fabulousity

if thats a word, is my favorite to describe my life and this weekend.

ahhhh!!!

i thought it recently... i have the best life ever! I am stressfree, most days. I get paid to play with kids and live in Paris (sort of). And its my adult life. for now.

this weekend was another great one. busy. but low key. hung out with a friend/new to paris/ also an au pair and we had a bunch of fun. she is american, which, duh, explains  a lot of "it".

we cooked burritos. yum.my. and watched american movies. and and american reality tv. and even unbuttoned our pants when our tummies were too full from burritos (and some mexican beers, and a dr pepper).

anyways, she introduced me to this:

And now its my new favorite song that I am determined! to learn!

So, 4.5 days until the start of my stretch of holidays leading up to my birthday. (kind of)

And parents, if you are reading this: BOOK YOUR TICKETS ...please!! kthanks!


hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!!!!


love, me

past, present, future

I went to see this a few weeks ago:

In a few weeks I am going to see this:

and I really really want to see this:

(hopefully can still get tickets!!)

And another weekend has passed!! I am so thankful for a few things: heat! (I feel as though my host family has turned theirs off, brrr), my bed, and great friends!

Good night!!!

Love, me

almost done

...imagine me saying that almost out of breath as if i just finished running a marathon...
but I didn't just finish running a marathon (because i would never run a marathon)
but I did just finish planning our trip to ITALY!!!!!!!
only took me about 25-30 hours.
holy cow. is that normal?
maybe I researched a bit more than i needed to. but hey, I am my fathers child. :-) (and i can hear him laughing in agreeance)

Anyways, we now have trains, planes, hostels, hotels, and even a bed and breakfast booked.

All I have to say is: I now have a lot more appreciation for the trips I have been on where I did nothing but pay and show up at the airport because now I know what type of planning went on (even though mine is a bit of a smaller scale) and Also, I am going to appreciate this trip a lot more because I had to do so much work for it.

But i am so proud of myself (if I can say so) and I am sooooo excited to start this adventure. My mom so kindly pointed out that this is my first trip to travel without an adult or in a group...kind of scary, kind of liberating, all parts EXCITING!!!

Now on to the REALLY fun stuff... choosing what to do, where to eat and where to shop....

off to bed, i need the rest. thanks.
love, me

I wish someone would have told me

or I take that back, I am glad that no one told me...

planning a trip is A LOT OF WORK, its exhausting, its hours upon hours of researching everything from the fun stuff to the nitty gritty, its a full-time job,
and that it has been for MOI!

As I have told you guys, in Feb, my friend and I are headed down to Italy for 9 days and in that 9 days we are visiting 5 places. That means a lot of trains, planes, hostels, hotels, cars, passes, DETAILS!
My friend gave me the lovely task (or did I just take on the job myself?) of planning...EVERYTHING. I have thuroughly enjoyed the process, learning so much along the way about Italy, which will be very useful when I am there, but as of right now, I am FATIGUE! (thats a french word)

Last week I spent researching all about one of our random locations I decided we just HAD to go to and then last night I spend 6 hours booking trains. ONLY TRAINS. It's a lot of math and negotiating with myself how much time we have in each place and when can leave and arrive and how much we want to pay and what that is in US dollars (since everything is in euros). Who knew?

Oh, and I can't really decide which part I am most looking forward to, but as right now, I am SOOO excited about renting a car in Florence and driving around the Tuscan villages for a day! How freaking cool is that??? (Yes, I just mastered the art of a manual, but don't worry, this will allow me to perfect it!! and I did buy us car insurance...don't worry)

And for those you who might be planning a trip somewhere cool in the near future, here's a lovely travel tip, look in iTunes for some podcasts from the famous Rick Steves. My friend's roommate said we should check him out since he has some pretty popular travel books (I have one for Paris and LOVE IT) and we found some FREE podcasts. So super excited that for once since I started planning this trip, someone else can tell me what they recommend (and it doesn't involve reading either :-) ).

I am so thankful for lowkey weekends, gaining a little more freedom (yay cars) and anticipating a much needed holiday (I think I am becoming French, I just had a 1.5 week holiday not even a month ago and I work 20 hours a week and get to play in Paris every weekend, how could i possibly NEEEEED a holiday???)

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Miss y'all and love y'all!!!

Love, me

breaking news

THIS IS JUST IN: BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!

