Hi, my name is Marina MacDougall. I live in Solana Beach, California and I am 9(and 1/2) years old. in a few days, I 'm going on a trip to Europe! I've traveled a lot before, to places like Seattle and Spokane, Washington, to San Francisco, California, to Los Angeles, California, New York City, Old Orchard Beach, Maine, and many, many, other places. I've even been to Vancouver, Canada. But aside from that, I've never been out of the country. Not even to Mexico, which is kind if ironic, because we live so close to the border. Even more ironic, even though I travel all the time, I absolutely hate plane flights, because I used to get airsick. For some reason, even thought I get airsick and carsick, i don't get seasick. (Personally, I think it has something to do with me being 25% mermaid. Shh!!!) Luckily, I don't throw up any more, like I did when I was little, but I still feel nauseous when I step foot on a plane. And my mom gives me Dramamine to help my motion sickness.

Here's the idea for the trip. We drive two hours to Los Angeles, California. Then, from there, we catch a 10-hour plane flight to Paris, France. And guess what? There is a movie screen on the back of the person in front of you's seat! A movie screen! :):):) (I don't have to share with my sister, and I can finally watch whatever I want!) We will sleep on the plane, and we will be just waking up when we get there although it will be the afternoon in Paris. We stay in Paris for 5 days, then, the next morning, we catch the 9:30 train to Bordeaux, and spend a day there. We take the 2:00 or 4:00 p.m. train or bus to San Sebastian, Spain. We stay there for 15 days, then we take the 8:40 a.m. flight to Barcelona, where we will maybe see Sophie Boag, a girl who goes to my school.

At 5 p.m., we fly(on a plane) to Edinburgh, Scotland, which i learned is pronounced Edin-burrow. After 2 days, we drive to Oban, another part of Scotland, which sounds to me like a Japanese word, not a Scottish word, but that is probably because one of my grandmas is Japanese, and how you say grandmother in Japanese is Obachan. We stay a night in the Pearle Oban Hotel, and the next day we see the MacDougall Castle, which our ancestor, Duncan MacDougall, lived in. Then, we drive to Loch Lomond. We will stay a night there, at a hotel that my dad says is supposed to be really fun. The last place in Scotland is Glasgow, the biggest city in Scotland, and then we go to London, England for a day trip. Then, we fly to Vancouver, Canada to switch planes and fly back home. Phew!!! I'm really nervous. This trip is even bigger than New York or Boston or Vancouver. Way bigger. This is the trip of my life.