Whoa, Summer Where are You Going?

I cannot believe that it is already July 19th! I promise I will get better at blogging once I get into France because I will acutally have things to blog about that will be more interesting than discussing power outages in my neighborhood. It is amazing how quickly this summer is going! I have been so busy with tutoring and babysitting that the weeks just seem to fly by. It boggles my mind that I am leaving for France at the end of next month!  I have not even started packing or preparing at all in that respect.

I went to the French Consulate to apply for my visa in order to live/study/have a year long vacation in France. It was fun going downtown with my Mom and being amongst the hustle and bustle. My appointment was early in the morning so we had to be there even earlier and it was really pretty seeing the sunshine reflect off of the buildings. I could very much get used to city life (which I will have to seeing as I will be in Paris!). But boy did my feet hurt afterwards! I decided to wear a new pair of shoes that I will be taking with me to France and let me just say that they need to be broken in or my feet will fall off in France! Anyways, being at the Consulate was fine because I had all of my paperwork (I even had copies of my copies, that was how prepared I was for this!).  Amazingly, a few days later I got my visa in the mail, so it is official I am going to be in France for a whole year!!

Anyways, last night I was laying on the couch watching some tv show with my Mom and I started talking about how nervous I am concerning going to France all by myself and that I just can't believe that it is actually happening!  I have been dreaming about going to Paris to study for so long that it almost seems surreal.  In my typical fashion I started worrying about everything and my Mom knew exactly how to brighten up my spirits.  She went to the huge bookshelves in our family room and pulled off this book that was gray and had an outline of France on the front cover.  Well, this was not just some travel book or history book about France this was my Mom's journal from when she studied in Paris for a year during her college years!  She started reading it to me and let me just say it was hilarious hearing her read her experiences in France.  I was laughing so hard I started to cry!  It made me realize that if my Mom could go to France and live to tell the tale then I can do it too.  Now don't get me wrong I am super excited about living in a city that I fell in love with those many years ago when my Mom and Dad showed me and my sister the wonders of Paris.  However, I think everyone gets a little nervous about the unknown especially when it is right around the corner. But for the time being I think my Mom and I will continue reading her journal and enjoying a good laugh before I have to say goodbye and board a plane.

For Every Adventure There is a Beginning

Well my sophomore year of college is coming to an end and that means summer is right around the corner and before we know it fall will be here standing at my doorstep.  

For starters, for those of you who do not know this I am writing this blog because I will be studying in Paris, France for my entire junior year of college (which is this coming up school year!) and I thought I would like to keep a blog so that people back home can easily keep up with me along my adventures!  I am also hoping to be studying in Granada, Spain the summer after I finish studying in France (I’m keeping my fingers crossed!), so I will just go straight from France to Spain.  I know, pretty cool, huh?! J  I am very blessed to say the least!  Anyways, I will be leaving at the end of this summer to head off to France all by myself for the first time ever!!!  It will be interesting to say the least but I am so looking forward to striking out on my own and figuring out who I am and who God wants me to be in this year long European adventure.  Now for the name of my blog, I feel as if this needs an explanation in itself because how I came up with it is actually a rather cliché from the movies type way…but those movies have to get their inspiration from somewhere, right?...  It was the summer before going into my sophomore year of college and my family had a bag of Dove Chocolates in the house.  And if you know anything about Dove Chocolates they usually have those cheesy quotes in the wrapper that say something along the lines of, “Take a moment for yourself and enjoy a Dove Chocolate.”  Yadda, yadda, nothing too exciting or really worth noticing.  However, I pulled out a Dove Chocolate that had the quote, “You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”  Now that is something worth noticing!  It was definitely different than the typical ones and I thought this is super practical/cool for what is to come…studying abroad!  I think that this quote is very true, how can I ever learn new things if I don’t have the courage to go out there and try, how can I ever learn French if I don’t immerse myself in the language and culture and discover myself if I don’t lose sight of my comfortable shore (the States) and explore what the world has to offer.  I am sure there will be many ups and downs along the way but I am excited to see what is in store for my year long European study abroad experience (aka the year long vacation, just kidding! don't worry I will be studying too)!  I hope you will follow me along my adventures, I’m sure I’ll have many stories to tell while living in Paris and my travels around Europe!  Oh, and I would love you to write comments!  I would love to hear what you are thinking and how things are back home in the States!  As they say in France…

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