Our program had a three-day orientation. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we met other international students and then we had the rest of the week off. A group of us decided we would take advantage of our short break and plan a trip to Paris. First, there was 4 of us who were willing to go but then 3 more girls wanted to tag along and we thought WHY NOT THE MORE THE MERRIER.
We packed our bags and we headed to Paris. We decided to take a bus to Paris since it was very cheap and was an overnight trip. We thought it would be perfect because we would be able to sleep on the bus. However, to our surprise, it was the complete contrary. The bus was so full we had to sit next to complete strangers and with the trip being 6 hours it was awful. But, we did not let the bus ride ruin our trip. In fact, the first day ended up being a great one. We saw the Louvre Museum, drank delicious chocolate, and had a great time.
Overall the trip was amazing and so worth it. But, sometimes things were not peachy perfect. There were 7 girls on the trip, therefore, 7 people who wanted to see different things, had different sleep schedules, and different habits. It became problematic to pick what we all wanted to eat or to figure out our sleeping arrangements. We walked an average of 9 miles per day so you can imagine the toll it took on us.
I learned that traveling is not always as fun as it seems. It takes a lot of collaboration, consideration, and compromises. Also, spending 72 hours with someone you just met is difficult. Overall, I learned a lot from this trip. I learned that we all must work together. We must help one another. Sometimes I had to wake up my friends in the morning and other times they had to wake me up. One of my friends always had to GPS everything and by 12 pm her phone was dead so we began rotating phones. Sometimes we would get frustrated from all the walking so some of us decided to uber while others walked. I learned that it was okay to split up and that at the end of the day we do not always have to stay together. I loved the times I got to walk around the cathedral and just speak to myself while praying because sometimes we all just needed space.