After all that debacle yesterday with my sincere disliking for a certain airline, I am happy to announce that I have booked all my tickets and made all my arrangements for my summer travels and United is in no way a part of that.

side note: while searching and searching for tickets, at one point I did find a good ticket and it was United and I thought this just can't be and kept looking. Now I don't remember the price or times of that ticket but I don't care because I am not forced to fly with them and that is that.

Moving on...

In spending all this time searching for what I like to refer to as the "perfect" ticket which does exist for those cynical people out there, i had some time to reflect. A lot of time actually. For this whole week and part of last week I decided I needed to stay home and focus on my summer plans if I was to have any so that is what I have been doing this whole week. I would sit with my cash layed out before me counting it over and over again just hoping that somewhere a bill was stuck that I hadn't seen and I would have 50 more euros to spend. I spent hours searching every airline website you can imagine, in euros, in us dollars, the actual carrier to the cheap websites to anything you can think of, i probably looked at it...and several times. I have called my mom and my dad many many times to talk through my plans and to get feedback and just to ramble about my frustrations concerning the inflated airline prices during the peak summer months.

But atas, I am here to confirm that I have confirmed seats on multiple planes throughout the multiple summer months to multiple destinations and I couldn't be more relieved and more excited.

In my moments of reflection I realized that last summer I spent being paid to travel. It was glorious. 2 weeks in July spent in Romania on the beaches of the Black Sea and then another 2 weeks spent near St. Jean de Luz with a weekend in Bordeaux before that. And the weeks between were spent playing with two fabulous little girls in the parks under the Eiffel Tower. Yes, it was a lot of hard work. Imagine 24 hours a day work when we were on vacation, that kind of hard work. But I was paid to take several vacations.

vs.

This summer I am spending outrageous amounts just to come home. I digress. Sometimes that frustrates me to think that my plane ticket this summer is almost triple what I paid in February. TRIPLE. And just to go to Houston? I am sorry all you Houstonians, I do love you, and you should know that or else I wouldn't have decided to spend my entire life's earnings to come back, but in all honesty, I wish I could spend that traveling everywhere else I haven't been or seen before. (I will admit, I am a travel junkie... I will live off of 10 euros a week for food just so I can travel, yes, I am doing that now)

So here's the plan stan:

I am flying firstly to Michigan to spend a week with my soul sister Christina aka Bridget who I have not seen in nearly a year. I have dreamt about reuniting with her on the beaches of Lake Michigan since we met and especially since she left me here all alone last summer and now my dreams are going to become a reality. Her itty bitty town up in northern Michigan looks so picturesque that I squeal a little bit every time I think about how I am actually going!! It will, in fact, be our one year anniversary exactly of the last time we saw each other in Paris when I left her to sleep through the morning in my first big girl apartment in Paris as I had to leave with my family to catch a plane to Romania for a few weeks. Now we will be reunited on American soil. Yipee!

Then I'm off to Houston for 7 weeks but I cannot wait. I am thinking, as excited as I am to be there, I will most likely regret choosing to come back in the dead of summer when thats the best time of year to be in Paris. Paris in summer is like Houston in winter (if Houston even gets a winter). To think I will have stuck through both cities worst seasons amuses me. Or does it?

And after 7 most likely hot as heck weeks in Houston doing who knows what (anyone need some paid help???) I am off to London to partake in some goods friends wedding before returning to Paris for another tour in the city of light.

So if you're in the mood for stalking and love to follow my adventures then I just gave you a free ride. I am so happy to have plane tickets and train tickets and set plans so I can dream more vividly.

Oh, and to make this post an even better one... my lovely older sister (the only one I have) has decided to grace us with her appearance, here in Paris, so in 2 1/2 weeks she will here with me. I can.NOT.wait. My favorite thing: my two worlds colliding! Sister meet Paris. Paris meet sister. :-)

Have a great weekend Y'all!!!