dreaming

I have a friend.
Her name is Christina.
She is a dreamer.
She is teaching me to be a dreamer.
It's a lot of fun.
I am learning to dream big.
Real big.
Not that I didn't dream big before.
But this kind of dreaming goes back to your childhood.
Where the world is all mine.
What the next few years will hold is unknown.
I just know.
I am learning to dream.
Big.

Love, Me

Istanbul

So I am finally back in a semi-routine after having been on holiday for 2 weeks. It was quite funny once I said this outloud, but I called my family on Easter to visit and with my family they have started doing a 90 minute update of your life. Everyone gets a chance to share and I just happened to call them in the middle of this so I got to give a recap of what I have been up to. I asked my father, so when do you want me to start the recap since I don't see y'all? He said, February 12. I said ok, well, since February 12 I have had 4 weeks of vacation. Ha ha. Seriously?? I didn't realize that I have been on holiday SO much this year already.

Anyways, I am happy to say that I bought at ticket to Istanbul this morning!!! I am going June 17-19. My good friends from Texas invited me to join them on part of their 3 week trip around the middle east and the first stop is in Istanbul. I happily accepted!! I had to muster up the courage to ask my host mom about the dates though because I am a chicken and hate asking for favors but she said it was fine for me to take a Friday off and I was so excited to hear that!

These next few weeks hold quite a bit of traveling, which I am super excited about, because after spending a two week holiday in Paris with no plans, I am happy to resume my new life of being a world traveler. Next weekend I am headed to London for 3 days for a church conference. I am super excited, except for the exchange rate. The exchange rate for US dollars to British pounds is almost 2-1 right now so I have been trying to save my euros but its hard when you don't make much money.
Then, the beginning of June is another bank holiday here in France and so I get Thursday and Friday off and my friends and I are headed to Vannes, France for the 4 day weekend to spend some time getting some fresh air and hopefully enjoying the French beach. I love road trips and am super excited about this one.

Anyways, thought I would let you share in my excitement for the next few weeks!!!

Oh, and I am super stoked to announce that my good friend AMY from Texas booked her ticket to come to Paris yesterday. She is coming in October, not yesterday. I am so excited to welcome her to my new home and show her a good time! Anyone else who wants to follow suit is very welcome here!!!

Ok, well, I need to get ready to go to Paris tonight.... Miss you all lots, Kara

is my life really that interesting???

Hello there! I have had some random thoughts flowing through my brain over the past few days. Like, is my life really that interesting?? Now that I blog I think constantly about what would be interesting to share with you guys back home. It seems like a lot of days, my life could be a comic strip as I am constantly having to jump hurdles (figuratively), learn new trades, experience new things or I just have a stupid moment.

Par example, (that was in French), this past week I was telling my friend Maya how disappointed I was by the lack of Easter hype here. I am coming to realize that America is just super materialistic and they make every holiday into a big deal, decorating and selling stuff and creating stories lines for tv shows and movies and events all for that certain holiday. Here in France, I have seen easter chocolates being sold at grocery stores and bakeries, but small sections and not overdone like in America. Huge change. I believe in the real reason for Easter, but I was brought up with the silly Easter traditions as well, and I wanted to partake in some of those. So Maya and I came up with this grand idea of painting eggs this weekend. We went to our friends house today for brunch and lucky enough omelet's were on the menu so we "blew" the eggs out of the shell with pin pricked holes and saved them for after the brunch. Then we all sat around the table and painted our 20 easter eggs like any good American kid would do. Really, I would have loved to DYE the eggs but unfortunately for us, we didn't have dye, AND here in France, the eggs are all brown. No white ones. Weird, I know. This evening, Maya took the eggs home and created egg necklaces so tomorrow at church I will be wearing an egg necklace along with Maya and whoever else has no shame. Now I am one happy gal!!! And it was so much fun to be silly and carefree and create an experience with people who are all raised differently and come from different backgrounds and countries, to come together and share a simple and silly tradition together. It warms my heart.

Second thing that happened today was a bit on the dramatic side. I had a "blonde" moment, ok, I lie, not one, but multiple! I stupidly forgot it was a weekend and the buses don't run past dinner time so I missed the last bus to my town. Yes, go me! I had to go home, I had no where to stay in Paris tonight, I was ready to change out of my 2 day old outfit, and brush my teeth, take a shower and rest. But how was I to get home?? I have two options when I miss my bus...call my host family or call my good friend Christina. Thankfully Christina came through for me at the last moment but before I knew the fate of my evening I had successfully bitten off all my nails. ugh. (side note: calling my host family is a bit stressful and requires precise timing because they eat dinner at 7:30, the kids go to bed at 8:30pm so I can't bother them between 7-9pm and who wants to drive to the train station after 9pm when you've just had a long Saturday? yea, me neither!)
So anyways, Christina saved my life again! She has done this several times and I really owe her a limb or my first born or something like that. Anyways, we decide to spend some time together this evening so we go back to my house first so I can grab some things (ie: Mac and Cheese because that was her payment for coming to get me tonight) and I stupidly leave my cell phone AND keys on my bed and leave the house. Smart one. The smartest part was that I didn't realize my mistake until ELEVEN PM. 23h!!! I thought I was going to die. We rushed home in hopes that my host father was still up watching tv so I wouldn't wake anyone, but seriously, who leaves their house to go out for the night without their cell phone OR keys to return home? ...ME! By the grace of God, and only Him, (I really feel God had pity on me today because my host father is not normally awake this late these days) my host father was still up AND the door had not been locked for the night. Talk about Drama. And by drama I mean a lot of internal STRESS. By this point though I had at least filed, buffed, and repainted my nails (a big deal) so I am ok now.

