Europe - Day One

It's going to be hard to accurately describe an experience that you can only understand by living it. Honestly this is the trip of a lifetime and I'm so blessed and lucky to be here, living out my longest dream.  

Going back to look at my bucket list from a few years back and seeing the item "Go to Paris for my senior trip" on it followed by the comments, "Yeah, that'll never happen but it's a nice dream" is crazy now. Because guess what? I made it happen(: Wow(: 

So many years that I've wanted this. Dreaming about Paris with Erin since 7th grade and now it's here. I'm so proud of working hard enough to pay for most of this(: And grateful for my mom for being willing to help with the rest. Couldn't have done it without her(: 

So here's the start of my amazing adventure and here's to the time of my life. 

So we were up packing the night before until 3 AM. And I had to be up at 5. I got barely any sleep and had to be at the airport at 7:15. So early. I felt like I was gonna die. The plan was to stay up so that I could sleep on the plane. Didn't really happen but whatever. 

 

Kena and I were super tired when we finally got to the airport and didn't even really register we were actually going. We checked our bags and went through security, which I really like for some reason(: although when I went through the security scanner the buzzer went off and they had to pat down my head. Happened to Kena too on her leg. Of course we would both have to get patted down. Hahaha we laughed about it forever.  It was crazy that all of our baggage claim tags said Paris - Charles de Gaulle airport on them! And when people asked us where we were going, we literally got to say Paris. Oh my. It still hasn't sunk in and as I write this, I'm sitting here in Paris. Haha. 

 

We got some quick breakfast at the McDonalds there. During breakfast, Kena and I looked down at our tickets and realized we weren't sitting by each other and freaked the freak out. It was pretty funny cause it hit us at the same time and we looked up at each other with a look of horror(: But don't worry, we ended up definitely getting to sit by each other. (: We just switched with other people. 

 

One funny moment, Henson was talking about birthstones before we boarded and was trying to remember one of them. She asked for our help, and said, "K it's orange and starts with C." I said "Carrot" because that was all I heard so we laughed about that forever. (: 

Our first flight was about 5 hours from SLC to Boston where we had almost a 3 hour layover. Boston is gorgeous. I wanted nothing more than to go wander all the piers and islands, especially lighthouses, that we saw. Stunning. I have to go back someday. This is where we went to lunch. We went to Fuddruckers at the airport which had a long line but we wanted to try it. When we got to the front we realized why it was so long. There was a lady from India or something like that taking orders who barely spoke English. I ordered fries and onion rings and paid for it. After, she informed me that there weren't any onion rings. I asked for my money back and all she would say is "Fries? Fries?" I was like, "Yes, I still want fries but I want my money back for the onion rings!!" Happened to quite a few people around me too so she eventually was just overwhelmed and started handing out money. It was so ridiculous but we got our food.  

Then it was back on the plane for flight 2 of the day, to PARIS!(: I was so excited. However the plane was still very small and very crowded. It was super hot and uncomfortable. Plus I was in the middle of two people so I had zero space. The airplane food was alright, not great. But they did have free movies and music for us which was awesome. We tried to sleep, and I was rolled up in a ball for about the hour I slept. Then I just sat up and it was super peaceful to just be alone in the dark quiet watching the sun set then rise. Absolutely gorgeous.  

It was weird to go through three straight days and not ever get a real night. It was only dark outside for like an hour. As we crossed all the time zones, we lost 8 hours and it was day again. Crazy cool. 

 And I love looking at all the clouds from the sky. We flew through a cloud which was awesome since that's always been on my bucket list. I never really knew it was possible because I believed for the longest time that clouds were solid objects. So it was crazy to fly through one and see the whole plane engulfed in white!!!

Then we arrived at Paris. Breaking through the bottom of the cloud was crazy. My first glimpse of my dream country. Hello France!