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THE SMALRUS WEB SITE v. 7.0

France 1999-The Trip of a Lifetime

A Daily Journal of a Week in the Overseas Life of the Smalrus

19/4

It's been a rather lighter day today. We got up around 7. Did my Gorman impression (Lenny....drink the water...Leonard...) Was out for breakfast at 7h30. Baguette and croissant. Then out to Poitiers to the Futuroscope. Shortage of Francs, since the bank hasn't been open and I didn't have a place for traveler's cheques, just bills. So I need more Francs. Got to the Futuroscope, all but our group wanted to leave, no one knew what it really was. So Mrs. McKenna was unhappy because she was hoping everyone would like it. We went to the first thing. It was on 850 TV screens and they have infrared translators you wear. Then moved us into a simulator where some crazy guy missed his train stop and met this tree elf who made him go faster to his wedding. Drove a race car in the sim. Very violent shaking, but fun. From there we went to a 360deg movie. Usually they're good, but this time, the topic itself was boring and didn't lend much to the cinematography. Took the Gyrotour to the top and saw the whole park at once. Nice view of all the buildings at once. Then to an IMAX movie on King Tut. The chairs were so cushy that as much as I wanted to stay awake, I had trouble, so I kept nodding off. The movie was in English, dubbed French, and retranslated. Interesting.

From there we went to lunch at Planète Burger. Had the equivalency of an extra value meal. Then we walked a little more and went to the Ciné-Jeu, where you get paddles w/red on one side and green on the other. The cameras and computer divide you into 2 teams and calculate what number of paddles is which color on each side. Then you play 3 interactive games where you use your paddles to influence the game play. One was like a pong game w/dogs and cats, one was a one on one basketball, and another pong type game. Our tram was 1-1-1. From there we went to this weird organ/toothbrush shaped building, "Tapis Magique" to see another IMAX movie. This one was on the flight south of the monarch butterflies. There was a screen at our feet and headed up 45deg, so on some shots, it made you really feel like you were in a helicopter. Really fun. Then we went to the water bikes. Was also fun, never done them before so Julian got a pic of me. We all got off and Mr. McKenna went on them. We headed over to the gift shop so we could look before we left. I ended up getting a wave-like syrup thing for dad, possibly for the office, me a Futuroscope shirt, and Fran, a Futuroscope mug. I decided I'm waiting til Paris to get for Elise (a little something more), mom, and Nicole.

We left Futuroscope and went back to the Hotel. They let us do whatever so I had to go to La Gare to change some more cheques, $200. Then I went to the supermarché for some bottled water for tomorrow's bus ride, and some Nutella equivalent for Elise. Everyone else went in opposite order, but I needed more Francs and I had my cheques on me. So I went back to La Gare to look for everyone else, and we were fooling around by the vending machine when my camera hit the machine and set the alarm off. Who would think a vending machine would have an alarm? Finally it went off after like 5 min. So I showed Jon stuff in the magazine shop. Many topless women on magazine covers, and I'm not just talking about porn here. We eventually caught up to the rest of the gang. Jon got red in the face when he said that Andrew twisted his nipple. Crazy guy. We went to eat supper. On the way, stopped in an import buy/sell CD shop. I asked the guy who looked prolly 20-21 what were good French bands, came back w/2 rap singles, one from Le Scenario ("Narcisso Show") and one from KDD ("L'Organisation"). I guess rap is still big in France.

Left there, Julian left us w/out a map, so Jon, Wallis, Carrie, Andrew, and me ate at a pub. Carrie, Jon, and I tried a glass of the local champagne. There really is a drinking age here, 16. They don't usually I.D. but we all made it anyway. It was interesting considering I've never had anything to compare it to.

Come back to the hotel and get ready to go to Pym's, the local discothèque except that when we walk all the way down, we find that the dark alley it's located in is closed. So we walk down and grab a cup of chocolate at a café. Kristina DeRosa, Carrie, Andrew, Julian, and me. After a while, we head back to the hotel for the night to find that Sarah's pissed that Jon, Carrie, and I had the champagne. Frankly, I'm not sure why. For all the drug and alcohol courses and anything from biology, she should know that one drink is not making us drunk, is not making us alcoholics and is not screwing us. I think that one drink is not destroying our lives, etc. Of course, we thank Wallis for squealing to her even though we told him to keep his mouth shut.

We were chillin in our hotel room. Julian got Big Willie Styles and we were getting jiggy wit it, helping him w/his Jenn Ruocco situation. More "Lenny" jokes and bed. I slipped in the shower. Oops.