Je suis arrivée!

For those of you that don't speak French the title means: I arrived! I have arrived in France and it is just as wonderful as the last time I was here.  I left from Chicago on Tuesday at 4:25pm heading towards Stockholm.  I was super nervous about traveling by myself and just going to France in general. I sat in the center isle of the plane next to a nice older couple, Pam and Larry, from St. Louis.  They were very sweet and this was their first time heading over to Europe.  They also happened to be Christians and it was just a nice way to spend 7 hours on a plane.  Unfortunately I did not sleep at all on that flight.  However, on my flight from Stockholm to Paris I spent quite a bit of time sleeping.  When we were landing in Paris I got to see an aerial view of the city and saw the Eiffel Tower.  It was very cool, to say the least.  Then my relatives Manu and Françoise picked me up at the airport.  It was really great to see some familiar faces.  When we were driving to their house we made a stop at a friends' house for un café.  To say the least, I can very much get used to this life style of sitting around and enjoying the company of others.  My relatives do not speak any English so this whole week that I have before I have to head over to Paris is really forcing me to use my French and really listen it will be all French all the time.  I am amazed at how much I understand when they are talking and I haven't even been here for a whole day.  My Mom called Françoise's cell phone right as we were pulling into my other relative's house, Gilberte.  It was quite nice to hear from my Mom and talk to her briefly before I headed into Gilberte's house.  We then finally made it to Françoise and Manu's house and I got to put my stuff up in a room, the whole second floor of their house is free for me to use this week since both of their sons have grown up and moved out.  The big drama for the week is that le boulangère (the baker) is on vacation which means that there won't be fresh bread and that is just sacrilege in France.  But all will be well.  It sounds as if I will be busy shopping and parties this week but I don't mind one bit.  Also I have made a new friend in France, Calline, Manu et Françoise's dog.  I am remembering how much I like France and I think that this year will be filled with many fun adventures.

Saying Goodbye

My time here in the States is coming to a swift end.  I leave in 11 days.  It is mind boggling that I am going to be living in Paris!  Something that I have dreamt about for so long is finally coming true!  It is exciting but on the flip side of that it is nerve racking!  Summer is coming to an end and people are going back to school which means that it is time for me to start saying goodbye.  It has been such a weird experience saying goodbye to my friends and family because I don't feel as if I won't see them for a year. I haven't really been that sad when saying goodbye.  Yes, I will miss people but I just don't feel sad.  My head understands that I won't see them for a long while but my heart hasn't quite caught on yet (I think it is in denial for the time being.)  I had to say goodbye to my younger sister, Maissie, the other day because I helped her move into college for her freshmen year.  I miss her horribly already but I know that she is just going to love college life and have a wonderful year.  I also had to say goodbye to some of my cousins, we went camping which was a lot of fun but saying goodbye was just strange.  Just like when I said goodbye to my very dear friends Becky and Jacquie.  Thankfully I still have a few more days before I have to say goodbye to my parents which will pry be the hardest because they will be the ones dropping me off at the airport.

I am now at the point where I am ready to go but at the same time I am not ready to go.  I am afraid of all that I will miss back in the States.  It is rather funny, the other day I had a dream that when I came back to Central I was living way out in the goonies and nobody really even noticed that I was there, it was if they didn't care that I was back.  I know that is not true but one always wonders how coming back will be since things will be different.  But for right now I am not going to concern myself with my senior year of college because I have an amazing year in Paris right around the corner!

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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