The Start of a Wonderful Vacation (Continued)

So, I will post a few pictures that I took along the way, but let me tell you that the culture is very different. People are more formal towards each other, unless they know them super well (family, really close friends). We walked to the Opera, which I forgot to take pictures of, walked down to the Seine River, and then to the Eiffel Tower. We couldn't go to the top because it was temporarily closed and the line was huge, but we will go sometime this week. We took the Metro back and had dinner at this local restaurant that has a duck farm. It was really good. Oh, and I forgot. While we were on our way to the Eiffel Tower, we stopped at three patisseries (bakeries). Whoops........ :) I figured it would go unsaid, but the food was amazing.

I really don't like blogger right now because it won't let me download any more photos. I hope it will let me download a few more tonight because they are a lot cooler.

The Start of a Wonderful Vacation

Wow, I have so much to tell you. This may be a long post but most of it will probably be pictures. I will tell a little about yesterday, but not much went on and so that won't add much to this post.

Yesterday started very early. We boarded our first plane at 9:00 am which went from SLC to Detroit, Michigan. There was nothing all that special about that plane ride; it only lasted four hours. We had a four hour layover in Detroit until we boarded the second plane which went from Detroit to Paris. As I have said earlier, I have never been on an international flight. So I was very surprised when I walked onto the plane and it looked like this. (Most planes I have been on had two seats on each side of one isle.)

The seats were: two, isle, three, isle two. Each seat had its own TV and a remote that fit into the arm rest.

This plane ride was eight hours long. First they served drinks then dinner. I had some sort of pasta. Just as I was about to fall asleep though, a tray fell on me. It wasn't a big deal because it was practically empty, but it did stop me from falling asleep earlier. I eventually got to sleep and woke up at the perfect time. The flight attendants were serving breakfast but I wasn't hungry at all and just had some orange juice. It took exactly 23 (with time change) to get to Paris. We left SLC at 9:00 am Saturday and got to Paris at 8:00 am Paris-time Sunday. Here are some pictures from both flights.

The sunset during the second plane ride.

The outskirts of Paris as we're landing.

I had some other pictures but I can't seem to upload them. :( Well, trying to explain just how cool is would be practically impossible, so I will just put a ton of photos in the next blog. I am going to split this one in two because it is getting late.

Last Day In 'Merica

This is going to be a fairly short post, but I decided to do it anyway because I probably won't be able to post anything tomorrow because I am going to be on a plane the entire day. Starting with waking up at 4:30.

Fun.

It's my very first international flight and it is going to be so long. *sigh*. Although, I did find out that they serve food on the plane (I don't know what I expected), which will hopefully be one of the upsides, as long as I don't sleep through the meal. Also, I have officially finished packing!

I finished my "trial" period of gymnastics today on a slightly low note. My muscle memory has kicked in but that doesn't mean that my body can take all the impacts; I learned that the hard way. While vaulting, I managed to hyper-extend my right elbow. I wasn't able to tumble or do series or dismounts on beam. Wonderful! I'm thinking of taking an ice bath tonight to help out my incredibly sore body. In case you don't know what an ice bath is, it is exactly what it sounds like: An ice cold bath with about a bag of ice poured into it that you sit in for 10-30 minutes. I know, I know. To most people, an ice bath seams suicidal, but I love them, and they really, really help. (There's a ton of science for why they help, but I won't go into that.) They're not nearly as bad as they sound.

The next blog I post will be full of excitement, whether I post it on Sunday or a week from Monday. If any of you have been to Paris or France, feel free to comment suggestions on what to visit and where to go. Au revoir!

Preparing For the Time of My Life

For most of my life, I have never left the United States. The one place I have ever been out of this country is Vancouver, Canada for a ski camp. The main reason for this sad truth is that my family is very busy, during both the summer and the winter. I have two siblings; An older brother, and a younger sister. My brother is a competitive ski racer and contrary to what you might think, he is a busy athlete year-round. During the summer, he is usually either at a camp in a different state, or training in the gym, which is called Dryland.

My sister is a figure skater. She also goes to skating camps and gets up very early in the morning (5:00 am) to skate before school. I am a gymnast, as you may know, and also work hard five hours a day. Aside from sports, both my parents work full time. Judging by all this, it may not be so hard to imagine that it is very hard to find time when no one in our family has something important going on.

This summer, we found one week when we might be able to go on a much-needed vacation. One week. So, after a few weeks, my parents told us that we would be going to Paris for a week. That week, starts this Saturday. I've been thinking about how to prepare since the day I found out, but I only started packing yesterday. Let me tell you, it is a disaster. In France, casual is stepped up a notch. So casual to the french, is semi-formal to most americans. I'm trying to bring a variety of clothes but I just can't be sure that I'm bringing the right things.

Packing is one thing, but one other thing is going to be very tiring. Literally. Jet lag. I don't have anyway to prepare for the 10 hour flight and 8 hour time change. To tell you the truth, I'm kind of scared because I have been told plenty of stories about headaches, sickness, and nausea.

Still, aside from those two setbacks, I'm thinking I'm going to be having the time of my life. I can't wait to see everything and eat everything. I'm hoping that I'll be able to blog from my hotel, but I can't be sure.

I really hope I can get a picture like this and see the Eiffel Tower at night in person.