July 10--Frustration

I feel like so much has been going on, and most of has been frustrating. For example, yesterday morning we checked out of the hotel we had been staying in for a week. Well, we tried to check out. This is what happened. Jennifer had originally booked the hotel room until next Tuesday. Then we found out the movers could come a little earlier, so we decided to check out yesterday and move into our house. We told the people at the front desk of the hotel that we were checking out early. Each time we said that, they told us to change our reservation via their web site--that was the only way to change our reservation. Unfortunately, once on their web site, we couldn't change anything. The web site demanded a reservation number, and the people at the front desk provided that number, but the site didn't recognize it. After I had tried to change the reservation from the laptop in our room several times to no avail, I marched to the front office. I told the woman the situation and asked her to try to change our reservation from her computer. I stood there and watched. She wasn't able to change our reservation, either. So, the woman said, we couldn't check out early. Well, we could leave the hotel, but we would continue to be charged for the room until Tuesday. So Sanofi-Pasteur will be paying for four days of a hotel that we aren't staying in, all because the hotel's web site doesn't work. Has anyone ever heard of only being able to change a reservation via a web site, and not in person or over the phone?

So we moved into our new house yesterday. It's a pretty house, but small, so it's a challenge figuring out how to unpack our belongings. And there are a few frustrating things. The washer that we bought leaks water onto the floor of the garage. The temperature of the water in two out of our three bathrooms isn't set right, so it's either scalding hot or freezing cold. At least we have one functioning shower. That shower will get lots of use, since it's in the 90's and humid and nothing is air conditioned, so we're all sweaty all of the time.

Today we went into the city to meet a colleague of Jennifer's and to do some shopping in a huge mall that's right by the main train station. When we were walking through the parking garage towards the mall, Zoey was walking sort of in the middle of the pavement. At one point, a car came driving through, and according to Jennifer, it nearly ran Zoey over. Jennifer screamed a high-pitched scream that was so loud and so long that all the nearby pedestrians froze and the man driving the car screeched on his brakes. He must have thought that he had run someone over, but he didn't--Zoey was fine. I mumbled an embarrassed "Pardon" to the man, lowered my head, and tried to slink away.

After we had done some shopping in the mall, Jennifer and her colleague decided that we should walk for 20 minutes in the 90 degree heat to buy frozen food at a frozen food store. The girls complained bitterly during the entire walk. Actually, once we finally arrived at the store, it felt good in there. They had some serious air conditioning going. While Jennifer was walking through the aisles, Zoey decided to step outside for a minute. She pushed open a door, and all of the sudden a loud, piercing alarm reverberated through the store. She had pushed open the emergency door, but she didn't know that's what it was, since she can't read French. I had to make another mumbled apology, this time to the store employee who came running through the store upon hearing the alarm. Nothing like being inconspicuous in France and blending in seamlessly with the natives.