Gap Year| Paris

First of All|1

I was getting major stress. What do you pack for a, at least, 6 month work placement. Pack my river island white lace sleeveless shell top with just a simple black skater skirt (formal(ish)) or an H and M 3/4 length, raglan sleeved Jersey top with a basic black bell-shaped skirt and ankle boots (informal) Constantly clocking the time I started to panick. "The taxi is coming is coming at 4:00am and it's now 11:00pm and and...." I whispered under my breathe to busy to really finish my sentence. Okay, toiletries-packed, travelling clothes-out and ready, suitcases-all packed and BREATH! I dragged myself to bed but in my gut, I still felt like I had forgotten something.
I put my earplugs in and cooling eye mask on and forced myself to sleep.

*4 and a half hours later*

The alarm clock rattled through my head. I moaned and splatted out of bed. I was a quite organised person when I had to be. I wrote a list saying "1/2 an hour to:
- get dressed. Clothes on the bed
- brush hair and teeth. Then pack them in the toiletries bag!
- eat breakfast. Grab an apple, breakfast bar and bottle of smart-water for a snack later
- CHECK FOR CHARGERS, an individual charger for each device
- bring all bags down. Next to the door
- Lock all windows and doors
- wait for taxi, then leave :) "
Slowly but surely I stayed on time and unstressed; in fact I was sitting around waiting for the taxi to come.

Three of my bags squeezed into the boot of the cab but my hand luggage was on the seats besides me.
It was a long drive, with really irritating music bouncing through the car and made my head spin. The seats were very comfortable with the edges of the chairs almost grabbing hold of my arms and cushioning my body.

It was my first time flying alone, but it seemed pretty obvious what to do (I thought) Firstly I walked over to check in. "Can I see your booking confirmation?" Said the easy jet lady at the front desk. "Ummmm..." I stuttered looking pretty confused. The lady had her hair gelled perfectly back into some twisted, pinned bun. Shocking red lips and her orange uniform stood out from the blue wall she stood in front of. She looked at me like I was wasting her time-I looked around queues now filled the check in place of the airport. " What does the booking conformation look like exactly because you know I printed out lots of pieces of paper" I asked smiling trying to act mature and like I knew what I was doing. "Yes, of course," the lady took a breath before continuing "it has a bar code and a sequence of letters or numbers... It does also say BOOKING CONFIRMATION on it" she began to raise her tone of voice towards the end. " oh of course yes, here you go" I handed it to her very calmly "well your luggage is under the limit, okay..." She continued to do the uniformed check in service before she let me through. 2 hours to pass through security and passport control. The queues for security and all the other things wasn't to long so I had an hour till my flight to Paris !!!:)

I breezed through the airport shops but only really bought stuff from boots ( I wanted to save my money for Paris) deodorant, sun cream (I couldn't believe I forgot some!!), some new rayban sunglasses (a little more expensive but they were so nice) Batiste Tropical scented dry shampoo. I sat in the airport canteen and had my last proper English Breakfast until 6 months time. I went full out scrambled eggs, sausage, toast, tomatoes, mushrooms and hash browns (no bacon, I really don't like bacon) I devoured that quite slowly but by the time I had finished it was time to start heading towards the gate. I was doing a very unnatural sprint/walk towards gate 4 because I did not want to miss the flight and I like to be early rather than late. After queuing for 10 minutes I was onboard, neck pillow on, earphones in and ready to leave England. It was 7:00am.

Madeleine (the new owner/my new boss) paid the extra cost for first class so I was sat in a luxury chair with like a 1 meter square bubble of personnel space. On the plane I just simply looked through all the plans and confirmations about my accommodation, rent and job.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Herds of people walked off the plane in a disorganised clump. Being a medium to small person I couldn't t see much further past a mature, stick-thin, brunette; it didn't help that her hair was twisted so high it resembled the Eiffel Tower. Oil smells in the air were dissolved by the expensive perfume circling around the lady.
Like light at the end of the tunnel, I emerged from the airport. The weather was thumping down with everything it had; lightning, thunder, hail and rain - it hadn't quite seen the light yet.