I'm here!

Hey everyone! I made it!

Thanks for all of you for *thinking* about me during the past two days. It was a LONG two days, that’s for sure!

Mom and Dad and I spent the night with Allie and Chris in ATL so we could be closer to the airport. It was great to get to spend a little more time with them. We arrived at the airport in time to check in my baggage and eat together. I had four suitcases (one of which was overweight – well, I had three that were but they only charged me for one), my laptop case and my bookbag. Whew!

There were hundreds of military men and women preparing to leave. As they lined up to walk to their gate, everyone stood and cheered and clapped for them. It made me cry! It was very touching. It made me realize how great my home country is!

After eating lunch, Mom, Dad and Allie said goodbye to me. The airport really wasn’t that crowded. I was through security in five minutes. Once I got to the other side, I had a “mini melt-down” as it FINALLY sank in how long I’ll be gone.

The flight to Paris was pretty good. I didn’t sleep much at all. I had an empty seat beside me, so that allowed me to stretch out some. I did watch the movie RV with Robin Williams. It got my mind off flying and made me laugh. The really funny thing is that a French family that befriended me was flying home from a one month RV trip across the States. They were cracking me up.

The Paris airport. That’s a story in itself. Talk about frustrating! I did find my way around easily, but because of everything going on in the world, they had extremely long lines. I waited over an hour and a half just to transfer. Good thing I had over three hours in between flights!

I met an American girl about my age at the terminal. She is in the Peace Corps and has lived in this country for eleven months. It was nice to talk to her. We boarded the plane, headed out to the runway, and then stopped. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. Then they came on in French and started talking. Then in English. We were having “technical difficulties.” Don’t you just love how they disguise engine trouble that way? Because that’s what we had. I started *thinking* real hard about us being able to switch planes. I didn’t want them coming to “fix” it and then us taking off.

We did switch planes and didn’t leave until four hours after we were supposed to. I was definitely ready to be there by this time. Two and a half hours later we had landed. I had an easy-breezy customs and check-in. My two organization people were there to greet me. All my luggage arrived! Thank you for your thoughts!!!!! Isn’t He amazing?

I’m trying to hurry and type this so that my battery doesn’t run out. I’m skeptical about hooking my laptop up to the power over here…even with an adaptor. I just don’t want to risk it until I find out more details.

The night was finished off wonderfully. I unloaded my things, got a shower, and headed down to the grass for a bonfire! Yep, that’s right! It was breezy and cool here and some people were even wearing sweatshirts! We roasted hotdogs (beef only) and marshmallows. We had paprika potato chips, pasta salad, and Fanta orange drink. It was great getting to meet some people who I had talking with before on email and blogs. Some even said, “You’re Shannon!”

I LOVE my apartment. Can’t wait to send you pictures. Sorry it’s mostly my rambling right now. But I think I’ve officially been up over thirty-six hours.

Love you all!