oh friends, twas wonderful. It was everything a vacation should be, and MORE. Alyssa and I had so much fun being adults on our own vacation and just doing whatever we wanted too..."im tired, wanna sleep in tomorrow and then go out?", ok. "wanna eat snacks for lunch and then splurge for dinner at a cute cafe?", ok. "wanna drink wine until the morning with fun Australians?", ok. whatever we wanted to do, we did. it was amazing!
besides that, i almost died from all the beauty that surrounded me on a regular basis. the art, architecture, fashion, and beautiful boys: i was on sensory overload.
it was like my heart painted a picture of a city just for me, and I finally got to visit it.
(SIDE NOTE: good news! a guy in our office just brought in his nephew whom they are in the process of adopting, hes 8 and in 2nd grade so OBVIOUSLY we became friends! within 2 minutes i figured out hes troubled academically, behaviorally, and has a rough road ahead, so i gave him some tips for how to kick 2nd grade in the pants! i love kids. and i love that it comes so naturally to me. its these little moments that get me through all the CRAP that awaits me at school. arg. anyway, back to Paris.)
Everyday in Paris was the best day! i just loved it so so much, its hard to choose my favorite things because every moment was so wonderful. i wont go on and on, just read the blog of what we did each day and know that everyday was AMAZING.
i had such a hard time coming home. i tried to prepare myself, but i still got grumpy and minorly depressed. it got so bad that I had to specifically pray that God would give me perspective on why im doing what im doing right now. Especially since in every incredible museum we went to, where I'd spend hours in one room, there would be a museum hired teacher taking groups of kids around and sitting them in front of a Van Gogh or Degas or whatever and talking about it in beautiful French. i couldnt even handle it! and then to come home to face a bunch of crap science courses, reading tests, lesson plan tests: basically a bunch of junk i dont even want to do. lets just say its frustrating. and to top it off, to find anything open later then 9pm, let alone 7pm, is a friggen miracle. plus, theres no public transportation. you cant walk anywhere. nothings pretty. and theirs no baguettes on every street corner. im just fussy.
ok what else, back at school. this semester is gonna be another crazy one. im trying to schedule in exercising and social events, but its hard. i forget how exhausting school becomes. i joined a small group on thursday nights with the single young adults at north coast church in vista. it was an interesting first night, everyone seemed nice but i had some noteworthy observations.
1) everyone was extremely awkward: really guys? how old are we?! just talk to each other, how hard is this? i think being a social creature whose been in TONS of strange situations and has just learned to be fun and not uncomfortable, i was frustrated.
2) im not in coastal north country anymore: what a concept, everyone was normal looking and even just wearing old jeans and hoodies! they drove old cars and lived in little apartments. it was SO weird for me. im used to going to church or even just the local stores and its like walking onto the set of the OC or Gossip Girl...but with sandals. i felt a little out of place, kinda like we grew up in different countries and spoke different languages...but im sure it will be fine. we'll see.
3) it was weird being in a church small group again: i forgot that they dont talk about drinking or sex, and are pretty conservative politically, and think homosexuality is awkward and feel the need to joke about it when they accidentally say something weird. that got old, real quick.
im trying REALLY hard not to let any of that bother me or deter me from getting involved and investing in the community there. this is just my first step so i can get further involved in the large group, im sure theres people who think like me somewhere there:) if not, then i can always peace after a few months and try somewhere else. no church will ever be perfect.
(repeat to self as necessary)
ok thats all for now. i have more we could get into, such as the breakthrough me and Jesus had yesterday, or the Aussie i kissed in Paris story, the LOST premiere, my crazy new professor whose entire class is about Mt. Everest, etc. but until next time.
lovelove.
PS: all my picture links are on the Europe blog. pretty much all of them are awesome, it was hard to keep the ones i posted down in size because like all 400 of my pictures were so lovely! and then we had Alyssas too! im tagged in Alyssas pictures on facebook, but heres a few anyway.
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