Getting to Nirvana {editing}

Chapter 9

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path ~Buddha

Chapter 9

Nirvana

After over 9 hours the plane finally lands. I yawn, stretch and look over to where Daniel is sleeping. He slept basically the whole plane ride! I check my phone and find over 100 missed calls from my parents. I feel guilty from just looking at the number.

I look out the plane window to see its pitch black outside. I check the time and see that its minutes to 12:00. In Texas its probably only 4:00 pm at the most. I have to shake off the nostalgia that threatens to take over. I have to stop thinking about home.

I wake Daniel up and we trudge off the plane. My feet feel numb from sitting for so long.

"What time is it?" Daniel asks as we collect our luggage from the baggage claim. "I'm starving!" We look around the airport for a restaurant. Everything is written in French with a few English subtitles which is a really different change in scenery.

"Look a McDonald's!" Daniel points out.

"Before we even eat anywhere we have to change our American money into Euros. So we might want to look for an ATM instead."

We finally find an ATM next to the ticket counters. "How much money are you turning into Euros?" I ask. I put in 250 bucks which is most of my money. "600 bucks." He answers casually.

My eyes widen at the number. "How much did you bring?"

"That's all of it. But because of the baggage fees it's more like 570 now. How much money did you bring?"

"400 bucks." I mutter.

"How much?"

"400. But it's more like 365 now."

"You only brang 365 bucks!"

"It was all I had!"

"So how exactly did you expect to pay for hotel and food?"

"I don't know! As you can see I'm not a rational thinker!"

He snorts. "Obviously. That's why I'm the legal adult here." He claps his hands together,"Now let's go to McDonald's!"

We go to the McDonald's and place our order. The girl behind the counter doesn't speak English so we have to point to what we want. Daniel pays for my food much to my objection. "We can't have you running out of money on the first day. Now can we?" He simply states. We get our food and sit down at one of the booths.

"So check out girl was cute."

I roll my eyes.

"Guess who got her number?"

I stare at him in disbelief. "You don't even speak French! How are you even supposed to talk to her?"

"We don't have to do much talking. If you know what I mean." He winks at me over his burger.

"Your so classy."

"So I already set up the hotel reservation." Daniel says as we finish our burgers.

"Yeah? Really? How much?"

"20 euros a night and 60 euros a week."

"Wow. That's pretty cheap. I'm impressed."

He smirks "You don't give me enough credit."

We then head outside to catch a cab. Soon it starts raining though, so naturally I get soaked. Luckily Daniel has a windbreaker. He takes it off and fashions it over both our heads like an umbrella. "Who still has a windbreaker?" I question. "Me. Be more grateful. This windbreaker just saved your life."