Part 2 (continued)

Sooo I’m pretty sure my feet have never hurt as bad as they did today..in my entire life. Slowly but surely I am learning conversational French. Nothing major, but a few words & minor phrases. Anyways, today we started our day early..& ended it late & I swear I’ve walked like a billion miles. The walking tour went well. I got to meet a lot of the other students within the program today because of it. Not all..but most. (the walking tour was optional). We basically went by metro to the Latin Quarter, crossed the Seine River, stopped at Notre Dame & the Palais de Justice, & then walked by the Hotel de Ville (City Hall) & ended up at the Beaubourg area, a lively neighborhood with lots going on. We had a nice little 3 course dinner down there. It’s 1:30am almost & I am so not tired. They said day 2 is hard because you are still not fully adjusted to the 7 hour time difference. So true..cuz I am wide awake ahh! Tomorrow is our orientation at the University & we are also going on a cruise of the Seine & having dinner at Restaurant Polidor in the Latin Quarter. Then after that we may try to go to the Eiffel Tower if it’s not too late (because we really want to go up it) & then maybe go out also. So we will see! My blogs may be getting shorter & shorter because I have 180 pages of reading to do for my classes on Tuesday! Eek! Annddd my first final for the first class is June 12th. I’ll try my best to continue to keep you filled in.

I posted a video that I took inside Notre Dame. It said no photos or cameras were allowed, but everyone else was taking pictures & such so I figured I would also. haha. And I also posted a video of Jessica & I walking around on the tour. Check them out!

Day 2 in Paris

Sooo for those of you who don’t know, Europe runs on the DC current..meaning that their plug-ins are different & their voltage & electricity is much stronger than in the U.S. In order for American appliances to work, then, you have to get a voltage converter & an adapter. Well I’ve always heard not to bring your Chi flat iron over here because it will go out. Since STUBBORN is my middle name, I brought mine anyway & decided to try using it..because..ya know…I don’t . Of course I started smelling a burning smell..meaning it went out. Haha. Luckily I only spent like $50 for it because I bought it off the internet..but still…sucks! So I am gonna buy a European straightener thingie so that my hair doesn’t look naptified..cuz I am NOT wearing it curly! Haha.

I slept so good last night. I took some tylenol PM to ensure that I wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night since my sleep pattern is all off cuz of the 7 hour time difference...& yeah..I slept like a little baby! We woke up this morning at like 8am...cuz the window blew open & we thought someone was like crawling in our window or something. LOL. We went to bed at like 10pm last night though..so we got plenty of rest!

The food & desserts here are, simply put, amazing. I had a panini for lunch & it was sooo good! Andrea got some raspberry sorbet as a snack & it was to die for! I think tomorrow for breakfast, we are going to have quiche! MMm!

I'm super proud of the conversational French I am picking up. Maybe by the end of the month, I'll know quite a bit! yayy! :)

Today we took Jessica to a French doctor. We didn’t have too much trouble finding the place, thanks to Andrea & Jen’s (a student in the program from Wisconsin) great map reading skills. The doctor’s office was kind of strange. In order to get into the building you had to press a button to call someone & then they would let you in. The waiting room was super tiny & so plain jane. Luckily the doctor spoke English. Jessica has tonsillitis (the same crap I had about 2 weeks ago). She got some antibiotics though, so hopefully she’ll get to feeling better soon.

After that, we decided to go to the underground catacombs..which are basically the remains of the dead which were removed from several cemeteries in Paris in like the seventeenth century & placed underground because the city was growing too fast & the cemeteries were overrun with dead bodies & such. Anyways…soo yeah..once we actually figured out which metro to ride on…we finally found the catacombs. However, when we got there, there was a forever long line which wrapped around the building..& the catacombs close at 4..so looks like we will have to go next time!
Tonight we are going on a walking tour of Paris & will stop by Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris. Pictures to come!

Exploring

Okay sooo it's 9:50pm here in Paris & the sun still hasn't set fully! What the heckkkk dude! haha. And I tried to call out of the U.S. & it's proving to be a difficult thing to do? I keep getting French operators who ONLY speak French..sooo sorry mom! I am so tired though..I think I'm about to pass out from exhaustion. I've now been awake since 7am Thursday morning U.S. time & it is 2:50pm there...9:50pm here. We walked a thousand billion miles today..ahh! And Andrea & I just got back from dinner. Our $21 dinner in Euros was really $30 in U.S. money...and all I had was a salad & water..& Andrea had a coke & french fries. Gotta love the extremeness in prices. ha. Not. Soo poor little Jessica is sick with tonsillitis..the same crap I had before I left for Paris! Andrea & I walked to a French pharmacy to get her some meds & yeah..it was wack. They let dogs go anywhere & everywhere here..including inside the pharmacy. The dog barked for awhile..but I didn't get it on video. But look at it anyway :) Notice the lady in front of me with the french bread in her hand & how everything is in pretty much French.




