It gets more interesting as MIPCOM comes to an end. I made a friend. She is a French Journalist of Algerian and Lebanese descent, Amina Abderrahmane.
She saw my post on facebook and contacted me, saying she was coming over to attend the event. It was interesting how we found each other. When she came to the event venue, we were chatting via facebook messenger and she told me she was at the entrance and couldn't come in as she didn't have a tag because she was not registered to attend. As I didn't know what she looked like, we made a video call and she not only showed me what she looked like but also showed me where exactly she was standing outside.
So I went out to meet her. But we couldn't communicate very well because of language barrier. She could understand English more than she could speak it. And she could speak Arabic but I couldn't. To surmount the problem, if she couldn't explain something very well, she would type it in French on her phone, translate it via Google and show it to me. That was how we communicated. And it was very interesting.
After we parted, another surprise was waiting for me. When my colleagues and I came out to go shopping, a taxi that looked more like a bus was waiting for us. Such taxis were very common in Cannes and Nice, I noticed. They have six seats at the back, three each facing each other. While the driver went to the back to put in our luggage, I got into the front seat, so I didn't see who the driver was. When we moved on, my head was buried into my phone. I was startled when a female voice told me to put on my seat belt. For a moment I thought it was one of my colleagues driving. But from her accent I knew it couldn't have been any of them. In any case, where would they get a car to drive at the venue of the event? So I turned and looked at her. And there she was...a lady behind the wheel. She was also a French Nationale but of Algerian descent.
Hmmm...interesting, isn't it?