And I Have Arrived

So it has been a long day and night, but I have finally made it to Morocco and am currently sitting on a giant comfy couch. Last night my family brought me to the airport which was a very difficult task and I was almost unable to leave them- but then I did…

I made my way to my gate and the 6 hour and 52 minute flight actually wasn’t so bad. I slept most of the way after playing bookworm on the TV. That’s right- continental has games on their touch screens televisions. Although I was in the front row of the plane and did not think I had a TV but when I questioned the stewardess, voila! The TV pops out from under the chair. The family sitting next to me was really nice. The lady right beside me took an Ambien pill to sleep and as soon as she fell asleep, the inevitable happened and the urge to pee came along. Well she got up and headed to the bathroom in a wobbly fashion, tripped and fell into the other row of people and knocked over all of their trays of food and soda… needless to say they weren’t too happy. But it was pretty funny. I fell asleep a few times, waking myself as my head fell forward. When I woke up each time I had little waves of anxiety that I was stuck in the air and couldn’t go home and the plane seemed to copy my emotions at the same time. It would hit a lot of turbulence and give me more worry. Still, the flight went pretty fast.

Once I arrived in France, which by the way, I saw the Eifel Tower from my window. Not as cool as actually seeing it in person, but still cool to me! Anyway, I arrived in the rain and we weren’t brought to Charles de Gaulle de huge airport. We had to shuttle to the building which made me a teensy bit nervous because everyone was rushing around trying to squeeze on the shuttle. I had to ask where our luggage would be and then we were off. We got to the airport and went through customs, the man was really nice and told me I should stay in Paris because the men in Morocco are jealous and crazy. AFter I waited about twenty minutes for my luggage, and the thought they lost it was in the back of my mind ticking away, I had to ask about four more people how to get to my terminal. They all said a five minute walk. This must have been a mean French joke they play on little helpless Americans because it was a thirty minute walk. No lie. The girls were like “You walked?? Our tram was at least 15 minutes!” Well the sweat dripping off of me and the heavy suitcases I pulled did not help the situation. It was a awful half hour. Once I got to my terminal I couldn’t figure out how to get my boarding pass but eventually got the machine to work. As I was in line to check my bag onto the Air France flight to Morocco, I heard my name and there was the beautiful marge! We got to our terminal together and called my parents. Once we got there we found two CSS girls named Liz and Chelsea-both so nice, the four of us immediately clicked. This next flight was 2 ½ hours and it seemed so much longer than the first. We were all separate on that flight, I was smushed in between two very nice people without televisions. The lady to my left was born and raised in Morocco but lives with her husband in France. She told me about Morocco and gave me her number in case I needed help while I was here. All of the French were so nice to me. There was a crazy old man on the plane who kept wandering around and telling people crazy stories. They had to literally push him into his chair three times as we landed. But he was a cute and harmless man rambling in French. We landed in Morocco and had to get checked for Swine flu- anyone not from France or Morocco- and this customs took longer than anything else. Once we met our CSS leader Mohammed and exchanged our money for Dirham, we headed to the house. It took a while to leave because they lost Chelsea’s luggage!! I feel awful. So we drove around and Morocco is beautiful, it is 85 degrees, if I calculated from Celsius correctly, and palm trees a’blowin. The house is soo beautiful. Margie Chelsea and four other girls and myself got the biggest room with the biggest veranda. Each room has their own bathroom, and right now we are all sitting in the ‘lounging room.’ Dinner is at seven each night and we go over our schedules tomorrow. I showered while everyone went to the mall down the street because I felt gross, and me marge and a few other girls unpacked our things into our own closets- we each get our own! So that’s good. And I just found out-free internet!! Mom, that’s great huh? I don’t have too many pictures yet since we just arrived, but I will gather more to put on. For now, that’s a lot of detail, but everything is fresh in my mind. Mom Dad Lex Leigh- I miss you too much.

So for now, au revior! Besalaama! I’ll write again soon.

-Lacey