So of course Andrea & I had to get a baguette, too. So here I am eating some French bread while wandering the streets of Paris


Me and Andrea


Some hotel


Inside a little cafe


Soooo crazy thing: I haven't seen a single person wearing shorts over here! Or t-shirts! No wonder Paris is the fashion CAPITAL of the world! At restaurants in Paris, you have to ask for your ticket...they don't give it to you automatically. It's a courtesy thing. Anyway..the jet lag is really catching up to me. I feel like a walking zombie! I am gonna prolly crash out soon...I think I walked like 15 miles today...oh well..crash diet right? I'm gonna be way skinnier when I come back from this trip...the amount of walking is insane! Anndddd my whole body is sore from carrying my luggage all around France for like ever..today. haha.

Thanks for all of the comments & everything! love you & miss you all :) xoxo

WE MADE IT!

Well I’m in PARIS, FRANCE! I made it over here..& let me tell ya, it has been quite the adventure! If you don’t know, this trip consists of me, Andrea, & Jessica (all students at Tech law) & 43 other students from various law schools, as well. Anyways, well Andrea was supposed to meet up with us in New Jersey, but her flight got changed & she didn’t get to meet up with us until Paris. Well first, let me tell you about our Paris flight. We sat by a very interesting man the entire way. We were in the middle section; I was on the left, Jessica in the middle, & this man on the outside.



Well he was very interesting to say the least. He got on the plane drunk & had 4 bottles of wine on the flight LOL & was very drunk & belligerent at times.

We tried to ignore him by watching TV on the little screens on our seat, which was cool, but that got boring after awhile.



It was really hard to sleep because so much was going on. We had dinner probably around 7pm on the flight & then like 5 hours later..breakfast..cuz it was morning time in Europe. Lol. Weird. There was also a medical emergency on our flight. An elderly lady’s blood pressure was dropping severely & no one knew why so the pilot called for anyone who was a doctor/nurse to come up & help. Luckily there was a nurse on board who was able to help out, but she didn’t speak French, & this elderly woman did..so someone had to go up & translate. It was kind of scary because we were over the Atlantic Ocean at this time, like 3 hours away from Paris…so there wasn’t really a place to just stop. Sooo has anyone ever seen the movie Taken? Well the guy that was sitting by us, when the flight landed, said, “It’s expensive to get a cab…if you want to share, here is my number!” Ummm yeah..negative! That’s exactly how the girls in that movie get TAKEN. Sooo we land in Paris..(Jessica & I maybe got an hour of sleep in all & both got up around 7amish U.S. time..& land at 7:40am Paris time..7 hour time difference!) & we get off the plane looking for Andrea. None of us are using our cell phones & we all have them turned off. Well we went to ask some lady at a kiosk if Andrea’s flight had landed & she told us YES..like 20 min ago! So Jessica & I are freaking out & looking for her everywhere & can’t find her! So I am thinking oh great…Andrea got TAKEN or she’s lost..or something! So we had exited the baggage claim area cuz we had already gotten our bags..& we were searching all over the place amidst the hustle/bustle of the airport. Then I decide to go BACK into the baggage area (i.e. the EXIT) to try to search for her while Jessica waits with our bags. Well as I walked back in, I got flagged down by French security guards; they kept saying MADOMOISELLE, MADOMOISELLE! It took me awhile to realize they were talking to me. I turned around & they made me show them my passport & boarding pass & then let me proceed. Well when I walked out…Andrea showed up. Turns out her flight HADN’T landed! So all was right in the world! Then we had to find how the heck to get out of the airport & do something with our luggage. So we had to start asking around about transportation. Do we take a taxi? The metro? A train? What’s cheaper? Where do we go? Well like everyone we asked spoke broken English…& yeah. No bueno. Haha. So then we finally found an information desk & got directions to go buy tickets to the train.



