Lost In Paris?! - Storytime

I can't remember the year I went to this school, but I went to a school near to where I live which was bilingual. There were students from across Europe but most students were Swiss. I didn't like my main class teacher very much but I am not going to be talking about class. Instead, today, I am going to talk about our school trip to Paris, France.

The French class I was in my brother was part of too, which had its positives and negatives, which I also won't go into but our class was small because we were one of the "learning french as foreign students" class. So, for this camp there were about six students and my main class teacher came along too, of course, and my English teacher, which was not the same English teacher as my brother.

This trip is actually the first time ever I went to Paris, and so far the only time I have ever been. And the visit did not go very well because a lot went wrong. The whole trip was also done in just two days, as far as I remember.

The first thing that happened is on the train to Paris our trip teachers decided to talk about us as if we were not really there, plus my french teacher mentioned that some boy in the class fancied me and that was why he was "bullying" me, which made things really uncomfortable, especially since the boy really had something against me and of course teachers don't think. Well, many of my teachers have not really thought before speaking.

When we arrived at the hotel that we were staying in, we realised how cheap and small it was. There was no real breakfast at the hotel. There were vending machines, and some cereals and pastries were put out for the breakfast but the room where breakfast was to be eaten in was really small and very little space to sit down. Another negative part of the hotel was me and the two other girls on the trip had to share a hotel room with our teachers, who were both female teachers, and they made uncomfortable jokes about being very close to us while we slept. I also remember that they did not want us locking the door to the toilet, in case something happened to us while in there, which of course was not the same for the boys in another room as they had no teachers to supervise them. Oh, and one last thing about the room we were in was there was red stuff on my bed sheets, which our teachers insisted was ketchup. But ketchup or not, the hotel should have cleaned the sheets.
(I did not like this hotel we stayed in in Paris, but usually I love staying in hotels, but I often wonder about the bedding and if they have been washed or cleaned between me staying there and the previous guests...)

The very first trip of the camp was visiting a graveyard, where some famous French people were apparently buried. But of course as we had to talk in only French and we did not know any of the famous people it was not enjoyable at all. And of course being a graveyard everyone was trying to scare each other by saying there were guests. And, one thing you must know about me, is I am a little scared of ever seeing a ghost, so I was on edge while walking around the large graveyard, and I know I was not the only one of us that was scared or on edge. And of course our stupid teachers joined in on the jokes, as if they loved seeing us scared, but they would not let us leave the graveyard until they were ready to leave and would not stop the talks of ghosts or being followed.

Another trip I remember was going to a cathedral and this was more pleasant and enjoyable then walking around a graveyard but of course we had to take our hats off while walking around inside the cathedral and of course sometimes you forget that you are not meant to be wearing out hats and I remember our teachers having a go at us for being disrespectful and rude which kind of ruined our experience of visiting the cathedral.

My favourite part of the trip was the Eiffel Tower and that we got to go up it but that was also ruined because a couple of the boys got bored, which was understandable, and started to play guns, by making a "gun" with their hands and shot each other with them. It was meant to be a joke, and I know this was probably inappropriate but our french teacher told them off. But she did not tell them off in a polite way but it was more like shouting at them to stop. Which of course put there backs up.

We were apparently meant to go inside the Louvre for the trip as well, and we did go outside it, but we could not go inside because it was expensive and there were too many people. But you would think that the teachers, who planned the trip, would know how much money they would need and that it would be busy. It is a famous museum after all. I remember being upset about that because I love art, and going round art museums.

I know that everyone reading is probably eager to know how I got lost in Paris, and I am going to get there. But I wanted to talk about the meals we had in Paris first and how unorganised it was. For every meal we had we were given sandwiches. Before the trip each student gave most, if not all, of our spending money to the teachers so they could buy our food. But we never got to decide what we ate and for each meal they got us crisps and sandwiches. There was even a time that our teachers almost forced us to give what we did not eat to a homeless man. Which I understand is a nice thing to do but the fact that they told us to and did not give us much of a choice on what we had to eat bothered not only me but all of us. I am even sure they counted extra money that was not spent on our food and pocketed it because we saw them counting extra money but never giving us any back and since we only got sandwiches, which were not expensive, it is obvious they were keeping some of our money back.

And now, to the part where I got lost?
So, I must say I was not the only one that got lost. All of us got separated from our two teachers. They left us to do their own shopping. This is how it went, in as much detail as I can remember.
We were looking for souvenirs in a souvenir shop, and our teachers were telling us how we should buy something to remember the trip. One minute they were there talking to us, and telling us we had down time to look round some shops. The next they were gone. They had not told us to follow them or even told us where they were going. They had not even given us a meeting spot. They just left. And of course we all panicked and got worried.
I remember being with the two other girls in my class and they took control of the situation, even though I was trying to be sensible and try find someone to talk to to get help. I then clearly remember not seeing my brother anywhere, and as I am a great caring big sister to my brother I started to panic that something had happened to him. I didn't really care about anyone on this trip except for my brother.
None of us had phones with us, my brother and I didn't have phones at the time and the teachers had told anyone with a phone not to bring it to the camp as we were meant to be in the moment while visiting a touristic city. But we did have their phone numbers, and I think one of the girls got past the no phone rule and had theirs. But, of course her phone was not working so we went on a search looking for some kind looking adult to let us borrow a phone. This led to nothing. We were all worried, thinking we were all stuck in Paris forever.
It was while looking for a phone to use that we found our other classmates and my brother. So, we were all safe and together.
And not long after our teachers appeared and acted as if nothing had happened and ignored our worries and complaints. I remember that they tried to silence us by telling us what souvenirs they had been able to get their hands on.

I am probably leaving some parts of our Paris trip out, but thats all I have for today. I will be sure to be writing other storytimes from my life as a lot happens to me. I have a couple other stories about getting lost so that should be fun to tell sometime in the near future.

I hope you all enjoyed reading this post.
My question to the readers that read all of this is:
What was your worst school or school trip moment?
And, what would you have done if you got lost in a new city on your own?
I'd love to read your answers!