Our first day in Paris was very beautiful. We got off the train at about 5:00 (Paris time) and then we went to get the tickets for the subway. This is where we had our first problem, we decided to stop in the middle of the train station, and put all of our bags on the ground and go get a ticket. The first place that we went to had a medium line and when we finally got to the machine it didn't take credit cards. Then we went to another machine with an even bigger line. When we finally got our tickets and found the train, we could catch our breath. With HEAVY bags on our backs, sweaty, tired, and hungry we were all a little bit on edge. I am sure we yelled at a few French people. When we finally got out of there we promised that we would try our hardest never to do that again. Then we tried to find our apartment, when we finally did the landlord did not speak English, thank god she had her translator (daughter) with her. The apartment was very cute, perfect for us. The next thing we did was try to find a place to eat, we found a very cute (and very good) food stand. We got some creps and started walking to find our first tourist attraction, the Eiffel Tower. I was disappointed because I had left my phone at the apartment to charge and we couldn't go back to get it. We decided to rent some bikes and bike to the Eiffel Tower (because walking would take an hour). So we hopped on our bikes and got going. In Paris, they have a law that you can’t ride your bikes on the sidewalk. Of course, this got many people in the family worried. So, we just decided to get going, we had a hard time actually riding the bikes because buses would play a game where they would see who could hit the most tourists. When we finally made it out alive, we added “biking” to the list of things we will never do again. Then we started to walk the distance from where we returned our bikes to the Eiffel Tower. Once we got to the Eiffel Tower, we walked over to the ticket booth, and then we realized, like everything in Paris, it had a line. Because we were impatient and bored, we stayed under the Eiffel tower. If you don't already know, there are people in Paris (especially around the Eiffel Tower) that sell little trinkets and they’re persistent. One came up to me and kept asking me to buy his stuff, I had to keep telling him and telling him no! Then we decided it wasn't worth it and went home. When we finally got back to our house we were wiped. We immediately went to bed.

The morning started out normally, my mom and dad waking my brother and I up, and going to do school work. The one thing that was missing was breakfast (because in Burford we would just get cereal, but here we didn't have any food), so we went on a walk to get some pastries. We stopped at a very cute shop a few steps from our house and got a baggett, a croissant, and a palmier. Then we started heading up to the apartment, when we got to the top of two flights of spiraled stairs, we gave Peter the key, and he started to try to open the door. When he couldn't get it open, I wasn't worried because you had to turn it a certain way, and dada had done it multiple times. So he started to try. When I looked at my moms face she looked shocked and said, “oh no, we left the key in the other side of the door.” We all stood in silence for what felt like forever, and then we started asking, “what are we going to do??” We finally decided to go ask the landlord that lived just one flight down. I guess she didn't have her translator with her because when she came up my dad was trying to use sign language to speak to her. I don't think she understood what we were saying because she thought that the stupid Americans didn't know how to unlock their door. She was laughing until she tried to open the door, then she just looked confused again. When she finally got it, she looked shocked. Then she got to work calling locksmiths. My mom, my brother and I started to try and help but it was really my dad, the locksmith, and the landlord. Then we stopped getting in their way and ate our breakfast on the stairs and talked. Then we got assigned to go and find a ladder for them to use to climb up to my open window. So we began our search, we walked one block down and immediately see something that could hook together to make a long ladder to get to my window. We tried to explain our situation, but they looked confused, when they finally understood they said no. This was going to be harder than we expected. Then after walking for a little bit we came across another ladder that my mom was convinced would work. So we explained the situation to the construction workers, again another no, but that didn't stop my mom, “what if I give you her?”, she pointed to me, I froze. I was five seconds away from sprinting, but they just shook their heads. Disappointed, but not done yet, she continued, “what about my passport or my drivers license?” The list went on and on, but they wouldn't take anything. Defeated, we left and started walking back home, when I asked my mom why she was willing to give me up but not Peter, she just simply said, “because I didn't need you, I mean, I would have needed Peter to help me carry it back”. I couldn't help but laugh. We got back to the apartment, to find yet another person working on the door, and my dad explained to us, “we decided to change our plans, we are now trying to get threw the apartment next door to get to the window, and because the distance from his apartment window to our apartment window is so small, someone could walk on the ledge over to my bedroom and unlock the door from the inside”. My dad then pointed at the new guy, “he is our neighbors landlord.” Later on we found out that the neighbor wouldn’t let us into his apartment. Then more waiting and waiting until we got bored and we decided to go show dada the ladder that we thought would work, turns out it didn't, how disappointing, I was outraged, my mom of 12 years was about to give me up for a ladder that didn’t even work!! After we got home, we heard a strange noise like a drill, confused my dad went to go check it out. When he came back he said, “yeah, they are drilling through the door.” My mom instantly took it as we are going to have to get a new door. More and more drilling, then he leaves and comes back with what looked like a twisted hanger and some pliers. Later we heard more drilling. Finally, we heard a sound that made us look up and smile, we heard the “click” of ….the door being unlocked. We ran inside and thanked everyone so much over and over and over again.