Seeing Ingrid

Well it probably has died down now that the tour de france is going on but the last 2 weeks newswise were all about Ingrid Betancourt. Back in the states the name probably isnt even recognizable but here she was probably the closest thing to the iran hostages that reagan got "released" in the 80s. She was the covergirl of every paper for 2 weeks and i really think they might tear down the joan of arc statues everywhere and put hers up. Anyway i was kinda keeping up with the news cuz it is an impressive story, but i had no idea when she was coming home. So last week i was walking near champ elesses or whatever it is called/pronounced on my way to an irish bar to watch wimbledon i walk up to all these police and as i looked down the street there are hundreds waiting for some kinda arrival. i have nothing better to do than check it out. when i make it there thinking madonna or someone is gonna pull up i realize over french chatter that it is ingrid. the weather was really nice and so i thought it would be a good 20 minute break to see some history. plus i worked my way to the front row right in the middle. many fancy cars came up and famous french people got out and everyone ooohed and took pics (including me, even tho i didnt recognize a single person). after a half hour the sidewalk for the entire street was completely full and getting fuller. i really got bored and wanted to leave but i had the best view and i was afraid i might miss something and i knew getting out would be impossible. so i stayed. finally after close to an hour these 3 vans come up full of i guess columbians going crazy with banners and stuff and then a black mercedes pulls around and it is her. everyone freaks out. my heart rate races and i have real goose bumps and i dont even know why, i guess i just got caught up into the whole thing. the benz pulls into the palace and the gates close. you can kind of see her doing interviews but not really and after waiting 5 minutes or so everyone filters out to go on to whatever they were supposed to be doing in the first place. for me it's going to an irish bar to watch tennis and read crappy good english tabloids(my only source of readable news outside of the internet).