We got on it & rode & then all of a sudden this lady starts SINGING opera music..lol. Then she walked around with her coin purse open..trying to collect money. Then we were trying to figure out why the heck the train wasn’t stopping at every station (& everything is in French, might I add). None of us SPEAK FRENCH AT ALL! Haha. Sooo yeah. Well we finally made an executive decision to get off at the University..& we went up there & tried to ask someone what we could do with our luggage. Well we found a guy as we were walking…but he didn’t speak English..only French & Spanish. Luckily Jessica is fluent in Spanish..lol. So we figured out where we were going but we had to walk up a long steep hill with our luggage & like all of our handles broke to the suitcases…except mine..bc the handle was already broken. Haha. Then we went in & the guy at the desk at the dorms where we will be staying..didn’t really understand us. We left our luggage there though cuz we aren’t staying there until June 1st..& we needed to find a hotel & didn’t wanna walk all over Europe. So we asked someone for directions & we got LOST for hours walking around & everywhere we stopped..NO ONE spoke English. It was so frustrating. We finally found an internet café & the lady running the place didn’t understand us & she finally said in English WHAT DO YOU WANT? Lol And I pointed to my fingers & pretended to type & said COMPUTER. Haha. And then Andrea said TELEPHONE. Needless to say that was a struggle! And then we finally got the internet figured out & got on a Paris computer..but the keyboards are different than U.S. ones! For instance, it took us like 15 min to log into anything like our emails, ect. because we couldn’t find the @ symbol! You have to do control plus alt & then the key. Well who would have known that? We found the addresses to the hotel we are staying in & also the school address & left there & started walking…so frustrated by this time. After asking several ppl on the street if they spoke English, a man said YES & gave us directions to the hotel. We went there & tried to reserve a room, but the man at the desk didn’t understand us well. So we were struggling with that, too. Then..by the grace of GOD..3 ppl show up behind us & say, “Are y’all from Texas Tech?” and we said YES!!! Turns out it was one of our professors in the study abroad program here..he recognized Andrea’s picture cuz we had to send in pix for our metro pass. And he helped us out & then took us to lunch at some little café! So we are staying in a hotel on our OWN money tonight…& the next 2 nights is covered by the program. Luckily we are in the same hotel. But the hotel was pretty much like $180 in U.S. money & it’s teeny tiny..the internet is slow…& you can barely move inside it. And umm yeah..it’s supposedly a “nice” hotel. Hmm. Lol. Lunch was nice except we didn’t understand the menu too well. Luckily one of the resident advisors was with the professor & she speaks French & English & was able to help us out. I had a great salad for lunch..it had ham, bacon, eggs, & POTATOES..kind of weird? But it was good. Jessica & I also had dessert…sorbet! Mmm mm!



Andrea had some kind of yummy dessert. Dunno what it was..but here's a pic:


Our professor also ordered FRENCH FRIES as a side..& let me tell ya..they are all they are cracked up to be over. AMAZING. So much better than U.S. constituted starch-processed potatoes!

But man oh man...Everything is sooo expensive here. Aghhhh! The U.S. dollar is so weak when it comes to exchanging for euros!



And omg we had to go back to the University & get our luggage & we tried to flag down taxis but for some reason they wouldn’t stop? IDK but like everyone in Paris was laughing at us cuz we had so many bags & just looked funny. I think we must have walked like 10 miles today..literally. My body is soo tired! Ahhh!!! But so far so good. Still haven’t slept…I want to..but I’m trying to fight it so I can adjust to this crazy schedule. So far I’ve learned to say: Merci (thanks) & excusez-moi (excuse me). Hopefully I’ll pick up more along the way.

Well that’s it for my Paris adventures..at least for now anyway! It’s almost 5pm here right now…but I just wanted to let everyone know that I am here & alive! Au revoir!

Leaving in a few hours

So today is finally THE day! Can't believe it's finally here! My friend is going to drop me off at the airport in 2 hours & my flight leaves at noon. I have to get Euros at the airport & check-in & all of that stuff..so it will be good to be there early! Speaking of Euros, the U.S. dollar is extremely weak right now! I am going to go exchange $400 U.S. money for Euros..& guess how much I will get? $287!!! What a large discrepancy huh?!!! Crazy!

Anyways...sooo I fly from Dallas to New Jersey today...& my flight lands at 4:55pm there. So if you want to talk to me during that one hour in between make sure you call because I won't be using my phone at all while in France! My flight to Paris leaves at 6:10pm from New Jersey & lands in Paris at 7:35am. Remember that there is a 6 hour time difference between Paris & Texas!

Thanks to all of those who have called/emailed/written/came by to visit me before I left. You guys are so sweet...makes me feel good to know that so many people care about me. Au revoir everyone! Love you ALL.

Paris, France..here I come!!

Bonjour everyone! Well I am on a packing rampage right now as we speak!

