BeCaUsE oNe ViSiT tO PaRiS iS nOt EnOuGh...

Friday, November 21st

I slept in a little bit today, in order to try and get some extra rest for my upcoming weekend, but really didn’t get too much sleep at all, so that was disappointing. I showered and packed and got everything ready to leave for my second trip to Paris. Today the plan was for Becca and her mom to fly in, and we would leave for Paris afterwards… however things did not run so smoothly…

Their flight was supposed to arrive at 11:30am, however didn’t end up landing until 2:30pm. Luckily, I had looked up the progress of the flight online and knew what was going on, and started preparing for changes. I looked up other train times and availability, tube delays and which lines were running, and other factors that would affect or potentially further delay our departure. I decided to head over to ISH to wait for their phone call so that I would be right outside of the tube station, and bought dinner for all of us to eat, as I knew there would be no time before we left.

The finally made it through customs by 4:00, when they called me from a payphone to tell me the progress. Once they called, we rearranged our plans a bit and I left straight to meet them at a new meeting point- Kings Cross Station. Here, I exchanged our train tickets for a later time. The tickets I purchased were non-refundable/non-exchangeable tickets, however I got lucky with the counter I went up to at customer service, and then man was very helpful and nice, and exchanged all three tickets for free.

I waited in front of the ticket office for a while, and decided now would be a good opportunity to call and wish Nick good luck once more before his game. We talked for a bit and then I waited some more… A beep came over the intercom followed by the words ‘Last call to board for the 15:35 train to Paris Gare Du Nord.’ Yup- we missed our second train.

I decided just to wait for Becca and her mom at the meeting point discussed to avoid further difficulty, and finally around 6:00 they made it through the St. Pancras entrance. We decided to try to exchange our tickets once more and then head out still that night. We were incredibly lucky and I got to the same man at the customer service desk (the odds weren’t that great as there were 7 or so attendants- we were really lucky) and he exchanged them FOR FREE again! Since we had over an hour before our train departed, Becca and I booked it back to my room to drop off their extra luggage and came back. By 7:40, we were finally set, and on a train to Paris.

On the train I let them use my phone to call home to let Becca’s dad know they made it alright, and he also informed us that Kimberly was ahead 7-0 in the second quarter, and Nick had some outstanding plays. This made me happy since the wireless internet I had been counting on during the train ride, wasn’t available as I had hoped. (Andy was going to go on AIM and give me the play by play... thanks anyway buddy!)

We made it to Paris by 11, and off the subway to the hostel, checked in and back downstairs by midnight. Despite how late it was we still wanted to walk around a little bit and see the city, so we took a walk down the Champs Elysee to the end of the Egyptian obelisk to catch a view of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc d’Triumph lit up at night. We made it back by 2:00am, and I called Nick for a bit before bed to hear the news of the Kimberly state game. They WON! I cannot imagine the emotion and energy going through those boys heads, having just won their second consecutive state championship, and as nick said, knowing that as a senior, this was the last time you would ever be wearing that jersey. He was so excited, and so happy, and it was great to talk to him. Even so, I wish I were there…