The big day had finally arrived, I was heading to the airport... :D
I called up a taxi at 6:30am hoping they would arrive at 7:00am giving me plenty of time to go through airport security. I also wanted a few minutes to eat breakfast and say some "Goodbye's" to my homestay. Well 7:30am rolled around and there was no yellow cab insight. :( After calling several times the taxi man finally arrived a little after 8:00am. This wouldn't be so terrible except for the fact that the airport was 40 minutes away and now we would be caught in morning traffic. Worsties. I thought if this is how my travel experience is gonna be all day, I need some starbucks.
Well we finally made it to the airport and low and behold I saw the security line. Holy. Cow. THANKFULLY that wasn't MY security line, mine was in another part of the building and wasn't nearly as long. After going through security, I got my starbucks fix and waited for my flight. This was gonna be my last starbuks for awhile so I had to make it count. I didn't have long to wait thanks to the taxi man's lateness but whatever. I get in my seat and slept the whole way to New York City. I did wake up just in time to take a picture of one of my favorite cities from high up in the clouds. Very cool.
Once we landed at the LaGuardia airport the tricky part of the day was now at hand (or so I thought). I had to quickly grab my luggage and grab a taxi to take me to the JFK airport where I had to go through another set of security. :( Did I mention that it was 5:00pm in New York? UGH!!!!! Thankfully this taxi man had a better understanding of time than the one in Colorado. He got me there in plenty of time and was super friendly. I then talked to the AFI lady at the desk about my flight and she gave me the rundown and a map of the airport in Paris. I thought: "I need a map? Oh dear....what have I got myself into?" I go through security, not bad at all. I got a hotdog and was soon on my very long flight to Paris. 
I actually have never been to a foreign country and was a bit nervous about flying overseas but once up in the air I completely forgot about it. I watched two movies (Crazy, Stupid, Love and Friends with Benefits) and was THEN given a meal! YEA! Normally they ask you to pay for such luxuries but not this Gill! This was all part of the deal with AFI. Granted, I didn't really know what I was eating but hey, it was free. We then landed in Paris, yep I was in Paris, France for two hours haha! 
Once I got over that cool fact, I had to rush to my connecting flight but there was a slight problem. No one was helpful. I guess thats why the lady gave me a map. I got on a train that was supposed to take me to my gate. I think I got off at the wrong stop. I tried following the map, got lost. I asked someone who worked there for assistance, after following their instructions I realized that they told me the wrong place. So I asked someone else, ...they didn't speak english. Looked up at the signs and none of them said ANYTHING about gate G. I asked someone else where to go, they directed me to a shuttle bus outside. I then arrived at ANOTHER building and ended up having to go through security with my little tote bag. (My thoughts: Wait. What? Why?! UGH!) I then found someone who spoke broken english and they were headed towards gate G too. YEA! Needless to say I may have followed/stalked them for a bit but I made it just in time. Haha! Who knew being at an airport you had to have a map, take a train and a shuttle bus just to get to a plane, another form of transportation? Needless to see my warm feelings of being in Paris quickly melted away.After that experience, it then hit me like a brick. I'm in France...about to get on a small plane...with a bunch of smelly French people.....
Then I thought, I probably smell worse than all of them after what I've been through today.
Haha!
-Jen
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