I HAVE PASSED MY (unofficial) DRIVING TEST!!!!

...and the crowds go wiiiiiillllddddd!!!!

Thank you, thank you!!!

 ---speech, speech, speech!!!

ok, ok!!! I would like to take this time to thank my wonderful host father for being so patient with me while I stall in the middle of small town traffic during three saturday mornings. And to my host mom for donating her car to be used as the crash-test dummy, i mean, the car in which I am allowed to drive. Also, I would like to thank everyone from around the world who has shown their support through facebook and phone calls!!! I didn't know if this day would ever come, but it has, and I couldn't be happier or more proud of myself for this accomplishment!!!


In all seriousness, my host parents have given the stamp of approval to drive their car now! Hallelujah!!!! This means FREEDOM! I live in the world's smallest town and its rather cold here so not only does this mean I can drive to the grocery store instead of walk now (thats a big deal), I can now drive to the train station and park so I can come home at night instead of rely on everything to let me stay with them. Plus, its just nice to know that if I want to rent a car someday, like in Tuscany ITALY, I am confident (or semi-confident) I won't drive myself over a hill or into some old ancient wall.

Well, I am off to get ready for the rest of the weekend in Paris!!
Oh and lunch was fabulous today! I think i might try to spend a few more half saturdays with my family, haha!!!

Have a great weekend!!!

love, me

Mama Mia

...here I go again, my, my, how could I resist you???

Just bought tickets to see Mama Mia in theatre with ma copina, Alison!

Super excited for all that is happening this year!!

Super excited for my parents to come and visit...

So excited for my trip to Italy!!

And my trip to England (this one is first)

And I am planning a possible trip (I mean, its not really IF, its a WHEN) to Barcelona with a BUNCH of friends. How cool would that be?

And I am hoping a good friend has the opportunity to come and visit during her spring break/birthday/my birthday!!!

Oh, and the sun is shining today!

I am so blessed!!

Love, me

how you doin...

I was channeling my inner "joey" from friends voice right there with the title.

I feel like it's been for.ever since i wrote a post but in actuality it has only been a week. that just means a lot has happened on my end to make me feel that way. and by a lot, i mean. a.lot.

lets start with the juicy stuff:

last weekend I had my first run-in with the crappy side of things since being here. My cell phone was stolen from me. yes. it still pisses me off to this day (its only been a week) to think about it and i am working through that because as Christians we are called to forgive and clearly I have not yet forgiven.

After all was said and done, I was SO mad but was quickly reminded that, "Kara!!! It was ONLY your cell phone (a thing, something that can be replaced!!) and you were not hurt in any which way!" Oh yea, thanks for reminding me that when my blackberry, also known as "crack berry" was stolen from me.
It happened at my bus stop that I am about 30 times a week in the town over where I catch the train. These two young teenage girls asked to borrow my phone to make a phone call and I thought, sure, why not... they look innocent and they're cute and young.... lesson to learn the hard way: trust no one! (I HATE THIS LESSON!!! ... i am a trusting person) and said cute, innocent teenage girls RUN off with my phone. It was planned. They must have wanted a blackberry or thought it would be fun to do something like that for the thrill of it...who knows. All I know is before I could process what was going on, they were gone and so was my lifeline to the real world! There was a police station within view of the gare so I quickly went over there, fully knowing that could care less. The police didnt' speak english and in my rage and knowing that my bus home could come at any minute, i could barely get out french words, muchless a sentence that made sense. girl. stole. cell phone. bus. coming. right now. have to go.
(the only words i could get out in french). There was other drama that went on at that moment in time like...hey, I just missed my bus... the next one does come for an hour, i have to be at home to watch the kids while my host parents go out tonight and i am going to be late, i can't call them to come pick me up because i don't have their number now that my phone has been stolen, to walk home would take longer than to wait, its cold, its almost raining, oh no i have to turn my phone off so they don't use it, dang it there were some cool pictures on there i wanted. "Kara!! It was JUST a phone, you are not hurt, it can be replaced and you are going to get home whether you wait an hour for the next bus or walk!" was all I heard everytime my mind start freaking out. Lucky for me I had read the bus schedule wrong and on my walk home I realized another bus would come in half an hour (and that time had almost passed) so i stopped at the next bus stop i saw and waited. "Thank you Jesus" was all I could think!

