The Mexican Girl

Her story begins while my friends and I waited for others to arrive at the rendez-vous spot. This was yesterday before Haagen Daas. So we're standing there and a girl walks up to us. She's carrying a large packpacker's bag. She is confused. She wants to find a hostel but doesn't know where to find one. She has some names and phone numbers, but no addresses and no directions. Most of us say that we don't know of any immediate hostels and leave it at that. This is the truth, we really don't know of any. Damien, being nicer than the rest of us, shows her the Montmartre area on her map, circles some metros and lets her know that there are a lot of hostels in that area. He then proceeds to tell her that if she cannot find a place for the night, she is more than welcome to spend the night at his place as he has an extra room. Click. What poor person in their right mind will refuse an offer by a nice looking man to stay at his place free of charge! Exactly. We wish her the best of luck and send her on her way.

I think it would be fun to backpack across Europe, but not without a guidebook in a language I can read.

So we're sitting in Haagen Daas and Damien's cell rings. It's Ana, the mexican girl. She got lost in the metro, got hugged by some strange person and now, crying, wanted to take him up on his offer. If her sense of direction was really so bad that she couldn't find the metro stations we circled on her map, I don't know how she made it back to St. Germain. But she did. She joined us at Haagen Daas, which was cool - the more the merrier. Damien was becoming a little unsure of his previous offer, so I offered my apartment for the night. Not a problem.

It ended up that Ana, Damien and Cindy came to my apartment last night. I made some food - pasta and french fries in particular - and got everyone settled for the night. Cindy crashed in the living room. Ana occupied the spare bedroom. Damien got the master bedroom. Somehow we got the bright idea to watch a movie at 3 AM. It was a good movie called The Mission. It has Robert DiNiro in it - I reccommend it. Ana fell asleep about 20 minutes into it, Damien and I were determined to watch it until the end. Ok, maybe not determined, but neither of us said anything to the contrary. The film was over at 6 AM. While a good film, it maybe wasn't the best time to be watching anything. I loaned him pjs and went to bed.

After a short sleep, I bought breakfast and set to work finding a hostel for Ana. She turned out to be quite particular about what she was looking for. After 2 hours searching, I found one in Chinatown. She booked it. All was well. Being nice people, we took her to find the hostel in the afternoon. The hostel was shady. The lady at the front desk tried to charge twice the price we had booked online. She refused to charge less. Damien argued with her. He told her that what she was doing was illegal. She told him that he didn't know what he was talking about (he's a lawyer). It went back and forth like this for 10 minutes. We eventually left without getting the deposit refunded. Crappy one stars.

Not knowing what to do, I suggested IES. I needed to check for mail anyway. I got some phone numbers of more hostels. She said she didn't have a phone card that worked in France (how did she call Damien's cell last night?). We found her one. Damien called the numbers. FINALLY found a place with beds near the Louvre. I admit that I was tired by this point and a little cranky. It was 16:00! I was aggravated. She was starting to get on my nerves. We get to the hostel, check her in, and help her get situated. She puts her bag in storage and asks where we're going next! Argh. We went to the Louvre and sat in a courtyard - in silence. Again I was tired and aggravated. I think this girl got that vibe. I would imagine that Damien was tired as well - he carried her bag for her all afternoon. After some time in silence, we made an exit leaving Ana at the Louvre. I wish her well.