Fix You, Clocks and In My Place rock

... but Yellow rocks the house... but Kingdom Come comes in a close second...

This is my third attempt at this post, and I'm hoping that it actually comes out this time because I have had without a doubt the most amazing experience of my life, but I just havn't had the energy to post this endeavorous story.

I went to the coldplay concert 2 nights ago. Best concert I've ever been to. There are no words to describe its awesomeness. And by awesome, I mean in the actual sense of the word as in Godly, not "Hey man those socks are awesome." Because I am convinced that there was something cmopletely spiritual about my journey. I will begin at the beginning.

I bought these tickets when I was back in the states, so I've been looking forward to this for a really long time. Once everyone heard about it here, everyone wanted to go. SO there were about 8 of us wanting to go, and I was just planning on it being me and Lee. Like some of the other people are pretty cool, so it wasn't like we were extremely upset about it- except when we found out that the others going are the shittiest people here. I was really upset about it. Anyway, then one of the teachers decided to go, but she didn't tell anyone except said shitty people, and a few of the non shitty people found out about it, so everyone sort of underhandly planned this free ride to the concert, so Lee and I and thi other girl Shawna were the only ones that didn't have a ride. So I thought it was pretty funny, considering we were the first ones with tickets and we were the only ones without rides. I mean, I was planning on not having a ride in the first place, but the teacher was so rude about it and the shitty people were just being even more shitty. So I just thought it was sort of strange and it kind of pissed me off. So everyone was a little ansy about it. Then Marcie, one of the girls that Lee and I have really been getting close to decided to give up her seat with the teacher to Shawna, so she could travel with Lee and I. And that pretty much made everyone happy. And Lee and I couldn't have been happier, because that meant that the three of us would be the most fun group of people to travel with ever, because Marcie is all travel savy but also really amazingly fun, so we were realyl happy to have her company. And that made Shawna really happy because she wasn't going to be separated from the "group." Anyway... Having Marcie was so awesome because she found out bus schedules and train schedules and pretty much organized the whole thing. I tried to help a little, but I just couldn't figure it out. Anyway, by wednesday night we were ready for our adventure. We had a cab called for the next day at noon which is when we would be getting back form our field trip with Dr. Nedd. We had a good nights sleep and got mentally prepared for what we were going to have to do.

Right when we got back from the field trip at like 12:05 and the cab was about to leave. Lee literally jumped over three people to catch the dude's attention so that he wouldn't leave. It was so funny. But also sort of nerve racking because it sort of gave us a scare that he almost left us. But when we all got in the taxi we all just started laughing. Dr. Nedd can speak french, and he acted as translator for us because the cab driver couldn't speak english, so that was a blessing. We had the cab take us to Marsaille, which was a little more than half-way. Apparently, because it was bastille day, travel rates were up, so it ended up being ridiculously expensive. After that we were just like f-that, we aren't doing that again. But we were having an awesome time, because it seems like when you travel with people you start to get to know them better and it's such a bonding experience, so we felt invinsible. From there, we got on a train to Toulon, which was really fun, because trains are witout a doubt the best way to travel. And it was also really cheap. So that was amazing. When we got to Toulon it was about 3:30, so we decided to stop for a little while and have lunch. We got to talk for a little while of cokes and sandwiches.

We then got on a but to Six Fours, which is where the concert was. It was a beautiful drive, because we were on the coast of southern France and we were together. But when we got off the bus, we realized that we were on the opposite side of town from where the concert was. So we started walking towards the place and it ended up being about 5 miles away. And it was HOT. But it was really funny because we were walking along the coastline the whole time and we saw lots of tits and saggy, proud, old dudes wearing speedos. So that was really interesting. So we finally get to the place where you get in line to get in. Everyone in line seemed to think if we scrunched together closer than people in the halocaust, we would be happier, but that was awful, obviously, and we stood like that for about an hour. It turns out the reason the line was moving so slow was because the concert was on an island (specifically for concerts- so that was was amazing!) And the bridge you have to take to get on could only hold about 30 people at a time. So it was moving at turtle speed. BUt when we finally got in we got a couple of beers and got in place. We met up with Roberto, Maristella and Shawna, and were very happy for where we were. Then the concert started...

It was incredible. They started with Square One, and then played Politik. The music was so beautiful and so much fun. They played Yellow and that was my favorite. Lee, Marcie and I were going CRAZY jumping up and down and dancing and having a blast. When Kingdom COme came on, I started to cry in that "I'm so happy and these lyrics make so much sense" way. I have never been that crazy at a concert. Another thing that made it amazing were the lights. They were ridiculous. When they ended with In my Place they put every light they had on bright white and the people on stage were just silhouettes and it was bright as day out in the crowd. It was beautiful. Then they came back for the Encore and they played 3 more songs. And ended with "Fix You" which is my favorite coldplay song, and it was incredible. I am still high from the experience.