Long story short, I am COMPLETELY BLESSED. My phone was turned off immiedietly so while they got my phone, they weren't able to use it with my sim card. I had a temporary phone i could put credit on and use for the time being. and I have been blessed that it wasn't more of a hassle to get everything worked out. I am now, as of tonight, back in business! A friend who moved gave me his black berry, I didn't have to pay for a new sim card that has my original phone number on it....and while the lack of hassle doesn't erase the fact that I feel violated, hurt, and lacking trust in anybody I don't know... I feel so blessed that it wasn't worse and that it wasn't more (like my passport!).

I waited to share this story until everything had been figured out because, honestly, I am still trying to figure everything out in my head. I have never felt so helpless in my entire life. And it was really frustrating to be in a situation like that. But everytime I find myself getting angry, I just pray for those girls and that God would watch over them and be in their lives and heal their lives.

NEXT:

sorry about the crappy story above, but my next bit of news is rather exciting. or at least I think so!! I have a holiday coming up in February. yes, its true, the french are always on holiday! it's not a rumor or a lie! The french kids gets 2 weeks of every 6-8 weeks, I am not sure. And so that means I get holiday when they do. My first holiday here back in October I stayed in Paris. My second holiday at Christmas I went to Vienna and Texas. And this holiday I was trying to figure out JUST what I wanted to do. I wanted to go and travel like it's going out of style but I needed the perfect person to go with as they have to have the time and money like me (and want) and thats a bit hard to find sometimes. Anyways, I have found the perfect person (well, a fun person!) and after a week of STRESSING!!! over where to go... who knew it was so hard for two people to agree on travel destinations?!?! We have finally decided to spend 9 days in Italy!! I am so uber excited (yes, uber is a word) and I find that hilarious seeing as how just a few days ago I was saying I could care less about going to Italy. Actually, I've been saying that for a while now. I just feel like why travel to places I can go later in life? I can get anyone to go to Italy or SPain or England or Germany, so right now I want to go to the random places like Croatia and Istanbul and Cairo, Egypt and other quite random places. (or to me they are). Well, we finally decided on Italy. So the week of Valentines I will be in Rome, Cinque Terre (5 fishing villages on the west coast of Italy), Tuscany, and Venice. Did I mention I am SOOOOOO excited?! The details have yet to be determined, all we know is we have booked our flight there and our flight back and we are looking into hotels, hostels, trains and what to do and how to do it in the shortest amount of time!

So as I end this post, know that I am well, in good hands (God's hands), happy and feeling COMPLETELY BLESSED for many different reasons!!!

Love all over,
me! <3

1, 2, 3...

I can count... haha

So I just got off the phone with some nice young lady in New Mexico, I do not know her name. She helped me with some issues I was having with my American bank account. Not that that is really that important, but we ended up chatting for about 10 minutes about life. I know ten minutes isn't that long, but come on guys, I live in France now... that would NEVER have happened if I had called my French bank account. Let's be honest, I would never call my French bank account because most likely they don't speak English and well, thats that, but here in France, you don't even ask the person checking you out at the grocery store how they are doing muchless break a smile towards them. And I just had a conversation about my life with this young lady on the phone where she told me that she thought that God has blessed me (um, seriously??? this girl mentioned GOD!!!), something else that would NEVER happen in France!

I am going to be straight forward: I LOVE France with everything that I am. If ever there was love at first sight...or first landing or first visit, Paris was IT! France stole my heart the first time I was here. But there is nothing quite like being an American... and being from the south at that...where the people are overly friendly, share everything they have and have a 'mi casa es su casa' attitude.

On a slightly different note: I have been indulging in quite a bit of homemade guacamole recently. I would like to say that it is healthy, in moderate doses, seeing as I only add tomato, lemon juice and some salt and pepper...but along with the guacamole come the really sexy tortilla chips and I have to say I don't think those are that healthy... But all that to say, I am having a little southern cuisine with my French life these days. It surely makes the days problems seem less than important when you have a big scoop of yummy goodness atop a tortilla chip about to enter your mouth.

Well, I hope you all have had such an encounter today....or been that encounter for someone else!!!
Love you all and that you are all (mostly) American so you can understand my love for friendly conversations with strangers...

love, me!

old and new

Last year I made a list of my New Years Resolutions and posted them on my blog, which at the time, no one was reading...or at least I thought that. Anyways, I like to make resolutions because its a nice time to sit and reflect on that I did the previous year and how much I grew (or didn't grow) and what I would like to do different for the upcoming year... resolutions to me are like goals to strive towards (duh!) but making them is a rememberance so I don't forget. In 2010 I think I did a decent job of changing in the ways I could and acheiving goals I knew I could and wanted to...

