Doughnut Hole

As you might already know, here in France, every six to eight weeks, we get two weeks off of school. For some time now, my parents have been rambling about the surprise trip they were going to take me and Nola on during the vacation. They told us nothing other than what to pack. I expected to go to Greece; my parents had asked us for some places in Europe where we'd want to go and we'd both told them Greece. If my mom and dad hadn't said about one million times that this year, we're not leaving Europe, I would have thought we'd be going home to Walnut Creek, CA.

Turns out, I was right. My mom, Nola, and I arrived to the airport and I still didn't know where we were going. When my mom asked me to hold our flight itinerary, I asked if I could look at it. Guess what I found???

Trying to make my face neutral again, because I was worried that my face might stay glued in my giant smile, I felt a feeling that I hadn't felt for the past six months. I was relaxed. I would finally get to see my family and friends again before heading back.

I was really excited- but at the same time, I felt a little bit like I didn't want to leave Paris, either. I thought that it would make the year... incomplete. I envisioned it like a doughnut hole, the doughnut almost full, but with a gap. The doughnut part was the six months so far of being in Paris, and the six months coming up, and the hole was the two weeks we were going to be home.

I was still overjoyed, though. The airplane ride took a whooping eleven hours, and if you didn't see my very first post, I wrote it at the airport, and I said that plane food tastes like dead skunk with lizard-flavored gravy. Oh, I was so right.

The next morning, we were at my grandma and grandpa's house, where we were staying.

The next two weeks were filled with family and friends. There was my uncle's birthday party, I hung out with my neighbors, my two twin cousins were born, my grandpa had his birthday, I went to my friend's house, and much, much, more, but best of all, I got to go to my house to visit my wonderful kitty-cat, who's staying with our house-sitters.

There were a lot of highlights from our visit, but one of my favorite days was when some of my best friends came over and we ate Chinese food and drank root beer. Actually, there was poison in the Chinese food, so our faces got all mutated and everything.

 Our trip was great- but I missed Paris. Returning for a visit to Walnut Creek didn't cause a doughnut hole. It caused a smile.