Pre-Paris =/

Going through security is never something fun when traveling, especially when there is a possibility you will miss your boarding time while waiting on that long line. Security will make a person late, tired, and irritated by the time you actually get to your gate. By the time you get to your gate your exhausted and fed up with how long it took you to get to this point. Tired and irritated is exactly how I was feeling at Newark Airport. Irritated is not how I should've been feeling pre-Paris. Excited should've been my feelings for this great experience I was about to encounter, but it wasn't. Security took forever, because not only was there a long line but there was also this one lady who kept beeping when going through security. She forgot to take off her waist band, then she forgot to take off her jewelry, and then finally she remembered she had her cell phone in her bra. Again, like my previous post my patience was running on empty. It was 8:20 pm and I was just getting through security when I was supposed to be boarding at 8:35 pm. After sprinting, ditching and dodging through people who clearly had more time then me to be wandering around the airport looking at random shops that were going to charge them so much more money then any story outside of the airport, I finally made it to my gate. My gate filled with people, this was definitely the biggest group of people I had ever been on a plane with. This was also my first time traveling to Europe alone. I felt like one of those students straight out of college who back pack through Europe. So now that finally made it to my gate I felt a little more relaxed and at ease. 8:35 pm finally came and we didn't board as yet. 8:45pm came and I still wasn't on the plane, so now I'm saying to myself what could be taking them so long. While I waited I noticed a small child in his stroller next to me who also looked impatient and ready to get on the plane. He was a french child because he said "we, we" to his mother. I said to myself that it is so amazing that at such a young age he's getting to see America. 9:05 pm and they finally allowed us on the plane. A plane that was supposed to take off at 9:20pm took off at 9:45 pm. Oh how I hate waiting.

I was getting ready to be on the plane for 6 hours!!! My first overnight trip to Europe. The plane was huge, line with rows and rows of seats fairly close to one another. My seat, 24D was being occupied by a man holding the hands of this woman next to him. I asked him if he was in the correct seat and he said "Yes," when it actually wasn't his seat. Out of frustration he moved because being a bulky guy he preferred the  isle seat and his wife looked uncomfortable sitting by the window. I volunteered to move but neither of them too my offer. I actually would've preferred the window and she preferred the middle, but she seemed to think she was asking of too much. I decided to suck it up, read a book, eat the best meal I've ever had on a plane, which included chicken parm, pasta, and bread with a salad, go back to sleep, wake up, eat breakfast, which included more bread and fruit, go back to sleep and get off the plane. In that exact order is how I spent six hours on the plane, while having neck cramps, getting hit in the head by people walking by and the guy in the middle spilling over into my seat, it was a fairly successful ride to Paris. When the plane finally landed safely it was such a relief, I wasn't as yet excited because I began to got nervous about what they might ask me in customs. My mind went back to a time when I traveled to Jamaica and they asked me a bunch of questions like, why was I there, where I was staying, how long was I staying, who I was staying with, etc. For that trip I was prepared with a write-up of answers, for this trip my mind was empty. After following the crowd from my plane to baggage claim, I waited 30-40 minutes for my bad=NOT FUN! But while I waited I took a picture of this:

The bags finally started to peel out of the shoot and the one thing I kept thinking is "what if my bag didn't make it?" If my bag didn't make it to Paris I would be doomed. I tried to shake that thought that I tend to have every time I travel on a plane out of my head. 20 minutes later and a couple of "be patient" pep talks later my bag finally came and I walked toward the exit expecting to go through customs, but no one was there to check me so I continued to walk and there was Dr. Nell!