So far...

Hello everyone! I have been in France for a few days and I think I am finally getting the hang of things. Well it all started with the night before I left on the journey of my life. I was still getting everything together. I was supposed to go to the Green Day concert with my best friend, Amber and my boyfriend, Matt, but I decided that staying home would mean more time spent with the people I love. My dad made my favorite meal, Fries Potatoes. Potatoes with onions and bacon fried together. My mouth waters at the thought of it. Then I had to finish getting together all my stuff, because of course me being me I wasn't done packing and cleaning my room. Hours went by and I was pretty much done except for the few things I needed to ask my mom. So I stayed up until my mom and brother got home. My brother went to the concert with some friends. So I went out to the garage to talk to my mom and my friend Kami was there. She was the piano accompanist for my choir and I also babysat for her. We are very close. We both realized that this would be the last time we would see each other for a year. Up to this point in the day I hadn't gotten upset or sad about leaving people, but once she started crying I couldn't help myself. After she left I went inside and collected myself. Then I got the few things that I needed to clear up cleared up with my mom. Then I decided I should probably get a few hours of sleep. Wasn't too successful with that, I got about 3 hours. Next thing I know it is 4:30AM and I needed to get ready. Along with my mom, dad, and two brothers, Amber and Matt came along also to see me off. We had to take two cars. The short drive to the airport and my bags all checked in and then the part I was dreading, saying goodbye. Not much to say about that just lots of tears. Don't want to get into it much or I might lose it right now... So yeah... Now the plane rides. Some interesting stories here I will tell you. First I met up with the two other students I was flying with out of Sacramento to St. Paul, Gregg and Matt. We waited to board. At that point I hadn't had my seat assigned, and who would guess it I got a center seat in between two people. What a joy. On top of that they were two guys who slept the whole time. My goal was to sleep too but as I'm sure you know it is hard to sleep on a plane. Trying to not think of what was behind me or what was ahead of me I tried to sleep. Key word tried. It wasn't what was behind or ahead that kept me awake it was what was beside me. The guy to my right slept pretty much the whole time... But while he slept his mouth was open and he had horrible breath. I thought about taking a piece of gum while he slept and putting it in his mouth... Hehe... I think on that 3 hour flight I got about a half an hour of sleep next to Stinky Breath. When we finally landed Gregg, Matt, and I met up and decided to grab some food as we were all hungry. Gregg and I had promised our parents that we would call them when we landed, so we did. It was easier than I thought it would be. I was worried I would start crying but I was in a relatively good mood. Next food that we all we dying for. We went to Burger King... Hehe... It was our last fast food meal in the U.S. After we stuffed ourselves we decided to go to our gate where we were going to have to wait for over 3 hours. When we get there we are sent to the gate next to us because a big group of army soldiers was going to be having a party. The guy who sent us away said he had already sent a group of rotary students that way. When we got over there we introduced ourselves and started talking about where we were going and about our families that we were headed to. A few days before I left a girl named Lindsay contacted me and said that she was also heading to Toulouse. We e-mailed back and forth a few times. I met her at this point and we hit it off. We were and still are very excited for our exchanges. While we were sitting there talking more and more rotary students joined us as their flights came in. One in particular stood out. This boy comes up to us all in a fuss and says "Ugh! I have been dragging these bags around forever! Oh my god I NEED a starbucks! Do you know where one is?" After being told where one is he asks if we can watch his stuff and he prances off to get his "venti half-skinny half-1 percent extra hot split quad shot (two shots decaf, two shots regular) latte with whip."I don't know if that is what he really got but probably close to. I turn to Lindsay and say "I didn't know Bruno was going on an exchange." We bust out laughing and henceforth his name is Bruno. Some more time passes and all the sudden Lindsay say, "Does that woman have a beard?!" I turn and look at someone who is walking away with their back to us. I suggest we catch up and have a real look. She agrees and we speed walk so we can catch a glimpse. We could not tell what it was. It had shortish brown hair, spiral earrings, no boobs, big hips, a beard!!! So we went back to our waiting area to chill. A bunch of us decided that it would be fun to play some cards while we wait. Right as we were about to play our gate opened up and we all moved over. We all congregated again and decided to trade pins and business cards. I didn't have any pins to trade but I got some cool ones. By this time it was time to board the plane. Would you guess my luck again? Yup a center seat... Again!!! Only this time I was sitting next to a fellow rotary student. I was excited at first that I would have someone to talk to. Well I got my wish fulfilled only a little too fulfilled. I swear this girl was the chattiest chatter. I tried to be polite but seriously SHUT UP! Later Lindsay and I would dub her Chatty Cathy. Apparently Chatty Cathy had added her on facebook and tried to talk to her non stop. It wouldn't have been too bad if she had been mature and had something interesting to talk about. Nope. So by this point I was exhausted and getting my ear talked off. I tried to make polite conversation back, and get to a point where I could get some sleep. I decided to take some Tylenol PM to help me get to sleep. About 15 minutes after I took them and started getting sleepy they served dinner. It wasn't too bad but by the time I finished I was practically falling asleep in my dinner. I slept for a good 3 hours. When I woke up guess who started talking again? Thinking that shutting my eyes might get her to stop talking was of course a wrong assumption. So basically the plane flight wasn't too great. Oh well. Next thing I know we are landing in Paris!!! Yay!!! Sorry I wrote so much. I have tons more to tell but I think maybe I should post this before it turns into a novel.