So whe the concert ended at about midnight, we still had about 6 hours before the buses started running. So we just hung out there for a little while and right about where we were standing, there was this biblical group of people crossing the bay area, which was about knee deep the whole way across (probably about 1/4 a mile across, because no one wanted to have to wait to walk accross the bridge, so Lee, Marcie and I just look at eachother, and shrug and take our shoes off. It was something out of the Ten Commandments. It was so awesome. (another reference to god's presence I thought). So after that we started back for the bus stop, which was yeah, about 4 or 5 miles away. So about a 1/3 of the way there, we stopped at this Bar that served alcoholic icecream. It was pretty cool, and sort of one of those bizarre moments. It was very refreshing, but very expensive, so I didn't have very much at all. And the waiter was freaking me out. And I was getting really cold. So after that, we walked about another hour and a half. On the way back to the beach. It was getting really cold and Lee found this rugby jacket and put it on. I think that Jacket probably saved our lives. When we got back to Six Fours, we were so exhausted that we just stumbled onto the beach and layed down next to eachother about 2 feet away from eachother. But it was FREEZING so my teeth started to chatter. SO I was like "Leeeee, can I get closer to you t-t-t-tt-t-t?" He was like "I was hoping you would ask that!" All three of us cuddled and skwunched up next to eachother for warmth. I wish I had a picture of us laying there on the beach. Lee was in the middle and marcie and I were on either side of him. In between us were all of our valubles because we didn't want someone to come by and steal them if we fell asleep. We tried to get some sleep. But because it was like 3 AM, there were some really bizarre goings on. Every once in a while a drunk group (because it was bastille day) would walk by behind us, and like every single time it happened, a fight would break out. I felt delerious. Me and Lee fell asleep for a few minutes, and while we were out, Marcie saw this couple having sex. It was so random.

So after about 2 hours, we couldn't take it anymore. SO we started to walk around in a zombie like state, and my feet hurt so badly that I was walking around like a little old lady, and I felt so pathetic. So this group of people in florescent yellow vests started to clean up the beach area. We prolly looked abotu as bizarre to them as they did to us. It was hysterical. We swer sitting on a bench and we were just staring at them, because we couldn't do anything else, and we were so out of it, and I'm sure we looked like it too. Our eyes were all puffy from exhaustion and coldness. We probablly looked so scary. Looking back, it's sooooo funny.

So it was about 5:30 AM and we were getting pretty desparate to get back to Toulon to get on a train to somewhere because it was cold and we were so tired and hungry. So we actually tried to hitch hike. We stood on the road and stuck out our thumbs, but four cars passed and no one picked us up. And then we saw a bus coming our direction and we were all squinting to see what it said on the Marquis. And as it got closer we realized it said Toulon, (keep in mind that it was not supposed to be running this early) and we weren't at a bus stop so we started waving our arms and jumping up and down, and it stopped. We were so thankful for it. It was pretty cool because like 6 people that we had seen at the concert (strangers) got on that same bus.

Once we got to Toulon we had to wait for the 8 AM train to Avignon (which was a lot closer to Lacoste)And I had the worst breakfast of my life. I was beginning to feel pretty miserable, because my breath was beginning to really reek, and I was beginning to really reak, because I was basically being marinated in crazy dance move sweat, 10 miles of walking sweat, stagnant sweat and beach dust. I felt so gross. We finally got on the train, which was way better than the one we rode to toulon because it was older and it made lots of noise. It was soooo cool. It was a two hour ride so we got to sleep a little. THt was sort of weird though, because the Lee and I got separated from Marcie because there weren't three seats available together. So Lee and I were in one compartment with this really weird looking lady, and a sleeping woman and a sleeping teenage dude. Marcie got in another compartment with this really weird family that wouldn't stop arguing with eachother and wouldn't stop staring at marcie. So the sleeping dude got off about half way through the ride and a coupld of seats opened up next to Lee and Me, and Marcie rushed in and we all immediately passed out on eachother.

Once we got to Avignon, we were at a little bit of a stand still because the bus that left for Bonneiux didn't leave until 2 PM and it was about 10. ANd at this point we wanted to get back so badly we could taste it. So I was still wearing the rugby jacket and we were sitting in the bus station and this really weird security guard guy like walked up to lee and sort of appathetically touched his shoulder and then pointed to Lee's camera and then to Marcie, who was standing apart from us and then to his eyes in the "I'm watching you" way, and Lee and I were so confused. We had no Idea what he was trying to say. So we just stood there and looked at him because we were so extremely exhausted and he just walked away. But while we were sitting there, he kept watching us. IN the mean time, none of our calling cards were working at that moment so we couldn't get in touch with the school. So we decided to get a cab. So we walk out (and I left the jacket sitting o n this table to freak the security guard out), and there sitting in traffic is an empty cab, so lee asks "Lacoste?" and then the dude said an insanely cheap price and we hopped in and we recapped the whole experience and laughed to whole way back.

It was AMAZING. I got to have the best shower I have ever had when we got back, had a wonderful meal and then totally passed out. It was incredible. I still can't believe it happened.

If you got through reading all that, I'm impressed.