THE TARDY FRENCH

What is with the French and arriving late?! OK, so maybe it's not all French people. Maybe it's just my students.

My last French student was named Remi, and he was scheduled to fly into Los Angeles at around 5:30pm. It's about 2 hours from LAX to Santa Barbara, so taking into consideration customs and traffic, he was expected to arrive at my house at 9:00pm.

I got a call from Remi at 9:00. Still at LAX. He didn't see the shuttle bus that was supposed to pick him up. I told him I would call EF and find out what's up. I also told him to call me back in 15 minutes. So I called the emergency number for EF, talked with the staff lady who was unlucky enough to have the cell phone that night, and told her what Remi told me. She then tells me that the shuttle bus driver was waiting for three hours right outside of the gate for Remi and didn't see him. So the driver left. Which makes sense; that's about when Remi called me. The big mystery is What the heck was Remi doing from the time the airplane landed on time at 5:30pm until 9:00?? I never got to find out.

The EF emergency phone holder told me to tell Remi to wait right outside and the driver would come around for him again. Too bad Remi didn't have a phone. Just a payphone. He called me back... at 11:00pm! By now I don't know what to say. What was he doing for the past two hours? Why didn't he call me in 15 minutes like he said? He missed the bus, literally. The driver couldn't find him. And for this driver, it has been about five hours of waiting. So, he left. Naturally. In the middle of Remi's phone call we got disconnected. So I was done waiting, too. I had to substitute teach at 8 in the morning the next day! I figured he would find a hotel to stay in overnight and find a way to come to Santa Barbara tomorrow.

At four in the morning I heard loud knocking on my door. I was in some deep sleep and I think the knocking must have gone on for two or three minutes until it broke through my dreams and into my consciousness.

Remi paid a TAXI DRIVER 300 dollars for a fare from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara.

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Last night was not as bad. But my new French student, Michel, was supposed to arrive in Los Angeles at around 9pm, which meant he was supposed to arrive at my house at midnight. He came at 1:15am. Given Remi's whole ordeal, I was quite glad to see Michel at one in the morning.