Off To A Good Start

After The Boy got on the plane, I came home to stay awake. I couldn't sleep, knowing he's travelling by himself, across an ocean to a place he's never been, to meet people he's never met, never talked to except in e-mails (The Man and I talked to Exchange Father by phone once), not even sure what they look like except for one photograph exchanged (The Man did a little video of us and uploaded it to YouTube for them).

That first night, I knew he landed in Paris at 3:30 am. I checked with the airline. That's 9:30 am in Paris. At 4:00 am, the Exchange Father phoned to say he's got The Boy and they are still at the airport. I was relieved to talk to them. The Boy sounded tired. All he managed to tell me was, it was fun on the plane travelling by himself.

I thanked Exchange Father for calling and told him I was going to call The Boy's cell in the next half hour. He said, "If I were in your place, knowing my son arrived safely would be more important than being awakened in the night." I said, "I have not gone to bed yet so you did not wake me."

The next day, we went about our activities and came home to this message:

Hey mom and dad. So um, what did you guys do today? Yes...mm hmm...well that's nice. Oh me? I went to the Arc de Triomphe and attended mass at Notre Dame. Talk to you later.

That saucy boy. We phoned the Exchange Father in Paris. It was 9:00 pm there. But The Boy had already gone to sleep. Exchange Father told us they had a great day. Walked along the Champs-Élysées, went for ice cream at Berthillon. The Boy loved the ice cream, paid attention to everything wide-eyed with interest, even asked questions about the history and architecture of what they saw. Really? Has he picked up the wrong boy at the airport after all?

They are staying with friends. The friends also have a 16-year-old son. So The Boy, Exchange, Friend's Son hung out together. "He speaks French very well," said Exchange Father. What? Since when? He almost failed French in Grade 9 and dropped the subject.

"And he's very outgoing, polite, and good natured. Funny too. He's a pleasure to be with." Well yes, he's usually all that.

We chatted and The Man was giddy over The Boy's experience. We feel assured he's safe and Exchange Father is a good man. Especially when The Man told him The Boy has money with him to pay for museum admissions, food, and transportation, and Exchange Father said, "No no. He is in France, I treat him like my son."

I went to bed at 9:30 pm last night, from not sleeping the night before. At 4:30 am, my cell phone gave off a loud shrill that woke me up. The Boy had text messaged:

Hey, im just hanging out at da Louvre ;)

There were The Man and I fumbling in the dark, not quite awake, not sure how to do text messaging. But we managed to send back this message:

Cool. Don't steal Mona. Call you later. Love you.