My name is John Jackson and I am a senior at Spring-ford High School. Over the summer I had a great opportunity to go across the world and visit the continent of Europe. As time passed, departure day was finally here. I was nervous and excited at the same time. That morning we all went to breakfast and had our last meal in the U.S. for eleven days .
My friends and I were off to the airport and everyone on the bus was excited. Everyone began to settle down I guess we realized we had a long trip ahead of us. We got to the airport and had a couple more hours of sitting to do before we were able to board the plane and sit for the longest part a nine hour flight. I stayed up the whole flight because I was excited or maybe it was just the crying baby who was wailing in my ear the whole time who knows.
After nine hours we finally landed in Italy, got our bags and met our tour guide. She was smiling and looked excited to see us but we were all exhausted and probably looked like we just wanted to sleep. The next morning we arrived at the Coliseum, I could not believe I was standing in front of this famous structure. As we walked up to it I was trying to remember my old history classes and what we learned about it. So much was going through my head, all the animals and great people who died fighting here. We took pictures and toured for awhile then went on to see the world famous Vatican. The Vatican was just as impressive since its one of the holiest places on Earth and the Pope lives there. After being in Rome for three days it was off to Switzerland where we stayed for three days. Switzerland was like a fairytale land because it was so pretty but what I was looking most forward to the most was Paris.
Driving up to France, and seeing the signs going by saying “France 136 miles” I was excited even though we were far away. When we got to France the first place we visited was the Eiffel tower which is 1000x better then what you see in your French book. Walking down the famous Champs de Elyse was so overwhelming just thinking about all the celebrities who shopped here. We stopped by the Louvre and we saw the Mona Lisa and I am not going lie, I was excited to tell people I have seen the actual Mona Lisa. The day had come to leave and I was ready to see all my friends and family.
When I got home my family was at the beach so I drove down to meet them and they were excited to hear about my trip. I had gotten up early the next morning because I was used to taking early tours. I got up and sat outside on the porch with my grandparents and told them every detail about my trip. They were smiling the whole time and telling me how proud they were of me. They said I had sounded so grown up and mature and they were happy I was so lucky to be able to see the world at such a young age. It really made me think about how I should take less for granted and be grateful for having such an opportunity. Going on this trip made me realize how much I want travel the world.
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