Final post recapping the trip:
Day 11 continued (5/26): On the total of 10 hour bus ride we found out that due to the British Airways strike we would not by flying from London to Baltimore. Half were going to Philly and the other half to Chicago then Baltimore. That put a damper on the whole bus ride, but we made the most of it. We got to Paris eventually and went out to dinner. Rather than going out to these bars a bunch of us just went back to hang out at the hotel bar.
Day 12: In the morning we headed outside of Paris to meet the reps from Disneyland Paris. After the meeting we were able to go into the parks for the day, which was the greatest news I could have hoped for. In the park we went to Big Thunder Mountain first, which had an annoyingly long line. After that I made sure that we went to the Haunted Mansion, or as it is there, the Phantom Manor. The Haunted Mansion was my favorite ride growing up and I still love it. This one was a lot of the same, but a bit different too. The younger ride allowed better effects, but the ride itself wasn't as enjoyable. We then went on Pirates of the Caribbean, which was also a lot of the same. There was an Indiana Jones roller coaster we went on which was fun but painful in the rain. We then went to the other park to go on Tower of Terror: amazing in Paris and Orlando. We went to Rock n Roller Coaster, but by time we got to the station it had broken down and was closing. The park closed around 6:30, and we were on our way back to the hotel. I was pretty beat from the day so that night I went to an Internet cafe and got nice and lost on the train on the way. But I got to see the Eiffel Tower and Arc De Triumph at night which were nice
Day 13: Our morning site wizit was cancelled so we got to sleep in. In the afternoon we went to Microsoft's European headquarters which was really interesting. That night we had a river cruise of the Seine River. Afterwards, we went as a big group to an ice bar in the middle of a terrible neighborhood in Paris. It was 38 Euro cover and my camera died, but 100% worth it as pictured above. We got a half hour in the ice part, and got 5 drinks. Drink 1 tasted like bubble gum. Drink 2 was lemon basil. Drink 3 was oragney. Drink 4 was vodka and chocolate chips and was horrible. Drink 5 was just straight vodka, also rough. But it was a fun time, as was drinking at the hotel bar afterwards.
Day 14: On our last full day we had a free day in Paris. A lot of us took a bus tour in the morning, but about half of us got off at the Eiffel Tower. We walked by it and I harassed the vendors that were harassing us. We then went to the Arc De Triumph and got lunch before heading back to the hotel. At night we all got dinner together and there were some epic speeches made. With a long day ahead we just hung out at the hotel bar with some other American students at the hotel.
Day 15 (5/30): Oh what a long ass day. I'll give it in local times but Eastern Standard Time as well. I woke up at 6am Paris (Midnight EST), got breakfast and checked out. We got to the airport around 9 something (3am EST) and it was a mess checking in. We flew to London and got there after 11 am London (6am EST). The Philly people left and we headed to our gate. We found a TGIFriday's there and it was like finding buried treasure. We left London at 2:30pm (9am EST) and were on our way to Dallas (oh yeah, Dallas is NOT a district of Chicago we found out a couple days earlier despite what we hoped.....). After 10 hours on a plane and 10 minutes of sleep, we arrived in Dallas at 6:30 pm (7:30pm EST). BUT....it wasn't so simple. First we missed the runway because another plane was landing. THEN it was a storm, so we had to wait outside of customs for our luggage.
We got it eventually, around 7:30 pm Dallas (10pm EST) and went to our next gate. Then, once we got there, THEY MOVED OUR GATE. Back on the tram! We get to our gate and finally depart around 9:20 Dallas (10:20 EST). Keep in mind my iPod is long dead at this point. The flight was short cause I slept for a solid 2 hours or so on it. Some woman on the plane was being such a pain in the ass that we almost had to land in Nashville. I would have killed someone if we did... Anyway, we land in Baltimore around 1:20 am Eastern Standard Time, and I finally get back at school around 2 am. For those of you keeping track at home, I was up from 12am Sunday until 2am Monday EST. That is 2 hours of sleep over the course of a 26 hour day. I was not a happy camper.
Crappy return home aside, these were the best 2 weeks of my life. I had a great time with all 31 in our group (28 students, 2 instructors, and Hans), and had fun the whole trip. I made new friends, became closer with old ones, and completely changed my opinions on some people. All in all it was worth any hassles, and I'm so glad I did it. Pictures are on my facebook and tagged as well, so check them out.
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