My Amazing Trip to Paris...*cough, cough*...oh excuse me, must be coming down with something...homesickness? (PART 1)

Hello one and all.
I am really bad at writing on here, partly because I work most of the day and by the time the night comes I dont want to put much thought into anything.
Anyway, I would like to write this blog on my trip to Paris I had this last week. It all starts 4 weeks ago, just barely a week into my starting here in Switzerland, was I notified of my family going on a vacation for a week. Naturally, I would be invited to go with the family, and I was, however was strongly urged to take a trip elsewhere as they would be hanging out in a cabin up in the mountains. It was a paid vacation, and these dont come along too often.
At first, when I originally looked up trips everything was WAY expensive (partly due to short notice), so I decided NOT to go anywhere. As time went by in these last few weeks, I have gained some good friends from church, particularly a family in a village just 15 min away who are LDS as well. (more about them comes later...really nice family btw..) SO naturally I was hanging out at their house one day, when the mother told me there is a special going on with the trains to Paris and back. This peaked my curiosity and so when I arrived at home I looked up these deals online. Sure enough, I could get to Paris and back for only 90 francs!! (85 dollars!!) (60 euro for those who are from europe.. i say that like switzerland isnt part of europe. well it sorta isnt because we are super isolated from the rest thats going on..) OK so moving on...thats a great deal!!
SO.....after checking out hostels, etc I decided to book it. Afterall, I wouldnt want to hang out at home alone, nor would I like to go to a cabin and be with the kids all week straight after taking care of them day after day. Not that its a bad thing, we all like our vacations away from kids now and then. GOOD. everything was settled. I found a hostel online (through google) for only 18 euro a night which would put me at 74 euro total for the days I decided to go. (breakfast included!!) :D
As the next week grew, things at home (for me at least) felt like tension was growing. thats for another blog, but you can imagine how thankful I was for the day to finally arrive that I was to leave for Paris and away from Anwil for a while. Whoo hoo, finally a vacation, and to freaking paris!! This is alot of peoples dreams in America, and I was doing it! Everything went smoothly, I was on the right trains all the way to Paris.
With anticipation jolting inside me I arrived and was so excited to settle in my bed and breakfast and go tour paris! ( I arrived early, like around 12pm.) Well, before I left I printed out maps, of how to get to my bed and breakfast, tour companies, etc. Oh, how I love google maps...they are sweet!
GET READY FOR THE GOOD STUFF FOLKS....BECAUSE HERE IT IS!!
First thing I noticed when walking towards my bed and breakfast was how I was the only white girl on the street......thats strange I was pretty sure I was in Paris and thats in Europe which is majority white right? (thats not a predjudice thing...its fact.) Well, as if that wasnt strange enough, I was walking for a WHILE. It felt like forever, only because everyone was staring at me like I'm some kind of alien that walked off the mothership. Finally, I find my 'bed and breakfast'. ** please take note that when I say 'bed and breakfast' that I am being somewhat sarcastic..because it was hardly a place I would want to sleep, let alone EAT there as well. I found the door, pushed it open which led me to an area with really obscene graffiti (had to look up how to spell that...sad.) and everything was MAJORLY dirty and it smelled like pee and somethin else...so I went up to the door that had the bed and breakfast sign hanging off and rang the doorbell. NOTHING. well ok, so maybe I am early but someone should be there...then some french guy told me that I should come back around 2pm. Ok so thats an hour from when I was there. What to do??? so I walked over to starbucks and hung out for an hour. When I went back, again NO ANSWER. I waited and waited and waited until finally something told me to LEAVE IMMEDIATELY. Well I know some of you reading this dont exactly share the same view points on the spirit or religion, but for me being here I have had AMAZING things happen which definetly lead me to believe 100% but that comes later...so as the spirit has been right EVERY time I have had a problem, I decided to listen to it. So I left. GREAT. so now what??
Well, I decided that since that was randomly on the street that if I walk further into a better area that maybe I will find another bed and breakfast or hostel nearby. So I walk, and walk..and walk..and then walked a little more, until finally it really seems that there is not going to be a hostel anywhere or anytime soon. Well, I decided that I should try to find the tourist office and maybe see if they can help me. SO...I get my paper out and try to find it....Well if any of you have been to paris its FREAKING HUGE and complicated. None of the streets are really straight. They zigzag all over and the names of the streets are REALLY similar. Great, so after walking for another....2 or 3 hours I still cant find this stupid tourist office. I know I am in the right area, but its not there..(dont you hate it when that happends???...I do..and I did..) SO I stopped into a best western (yeah, they have those in france...but much MUCH nicer and much MUCH more expensive..) I asked the lady if she could help me and her face went from WAY friendly to OH GREAT....an american.....stone cold. She said she could only offer me a room for 250 euro (which is probably about 350 or more dollars) a NIGHT!! psh....yeah RIGHT, I aint gonna pay no 250 euro a night...** do not worry, I did not say it like that.
I asked if she could point me in a direction or tell me whats in the area and she just said she couldnt help me, and to just walk down the street and try to find something. Oh joy, how much more FREAKIN FRENCH could she get?? they are so helpful, and did I mention friendly?? oh and did I mention I was in PARIS?? yeah they hate americans, actually they hate almost everyone in the world...
SO without further a do...i kept walking. At this point its getting to be 4:30 pm. Its a race against time and darkness. I am standing in the middle of a VERY crowded area, alone, as a woman, with my suitcase, and nowhere to sleep tonight. Panic starts to hit me as I realize this. SO what do I do? what does anyone do when they are scared out of their MIND?!? I called my mom. lol of COURSE I call her. She is probably one of the last people I would want to call in a situation like that because for one, it would scare the CRAP out of her, and two she cant do anything about it. so I called her up to pretty much give her a heartattack?!? haha no but I called her anyway. Along with other people as well. (please keep in mind people that it is SUPER expensive to call ANYWHERE in Europe, at anytime.) so I called the US twice, well actually ended up being WAY more than that.. Switzerland to my friend who happened to know a guy who served his mission in paris, so she gave him my number so he called me and gave me more numbers to call so I called the missionaries, and an american guy and his wife who are LDS.
Guess what??? NO ANSWER. psh....at this point, well I sort of expected it, since everything else was going SO great. Finally as I am still walking around, my mom calls and says that a friend of a friend also served his mission there and he mentioned that by the eiffel tower there were some lower cost hotels and such. SO I booked it to the eiffel tower, which was by metro. I got on the wrong train (going in the wrong direction) then turned around and went the right way.
Finally I am at the eiffel tower.
OK SO THIS STORY IS SUPER LONG....I am going to have to say


TO BE CONTINUED.........................