French Bully Pris

On the bus, there was a French father, his 17 year old son and his 14 year old daughter. I know this because I was originally talking to them being my nice friendly self.  These were the type of French that people talk about and say, “They’re not friendly.” The father was nice, but his children were arrogant, rude, and disrespectful. They would not talk or even say “Thank you.” It’s disappointing to see spoiled, unfriendly travelers.

I’m sorry, but “Why are you traveling again?”

After our brief conversation, the 14 year old was constantly staring at me. It was out of control staring every minute. I told her that it was not nice to stare at people.

From that point on, it was childish behavior or intentionally staring, laughing at me, standing near my seat and pointing.

Of course, my trip is never always happy go lucky perfect, blessed days. I am human and God wants me to experience these people to practice my discipline. This will then contribute to my growth and make me better at helping people. The practice of patience is truly a never ending journey and overtime I do make improvements. It’s a weakness sometimes and I work with it during these “set ups.”

She continued to laugh and then all of them would chime in. I was trying to get my bag out for customs to inspect and they are standing behind me laughing.

“What are you going to do Priscilla?” God is taunting. “What?”

It was a lot of self-control, discipline, and patience and I just kept telling myself this family is completely rude and clueless. Also, this is a 14 year old girl. I really need to calm down.  It just broke my heart to think about kids who encounter this kind of treatment everyday. How they put up with it is truly amazing. Absolutely no one deserves this kind of treatment. It’s completely unjust to any and all principles of human behavior. 

The worst part of this was that this was a 17 hour bus ride with an overnight stop in Costa Rica. I prayed that they would be staying in Costa Rica, but the next day they showed up on the bus- wearing the same clothes! The French are not big fans of the shower and perfume is a good cover up. 

When they saw me in the bus office and I saw them, it was complete shock.  Of course, they would be back on the bus to Panama, but I had hope they wouldn’t. Of course, the little one was laughing and pointing again. I am just focused on my friends on the bus (not the rude bus drivers from Costa Rica).  

Of course, I was sitting two rows in front of them on the bus(patience tested again). I had a couple nice Venezuelan guys sitting next to me and I was content tuning them out. Things are getting better making no eye contact and when she passed me with her face in my space, I turned my head around and back to her.  It really was this bad-no joke.

When we exited the bus for food and she was waiting for me to get off the bus. I just ignored her standing in the corner laughing and sat with my new friends.

Finally, it all ended when they got off the bus. I made sure they got off first and I waited until they left. And good riddens they were gone. Thankfully nothing ever lead to a talk or confrontation. It was all non-verbal childish behavior.