Home again, home again, jiggety jig

Welp, I survived. France was amazing... the flight(s) back to the States was also amazing, but in a different and definitely less fun way. I left Paris at 11:30 AM on Friday (after getting up at 6:30 so we could get the car turned in by 8) and stepped into by house at 1 AM Saturday. With all the time changes, it was a 27 hour day and my body is still freaking out about it. I flew from Paris to Frankfurt and sat next to a British/French girl (born in London but moved to France when she was young) and we talked to the whole flight. Turned out she was flying to LA like I was, so we talked our whole layover in Frankfurt, along with this creepy 40 something businessman from Orange County who butted into our conversation, was about 5'2'', and certainly felt like he had to make up for it. After finding out that this British/French girl (we shall call her N) was headed to LA, he offered her a ride on his Harley, his boat, and in his Porche and insisted that he could take her to "all the best clubs, restaurants," blah blah blah. You could tell he just wanted to show off... but anyway. After finding out I was from Utah, he inquired, but in an accusatory way, "Are you MORMON?!" Of course I responded, "Yes, I am," after which he proceeded to insist that we continued to practice polygamy and was shocked when I told him we ended polygamy some years ago. (You know, it's funny when people outside the church tell you what your church believes in and practices. I guess they would know, right?) I explained that FLDS does not equal LDS but despite this man's egotism, I'm glad for the opportunity I had to defuse commonly held misunderstandings about the church to at least one person.

Anyway, turned out N and I were pretty close to each other on the 11 hour flight across the Atlantic but not close enough to talk at all, which was a bummer because she is really cool. We met up again after going through customs and waited for our luggage together, which we both thought wouldn't show up. Thankfully it did and after exchanging email addresses, we parted ways. I had a French Book of Mormon with me and while I probably should have just given it to her, I couldn't bring myself to do it!!! I just didn't feel like I could shove it in her face, but hopefully we'll be able to keep in contact and I'll be able to refer her to the missionaries or something.

The flight from LAX (which is a dump of an airport, might I add) to SLC felt long, probably because I only slept about 3 hours total throughout the day, but I am happy to be home. France was fantastic, but rather exhausting. Anyway, I'm safe and alive. I'll make a gigantic post about the trip in the future, complete with numerous pictures. But as for now, I'm just trying to get my sleeping habits back to normal.