• Find our way through this mess called our bags sprawled out over the whole apartment
• Find a way to ship or move (in a van) our belongings to Croatia