My whole life I never thought I would leave the country. Yet, it finally happened.

It all started on a Wednesday afternoon. I received a text from my best friend Tori. She explained her father (who works for United) got discounted tickets to Paris and was wondering if I wanted to join. I quickly replied yes without hesitation. I ran downstairs and told my Dad the exciting news. His face lit up and he told me that Paris is an amazing opportunity. Friday came around and I still hadn’t told my mom. Before we left for school I told her the news. She was extremely jealous.

I started packing and I couldn’t wait for the flight. I got to Tori’s house around 11:00 pm and went straight to bed. We got to the airport around 6:00 am. We flew through security and headed for our gate. We arrived about two hours early and decided to get breakfast.

Soon we headed off to Washington D.C. The plane landed around 10:oo am. Our flight wasn going to depart in six hours so we had some time to kill. We waited  around about two hours and decided to eat lunch. I ate ultimately the BEST burger I’ve ever had that day. Nothing, and I mean nothing, could compare to it, except for the food in Paris.

We headed toward our gate and met the cutest family. They had three little girls and Tori and I played with them until their flight arrived. Their Mom gave us $20 for watching them and then we went our separate ways.

We finally boarded the plane to Paris. We had business class seats. The chairs were huge and we got a television to do anything we wanted on. I couldn’t wait to spend the next seven hours on that plane.

I only got about one hour of sleep, but that was all I needed to start my first day. We get to the hotel and headed up to our room. We drop our stuff off and decided where to head first.

We headed toward the Metra station and grabbed tickets for our whole trip. We tried to find a Farmers market we heard about, but were unsuccessful. We grabbed some food at a grocery store. The moment we walked into the store, Tori and I were struck at how the carts looked completely different. They rolled on two wheels and were very easy to move around. We went back to the hotel to put the groceries away. We then headed for the Eiffel Tower.

The view is beautiful. I felt like I wasn’t even looking at the real thing. Then reality set in and I realized I was. We went to the top to take some amazing pictures. It’s super cold. The wind blew hard and we could barely stand. I took one picture and left. We went back to our hotel room and ended up sleeping for 13 hours.

The next few days were filled with shopping and visting the Louvre, Notre-Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Marks and Spencer, and more.

Our last day there was very short, but I was excited to head home. The flight was eight hours long, and again, we got business class. It was a relaxing trip and when we got home we had to wait forever to board a train. When I saw the Mundelein sign I realized my trip was over. I got home, crashed for 13 hours, and went to school. I was exhausted for the next few days, but slowly felt better each day.

My trip to Paris was an amazing opportunity. I hope everyone can get this experience some time in there life.