Pre-packing for Paris:


And you know people always say, "Take me in your suitcase?" Well, with this one...I totally can! :)


In the midst of my packing fiascos, I have realized how stinkin' expensive it is just to LEAVE the United States. Toiletries..& travel sized everything...& new outfits & shoes for Paris...ahh! So crazy!

Anyway, I leave Lubbock tomorrow and depart from Dallas to Paris at noon on Thursday! Please keep me in your thoughts & prayers as I travel across the globe! :) My flight lands in Paris, France at 7:35am in the morning on Friday. Our program doesn't start until the next day, so when my 2 friends & I land, we are just gonna walk around until we find a hotel to stay in & then maybe explore the city..go to the Eiffel Tower...the Arc de Triomphe..Louvre museum...who knows? We are just gonna go wherever the wind blows..lol. I'm sure I will definitely have some interesting stories to tell! Make sure to keep up with my blog while I am away! And don't worry..I won't get "taken" like the movie. (had to throw a little humor in there...) :)

Paris: The fashion capital of the world!

FYI-I will be keeping in touch via blog while I am in Paris. I leave the U.S. May 28th and will be back on June 28th. I figured instead of emailing, I would just keep in touch this way & post pictures as frequently as possible.

Just to give you all an idea of everything, here are a few pictures:

This is the Cité Universitaire where we will be studying & staying beginning on June 1.


The University of Paris X (Nanterre) Law School


A cruise on the Seine


The Louvre


And of course...the Eiffel Tower!

Trials are the true test of faith

For those of you who know me and know me really well, you know that this semester has and continues to be one of the most difficult/trying times of my entire life. I have been through a lot in such a short period of time and have grown so much from the person that I was just a short time ago. It awes me really. I can still see the young woman I was back at Christmas-time...& that woman has really come a long way since then. This past week was a challenge for me. It was one of those weeks where nothing huge goes wrong, but everything little does. I was horribly sick, had car issues, got my feelings hurt, had a million things to think about for my study abroad trip to Paris coming up, ect. It was just a tough week to survive, let alone feel loved, cherished, adored, or delighted in. The greatest emotion I felt was neglect. It took me all week to realize what I was feeling, too. I withdrew a lot...kind of sulked & slept away my days because I had fever & felt terrible. A lot of my friends graduated or moved away last week, & I felt all alone here. I know that isn't true, but I am only human..& as a human..I don't always think logically. Anyway, this week, I really missed my friends & just how easy going life used to be before law school..before I had to be a grown up..& have grown up feelings & go through grown up pains, experiences, & tribulations. Also more than anything..I wanted my mom. I literally haven't been as sick as I was this past week since I was a kid, and all I wanted was to just curl up on a couch with my mom nearby, pop in a movie, sip on some hot chocolate, & have my mom take care of me so that all of the "owies" & "hurts" would go away. Yes, at twenty-three years-old you can still want your mommy. :) This week...I also felt very forgotten, misunderstood, and ignored. I hate feeling that way, but most of all, I hate days of self-pity. Everyone has them & boy they really bring you down.

Through it all, day by day, I know that without trials, without faith, without works of faith, we cannot become perfect in Christ. Trials and sufferings are NECESSARY to our salvation. Trials develop godly character, and that enables us to "rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” Roman 5:3-5. I have to always remember that, and keep on keepin' on!

There are also a few things that I am really impatient about in my life right now. I have prayed about it, & I am really trying to just let go & let God. I read a really good verse the other day that helped me come to terms with this. "Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD."
Psalm 27:14. So true! So I am just going to trust in God, & I know that everything will eventually fall into place..according to His will.

If you can tell so far, I am really ready for my Paris trip. I really think it's a blessing in disguise..& at the perfect point in my life where I just need to "get away." I was in a relationship for almost 6 years..and it defined me & who I thought I was. Now I sometimes wonder if I even know who I am anymore. Where is that confident young lady...where is she? I think she is hidden behind all of the hurt & experiences that she has been through this semester. Regardless, I know that God has really been working in my life....I can see it daily & in the people that he has placed around me. I am so excited about studying abroad, though! I think that this experience will ignite a deeper passion inside of me for understanding other people and their perspectives...which is essential to success in our increasingly diverse world. I also look forward to the sense of independence I know that I will feel. Though I will be away from my friends and family, I will be living, studying, traveling and exploring safely and successfully all on my own & thriving in another country, in another culture, and in another language. Sharing a common humanity with people who are completely different than I am...will really show me that at the end of the day, we are all the same..we all share the same common concerns. This opportunity to travel and see the world, immerse myself in legal education, and break out of my normal academic routine..is truly a blessing..& I am so very looking forward to it. I think I might be surprised at the person that I will be when I come back.