As you can no doubt tell from the two brief blog entries before this one, I was just in Paris. I got back yesterday after spending a week there. The following batch of blogs will be some of my thoughts, photos, and observations of things in France.

On Friday, January 20, 2006, I flew out of Miami International Airport on my way to my first ever trip to a foreign country. It was the first time I've ever been to a country other than the US, where I was born and raised. What an educational experience that was!

I flew out on American Airlines in a seat in coach. 9 hours of being crammed into a very tight little seat on a plane. Literally, a 'Greyhound with wings.' The flight over wasn't bad. The plane was packed but I didn't have anyone sitting in the seat next to me. I was probably the only person on the plane who had an empty seat next to him. It was great. I put my carry on bag on the seat next to me and had easy access to all my 'time-killing' stuff in the bag. I was able to someone stretch out so I didn't feel too cramped. The 9 hours passed by fairly fast.

Rick's Traveling Tip #1: Noise cancelling headphones are fantastic! If you are going to be spending any time on a plane, buy a pair of these things right now. When you are on that plane, all you hear is the roar of the engines. It makes it hard to hear the headphones, whether you are watching the movie or listing to an iPod or whatever. The noise cancelling headphones did a fantastic job of cancelling out 90% of of the engine roar while I was in the air. You can even just put the headphones on, turn on the noise-cancelling feature and NOT listen to anything and it does a great job of cancelling out the noise. If you want to sleep on a plane, these would be a huge help. The only change I would have made is to buy a pair of headphones that go over the top of your head, instead of the behind the head style that I had. Since they went behind the head, it made it difficult to rest your head against the seat. The bar of the headphones in the back of your head caused the seat to push the headphones partially off your ears, reducing the noise-cancelling affect. By getting the 'over the head' style, this eliminates the bar on the back of your head getting in the way.