Anyways, needless to say, sometimes I wonder if my life was like this back in the States or if France has changed me to lead a crazy life and become crazy all at the same time?!
...maybe when your life involves depending on so many things (ie, trains, metros, buses) all coming together, life can become a little more interesting?

All I can say is that I am happy the evening is over, that I survived, and that I made a lot of great memories along the way! Tomorrow is Easter and while I am super bummed that I am not with my family and worshiping at my church back home, I am excited (trying to stay positive here) to create some more new memories and celebrate in a different way, in a different church and with different people.

Happy Easter, Joyeuses des Paque, and hope you all are having a great weekend!!!

(Pictures to come of my easter egg necklace, don't you worry!!!)

Love, me

courgette

courgette being devoured

mon amie Maya serving me water

so so happy to have gotten some fresh courgette

"sassy kara"

courgette-zuchini


Love, me

2 book recommendations

I have been spending a large amount of my time lately reading. Gosh, I love reading.

One thing about being here that I enjoy most of the time is the public transportation. When I was in college I used to drive long distances to get to school. Anyone who knows me knows I disliked small towns (ha, funny that I live in one now) and that I like the finer things in life, therefore I used to live far from where my University was and way in the heart of a nice city. I used to spend so much time driving that I would get irritated thinking about how much time I was wasting and how I wish I could have a driver or an alternative form of transportation so I could make good use of that time I had to spend traveling.

Now, the tables have turned and I am living in a small village (also known as a suburb but a small village nonetheless) instead of the city and traveling to the city, but I still spend at least an hour traveling to get into the heart of Paris every time I want to go. Since being here I have told myself time and time again that I need to make good use of that time I am sitting on a bus, train or metro as that is exactly what I had been wishing for for the past several years and that is what I have been doing.

I spent so much time listening to podcasts, music, reading, sleeping, etc, but lately, with the weather being nice and inspiring me to learn new things, I have been spending quite a bit of time reading.

All that to say, here are a few books I highly recommend. Now, take these recommendations as you wish because I have come to realize I have a very specific type of book I like to read: American heroism. haha. So if you aren't American or don't like biographies/auto biographies then you might not be as interested in these books, but I think they are worth reading and if you have the same interests in books, then I say its worth your time!!

1. When Hell Was In Session
This book is about Jeremiah A. Denton, Jr. who was a POW in North Vietnam for 7 years during the Vietnam War. He was tortured for many of those years by the North Vietnamese and refused to give up or give in. This book is incredible but also very gory. It tells of how he was put on tv at one point and blinked in morse code that he was being tortured for the world to known and the Vietnamese never caught on until after he had been released. It's incredible to learn the lengths these POW's went through to not give any information to the Vietnamese that could harm the Americans during war, but took all the penalties in the world.

2. Let's Roll
This book I just started yesterday, but I am reading it for the second time. It's another rather sad story as it was written by Lisa Beamer, the wife of one of the heroic men and women who were tragedy killed on 9-11. Her husband was on the plane who crashed into the field in Pennsylvania and she tells about his life and what an incredible man he was to all around him, but also, the great lengths he went to on that plane with the hijackers and the people aboard. I read this book when i was in high school, for the first time, and had requested to have it sent to Paris so I could reread it and I am already enjoying it again. It's an easy read but a good one.

Anyways, I hope you find these recommendations useful and I hope you are all enjoying some book under the warm sun some this week or weekend!

Love, me

i live a hard life

yesterday i had a rather pleasant day basking in the parisian summer sun of my neighbors lawn while the children played together for hours on end. how wonderful.

then i come home to a rather unpleasant discussion with my host mother. nothing to mention, just a frustrating situation that is over and done with.

and today i had the day off and spent the morning with the same neighbor has yesterday at the market in a near town and then spent hours upon hours reading a wonderful book in front of the Eiffel Tower.

some days my life is hard and other times my life is really hard! everyday I (try) to realize that the small crappy moments I may experience are nothing in comparison to the amazing memories I am making here and how blessed I really am.

Thats all, me!

Monet's Gardens

This is where I was yesterday. Later I will have to show you my painting...I am a future Monet! I found my calling in life! :-)

Anyways, I know its all pictures of flowers but the flowers were just to die for!!!

Gotta go clean now! Hope everyone has a perfect Friday!

Love, me