Day 28

Bonjour!

Today was a looong day. I was in bed by 11pm last night and woke up at 5:30 to say bye to Chelsea before she left for her flight home. Then I went back to bed for 2 hours then got up for good to eat breakfast, say bye to Emily, and pack before going downstairs to hop in a taxi. On my way out I hugged Geoff and told him I was going to cry in the cab. Then I hugged Dr. Zaho and it was like she was squeezing tears out of me. Ugh. So I got in the taxi with Sarah and Ana Maria and we made it to the airport in one piece.

Once we got in, Sarah and I discovered that there were at least 9 separate areas with hundreds of airlines to choose from and we had no idea where ours was. Long story short we ended up finding the rest of our Paris group, our check-in area, and a place to sit for a few hours before the airline people arrived. Three hours later we went down to the check-in station for Kuwait and ended up waiting even longer before some people from the airline came along, pushed us back, and formed a perimeter with ropes around the area we had previously been occupying. We found it hilarious. Then they let one of us through at a time to check in. After we were all checked we made our way through the maze that is the da Vinci airport in Rome to get to our gate. Then they changed the gate. Then the boarding time was pushed back like 30 minutes.

But when we finally boarded the plane everything was wonderful! There were a ton of seats and most of them were empty, so I got to sit in a window seat and see the sights. About 30 minutes into the flight, they served us a meal. Like, a full meal. And the flight was just an hour and a half. The meal included pizza, an egg sandwich (that I didn't eat), coffee, water, a muffin, real silverware, ketchup, a refreshing towelette, and other odds and ends. It was awesome and I was pleasantly surprised. Then I just listened to more music, played more solitaire, and cried when I saw the Alps. Then I saw the Eiffel Tower and we landed!

We made it through the airport, got our luggage, and got on a train with little to no problems. Then we got to Gare du Nord, a major train station, and all hell broke loose. We were supposed to get on another train, but getting off the first one was awful and we were just dumped into a sea of sketchy people. We weren't cool with it so we went outside, ran into more sketchy people, and got into cabs to take us to our apartment. This place is beautiful and it's in a safe building that's pushed back from the street. It rules. We've seen barely anything of the city but I'm excited to do that tomorrow!

Bonsoir!