The Journey

Before we talk about the wondrous City of Love, it’s important to know about our flight there from good ol’ New Mexico.

Honestly, the flight from ABQ to ATL was no big deal. With every mile east, we got more and more excited for the destination. And so we began our European journey at the legendary Sunport. Little did I know or could even imagine how my life would change the moment I left New Mexico and would step on French soil for the first time. This photo was of our starting gate in Albuquerque’s finest and only airport, the first leg of our long overnight flight to Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris.

The first leg to Atlanta wasn’t too special as we sort of just did our own thing. Ronan was getting go-pro footage and drawing and I was learning how the Airplane displays worked and playing some games. When we made it to the International Terminal in Atlanta, as the video below shows our travels there, we had to wait a while for our next flight which leads me to the first of many subtopics:

Trying to Accomplish My Homework While Travelling in Europe:

I made this trip in September while school was in session, so there were consequences to that choice. Here’s a little insight of how I managed with the homework while in Europe, and the answer is, I didn’t, not too well anyway. And if you look at specifically my Perusall reading grades, there was a pretty steep drop, as I had limited time to do them. While yes, learning about the American Civil War is interesting and important for our 250+-year-old country, it doesn’t compare to the centuries of history I absorbed while walking the streets of these European destinations. So I retract my original thesis and want to suggest that it was, in fact, a manageable as well as positive and enlightening as a learning experience can be to enrich my life.

This was hands down the longest flight I have ever had to endure, at around 9 hours straight. Delta’s selection of films were wide, and my activity on the flight largely consisted of word games with other people online on the flight, and watching season 4 of The Office since that’s all they had, also The Matrix (the first one).

Arrival at Charles de Gaulle and The Long Flight is Over.

I had essentially no sleep the trip over, despite having the space and roominess of two seats. We made our way out of the airport here: