France: Improving your trip through Improv
THE ORIGINAL PLAN: Go into town at 2:00 for a bus tour of Lyon, sing in the Basilica, leave Lyon the following morning for a really, really long drive to Calais.
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED: Nobody is really certain right now. We're probably going to have to cancel our first concert in Britain because the earliest the bus can be fixed is Tuesday.
The problem has something to do with ball-bearings, and has become a little complicated: The drivers had spare ball-bearings on the bus. This is unusual, and suggests that they have had this problem before. The bus drivers assert that they could fix it themselves in two hours by replacing the ball-bearings. The mechanics in France assert that the drivers' "quick fix" has actually made things worse in the long run - the casing for the ball-bearings needs to be replaced, and we don't carry a spare of those. The whole matter is complicated further thusly: We are in France. The mechanics here tend to speak French. Our bus drivers speak Polish, one of them also speaks Russian. So in order to communicate, the French mechanic speaks French to one of the girls on the tour who used to live in Brussels. She in turn speaks English to another girl on the tour who grew up in Kiev. That girl speaks Russian to the first driver, who speaks Polish to the second. Additionally, when Dr. Ganus receives the French word translated to English, he calls Mike Dawidow in Poland who speaks to the owner of the bus company in Polish. That is to say that one interaction between the drivers and the mechanics could involve as many as four- count 'em, four- languages.
Meanwhile, we got a lot of free time this afternoon in Lyon! I went exploring with Rueben, Lindsay, Kris, Nate, and Ben. We walked through a protest rally and eventually walked up a very large hill, not fully knowing what we were going to find up there (we saw an imitation Eiffel tower, and thought it'd be fun to check out). When we got to the top, we found a huge white building that looks like a castle or a church. As it turns out, it's the Basilica, and we sang in it later that night. We also learned that there is a trolley that you are supposed to take to get to the top - all that walking in vain!
The concert, though poorly-attended, went thouroughly well. Afterward, we booked it down the hill, racing to make it to the bus station by 11 via Subway. We caught the last bus home with minutes to spare. Tomorrow we stay in Lyon, but are moving to a hostel to take some pressure off our hosts, who have done some excellent work helping us improvise a way to finish our tour.
Coming up: who knows? Maybe more of Lyon, maybe Britain, maybe New York for all we know. Stay tuned.
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED: Nobody is really certain right now. We're probably going to have to cancel our first concert in Britain because the earliest the bus can be fixed is Tuesday.
The problem has something to do with ball-bearings, and has become a little complicated: The drivers had spare ball-bearings on the bus. This is unusual, and suggests that they have had this problem before. The bus drivers assert that they could fix it themselves in two hours by replacing the ball-bearings. The mechanics in France assert that the drivers' "quick fix" has actually made things worse in the long run - the casing for the ball-bearings needs to be replaced, and we don't carry a spare of those. The whole matter is complicated further thusly: We are in France. The mechanics here tend to speak French. Our bus drivers speak Polish, one of them also speaks Russian. So in order to communicate, the French mechanic speaks French to one of the girls on the tour who used to live in Brussels. She in turn speaks English to another girl on the tour who grew up in Kiev. That girl speaks Russian to the first driver, who speaks Polish to the second. Additionally, when Dr. Ganus receives the French word translated to English, he calls Mike Dawidow in Poland who speaks to the owner of the bus company in Polish. That is to say that one interaction between the drivers and the mechanics could involve as many as four- count 'em, four- languages.
Meanwhile, we got a lot of free time this afternoon in Lyon! I went exploring with Rueben, Lindsay, Kris, Nate, and Ben. We walked through a protest rally and eventually walked up a very large hill, not fully knowing what we were going to find up there (we saw an imitation Eiffel tower, and thought it'd be fun to check out). When we got to the top, we found a huge white building that looks like a castle or a church. As it turns out, it's the Basilica, and we sang in it later that night. We also learned that there is a trolley that you are supposed to take to get to the top - all that walking in vain!
The concert, though poorly-attended, went thouroughly well. Afterward, we booked it down the hill, racing to make it to the bus station by 11 via Subway. We caught the last bus home with minutes to spare. Tomorrow we stay in Lyon, but are moving to a hostel to take some pressure off our hosts, who have done some excellent work helping us improvise a way to finish our tour.
Coming up: who knows? Maybe more of Lyon, maybe Britain, maybe New York for all we know. Stay tuned.
posted by Allen J P at
18:09
2 Comments:
Sorry about the bus problems, but I hope the mechanics fix the housing, It is very likely the dirvers put the wrong bearings in, and damaged the housing. This is not good or usually safe. (I was talking like a warranty clerk), as a Mom, be careful, stay with a group, and have fun. We miss you.
By
Anonymous, at 12/6/06 15:04
The bus is a DAF, I'm not sure exactly who owns it. The Harding bus is a Prevost, which explains why it's the greatest bus ever.
By
Allen J P, at 13/6/06 04:58
Post a Comment
<< Home