#3 One Significant Person or Significant Event freewrites and expand it (freewrite, 10 minutes)

Back to the study abroad event over the summer of 2009. As I said, it may not have been the most influential event in my life, but it sure was the most exciting. I remember first getting into Paris because I was so confused and scared of my unusual surroundings. Things got much worse when our luggage got stuck in London because of the plane having trouble and landing too late. This just put the clincher on a bad start to my new beginning in a different country. I remember vividly wondering around the airport at Charles de Gaule just being too overwhelmed by the heavily armed guards and culture shock in general. Once my fiancée and I made it out of the airport and to the hostel we were staying in, things got much better. Not only did i get to meet my study abroad leader and group, but I finally had a chance to have some time to myself to contemplate the culture shock that I was having at that point. Moving from this tense and delicate situation, I became much happier and content with the way the trip was turning out, so much that I could say that I actually loved living in Paris. By visiting the various landmarks and important places I really opened up an interest for wandering and adventure seeking in new ways. Other than this broadening of my horizons, I also became very deeply acquanted with the French way of life, which made me realize that the American way of life isn't the only way, and that just maybe our way of life is sub-par in some aspects. During the freetime when my fiancée didn't want to venture out, I stayed inside, contemplating the entire situation, and by the end of the trip I was sure that I wanted to travel more over the next several years so that I would be able to open myself to even more cultures and people. Not only do I want to roam all over the world, but i really miss and feel like I need to be back in Paris, it was just that good. Just from this single month in Paris my ideas were tuned, and my attitude matured as to how I wanted to live the rest of my life. I feel that without this I would probably have been stuck here in the United States, cloaked from the outside world without a clue about how the rest of the world actually functions in a day to day setting.