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M and I!

Back on December 9th 2012, I was one night away from pulling into Norfolk VA from my first 7 month deployment and my new duty station assignment came in. I remember it well because we were having quite an intense BINGO game going on and I was right in the middle of trying to win a 50″ television when the captain came down and told me my orders were in and would I like to know where I was going?

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I instantly went into freak out mode and decided to finish the game then come up and talk to him in person. One of my best friends M was with me because we were having a Tiger Cruise (when you invite friends and family to ride the ship with you) and she was with me when I find out the news that I would be moving to Japan. When I first found out I took it well and then right after that I had a 20 minute hysterical break down in the bathroom. We’ll just say my emotions got the best of me while this new idea sank in.

It was there in the female officer head on board my first ship that I clasped M’s hand and we made a promise to each other that if I did indeed go to Japan for my tour we would meet up in Switzerland next Christmas to go Skiing/Snowboarding.

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Fast forward 12 months and after some intense travel plans on both of our parts, some trials and tribulations on whether I would be allowed to take leave, we had ourselves a 20 day vacation starting in Paris for a couple of days, a train ride to Zermatt Switzerland, and another train ride to Zürich with good intentions of seeing as much as we could and skiing/snowboarding to our hearts content. There were 5 of us in total that were embarking on the trip. M and myself the trip planners, my sister and her friend C, and my other closest friend E.

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On the first night all of us made it to Paris without any delay except for Elizabeth who was delayed until the previous day because of very bad weather. The night before we toured all of Paris we took the subway to the Eiffel Tower and enjoyed the night-time atmosphere taking pictures and stopping at a restaurant just around the corner. It was a mesmerizing sight to see especially when the Eiffel Tower lights up like the video below.

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Stay tuned for more of our travels as we take Switzerland by storm!

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