These were my resolutions in 2010:

New Years Resolutions for 2010: 

1. Not get a moving violation in 2010 ... yea, I did put that as no. 1, it would be nice not to be working to pay the different cities in texas.

2. get all A's in my last semester of college

3. graduate -- this IS a resolution, you know never what will happen between now and then so I have to make a conscious effort to put that as a goal of mine haha

4. have more patience

5. fill up my passport (and no worries, i WILL do this one, starting with France in a matter of weeks, wooo hooo)

6. become conversational in French before the year ends

7. read 2 books a month (I am probably going to fail at this one this month unless I read 2 books in the next few days, which i guess I should stay positive and do it!)

8. Read the Bible in 365 days (I'm reading the chronological Bible that is divided by the days of the year)

I think I did a really good job, looking at them, at what all I was able to achieve.
I completed 1: I had no moving violations in 2010... and I am claiming that its not cheating that I moved out of the country and no longer drive, half way through the year... haha
2: This one is kind of cheating like no. 1, my last semester of college was this past summer and it was a study abroad to Hong Kong and yes, I did get an A in that class and in all honesty, as much as I payed for that grade (thanks, Dad!), it was a hard experience... and the work that we had to do afterwards was not as much hard as it took up about 20 hours to complete. But in my last final real semester of college, I don't recall my grades, but I think I received all A's and B's so thats good!
3. Graduate!!! Well, I can happily say that on August something I graduated for UNT! yay!!!
4. have more patience. I can honestly say that since moving to France I have learned more patience than I care to admit. Let's just say that it's not a rumor that the French people are slow at EVERYTHING and go on lots of holidays and could care less if its important to you if its not important to them. Oh, and patience is something you learn regardless of whether you move to France or another country if you have to learn to live in a new place with new people, a new language and start a new life. just saying.
5. fill my passport: well, i think that would require a lot of traveling and a lot of money to accomplish in one year but thank you to the many visa's i acquired last year, i am on my way to having a full passport so I would say i was successful at that!
6. I would also like to say that I am conversational in french as of right now... it depends on the day of the week (mainly my mood) and who you are, but i think i am capable of having a pretty decent conversation in french. as long as you're patient for me to speak becuase i do no speak fast, but that wasn't a requirement, was it?
7. I did not read 2 books a month but I did however rediscover my love for reading and i did read a lot more this past year than i did in the years previous so i was proud of myself for that.
8. the only one I completely failed at. Excuses are excuses but with all the traveling and moving i did, i did not keep up with reading my 365 day Bible! I am starting over and am striving to complete this for real this time!!!


Well, that about sums up my 2010!!! I am very proud of myself and all that I accomplished this year! Not to sound proud, i just feel like the last 5 years were so hard that I am glad that I was able to accomplish so much in such a short period of time (in my opinion). Growing up isnt easy and I've been one to take a few wrong turns or as we say in the states "the road less traveled" at times.

I have yet to write my new resolutions for this year as I have been reflecting on all that happened last year. Maybe I will figure out what I want to do this year and post that later some time...

Thank you guys for reading and supporting and loving and cheering me on in every thing I do and have done... My resolutions and accomplishments could not have been done if it weren't for y'all!!!

Love, me!

and then there was three days....

....spent in Texas!!!

Boy did I feel like such the jet-setter last week after all the traveling I did in such a short period of time!!! And boy did i REALLY feel it all this week as I spent many a-hours trying to recover from said traveling!

I am happy to announce that I am back to KARA and not ...je suis vraiment fatigue toujours ....anymore.

When I went to Tx, I did fail at taking pictures so luckily there a few others who took a few and I am stealing them all from facebook so I hope you people don't mind! I had a GREAT time in Texas!!! LOVED the warm weather, on saturday it was about 70 degrees with some sunny sun sun shining down on my oh-so-pale skin (thank you paris for making me stay covered up all the time and for not allowing the sun to come out and play...ever). I loved driving around in MY car (i miss her!!!) with the sunroof open and the windows down. How awesome!!! I did however miss my boots, wearing tights, bundling up,and having a reason to wear my big coat....but I got it all back as it was the same ol paris once I arrived...cold and cold.

