The plane rides were very long, but I'm very grateful that my parents were able to see me off from my gate in Salt Lake. That was a huge blessing. On the way to Cincinnatti I sat next to a woman who was going to visit Georgia, where she grew up, though she informed me that she's been married for 61 years to a guy from Utah so she's been living there. She was a pretty cute old woman.
Then I had my two hour layover in Cincinnatti. I didn't do much; I walked around because I knew I'd be sitting for a while. I did talk to five of the eight elders who would be on the plane to Paris; they are going to serve in Ukraine. On the flight to Paris, three of the elders sat in the middle row behind me and three more sat five seats in front of me and I'm not sure where the other two were, but they were on the plane. Their presence allowed me to talk a little bit about the Church to my neighbor, John.
John was a fun guy to sit next to. He's been married for nineteen years to a little Filipina woman (he's 6'3"). He has two daughters that look nothing like each other because one takes after him (Anglo) and the other takes after his wife. He told me about his conversion from Lutheranism to Pentecostalism. We talked about schooling--mine and his. He actually knows where Livonia is because he used to work there when he lived in Dearborn and went to Henry Ford Community College.
I had a horrid stomachache pretty much my whole journey yesterday and today--it started on the flight to Cincinnatti. Towards the end of the flight to Paris, he told me that he would pray for me. I responded by saying I'd been doing that the whole time and it wouldn't help if his prayers joined mine. When I landed in Paris, my stomachache gradually went away as I wandered around the beautiful and stylish terminal, but then it returned on our crazy ride to the hotel.
So Rem always complains about Utah drivers--a lot of people complain about Utah drivers. Holy cow! If you want to see crazy drivers, come to Paris. There are people on scooters in every space between cars, people are honking their horns and never slowing down. I was grateful I wasn't the one driving. But my stomachache did return during the drive and then left after a while once we got to the hotel.
I haven't done much exploring yet. I was dead dead tired when we got here. I couldn't sleep for very long but I couldn't manage to get myself up off of my bed and go be with the others in my group, so I was alone in my room (because Grace isn't here; she's with an old roommate right now). Because of my tiredness and laziness and inability to muster the willpower to get up, I missed my opportunity to go to the Directors' apartment and call home. That made me sad. I really wanted to talk to my parents real quick. But I guess I'll get to do that on Sunday.
Not all my posts will be as long as this one but I'm just sitting here locked in my hotel room with no where to go because everyone else is gone and I can't leave by myself.
It's strange thinking I'm in Paris. I can't wait till I have some more structure in my schedule again. And get a good night's rest. Je suis à Paris!
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