While in Texas, amoung other things, I just HAD to visit these places:

Target!!! (that place should be world wide, just saying)
HEB (because i misssssed like crazy american grocery stores...mainly the food inside, not the actual store)
Wal-mart

Chick-fi-A
Chuys (mexican)
Freebirds (more mexican)
Fudruckers (hamburgers)
Shipley's donuts
McDonlds ONE DOLLAR (small in america but size extra grande in france) Dr. Pepper


..sadly, that list seems so much shorter than i had imagined in my head but add to that, homecooked spaghettii, sausage and cabbage (one of my favs) and breakfast at my grandparents retirement community and that sums up the amount of meals you would eat in 3 days time, right?
I love my family for indulging me in all of america's goodies and letting me choose all the restaurants and entertaining me needs (mostly wants) to shop for no good reason and run random errands!

Here are a few photos...

My mom and I at the house when all the family came over for dinner!

My aunt, B-I-L Wiley and my sister Meredith

NYE with my Tx friends

oh, Amy!

Jenni and I were waiting for the fireworks at Minute Maid Park

Sunday morning church, I altered my skirt about 5 seconds before going to church this morning

3.5 minutes of awesome fireworks

I do miss baseball 

I miss her already!!! Happy 2011!!!

There are a few more stuck on my mom's cell phone of me enjoying my experience at the big HEB off Bunkerhill, haha! But we'll see if those ever make it to a computer before Jesus comes back... haha

Anyways, I greatly enjoyed my visit to my homeland and wish it could've been longer! I miss you guys so much already but I think that y'all need to start visiting me because those plane rides are not the funnest thing I've ever done, just saying!

Hope everyone had a great NYE and a great start to the new year!! Happy 2011 from Paris, y'all!!!

Love, me

and here it is

Welcome to Vienna...

Christmas Eve downtown Vienna

Lisa and her dad

Lisa, her brother Isaac and sister Babsi (Barbara)

ready for our 9 course, 4 hour traditional French meal, complete with wine to match each plate served.

le menu

Receving and education between the different wine glasses

by the 5th course we were taking naps between courses

the cheese platter...

and after (it was a little piece of heaven)

the cook and wonderful hostess (Lisa's aunt, who is also French)

Babsi and I with our "food babies"

Chestnut dessert

Christmas market

Ice skating on a real lake around a real castle. 

oh, Lisa!

flight suit: about 6 layers right there!

I flew in the back of this...in Hungary!

frozen!

My trip to Vienna could be summed up in this: wonderful!! It was cold (-6 degrees C average...wind, cold, no sun...) and relaxing and entertaining and just plain fun! I had a great time being a part of another family and experiencing things the way they do them. Christmas Eve was celebrated with a traditional French meal as my friend Lisa's aunt is French and she was the cook. We definitely were not prepared for the 9 courses that were served that evening or that we were going to be eating until midnight, but it was such an awesome experience.
Christmas day we spent watching movies and laying around enjoying each others company, something I haven't done in a long time. And I made Lisa watch "Sound of Music", ironically, she says that no one in Austria has watched that movie and I told her that everyone in the States has.
We shopped till we dropped one day, went to a Christmas market, the movie theater, went flying in these helicopter/plane things in Hungary (yes, we drove to Hungary one of the days), worshiped at a Christian church in Austria, skated on a real lake around a real castle, and tried my hardest not to lose any fingers or toes to frost bite. Success!!

It was a different experience not being around MY family for Christmas as I thought it would be but it was nice to be a part of someone else's and have my horizons widened and expand my views of the world. Again, I learned more just how American I am, and...just how European my friend Lisa is...but thats what I love about my friends, we have to find other commonalities and it makes our friendships that much more fun! I am so blessed that she opened her home up to me and allowed me to be a part of her family for a week. It was an incredible experience.

Next on the list is pictures from Texas... unfortunately I didn't take almost any so I have to steal the few that were taken of me...but a few are better than none...

I am off to bed in about 15 minutes. I have survived my first day back in Paris and feel like I am going to have no problems getting back on a schedule. Oddly enough I am excited to be back in the cold, all bundled up, and practicing my French again, even though getting to speak all English and see the sun shine for a few days was rather nice!!!

Thank you all for reading and caring and loving, me!