recap

Most importantly, I finally finished reading my book, Lone Survivor. Obsessed!!!! As of right now its the best book I've ever read. Although, thats the story of my life these days, every time I do something new, it's always my new favorite thing. But honestly, this book was so addictive. I promise you they'll make a movie out of it someday and when they do, i will be the first in line to see it. Wow. It's so powerful and so raw and real. So its a bit gory and I did cry a few times which is not that uncommon for me and books, but just saying. It was a bit embarrassing crying on the train but thats where I get my good reading time in so oh well! I am a bit bummed my book is over though, that means I have to find another book and hope its as interesting to read as this one was. :-)

Anyways, where to start on the recap of my weekend? It was so busy. 2nd week in a row where there was a holiday and honestly, I am ready for some normality but it really doesn't exist anymore. Anyways, Saturday night was awesome with friends coming over for dinner and ending up having a random picnic at the top of my hill overlooking the countryside as the sun set. I learned a new skill I have, painting nails on the very fast moving train. Seems easy but the train was moving from side to side constantly so it is definitely not something anyone can do.

After church on Sunday I ditched my normal crowd and had a one-on-one lunch with a friend who I am getting to LOVE these days. We had some very deep conversation and it was just nice to talk to someone who you can just put it all out on the table and not be feared of being judged or misunderstood. Yes, she is American, haha! Us americans need to stick together.

So Sunday evening started the real party. My group of friends who have now adopted me into their "family" got together to spend the ferie together today. We decided to do a pizza and movie night last night and a slumber party. Yes, a co-ed slumber party. It was the most awesome night ever. Co-ed slumber parties should be more widely accepted. And before you all go getting ideas, we all slept in different rooms, actually, the boys slept on the first floor and all the girls got the beds in the bedrooms upstairs. But before falling asleep there was a lot of good old fashioned fun. One thing I am loving about some of my newer friends is how much we are alike in a very important way: we find it very important to satisfy our childish desires.... for instance: last night we build a fort. Yes, you read correctly. We can't just watch a movie...thats boring! So we turned the living room into a fort with blankets and clothes pins and pillows and string. It was pretty incredible. I hope to steal a few photos and maybe post them soon. It  felt like camping, but inside. At around the perfect time of 3am, all our movies were over and we were slowly fading away so we hit the sack. We didn't exactly have pre determined plans this morning so most of us didn't end up waking up until 11 or 12 this morning (afternoon). Oh the life. We had not been able to decide on a place to go today because we had originally wanted to go to the beach but the forecast was not very solid for today (it rained a bit) and trying to find a car to rent was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. In the end I am glad we didn't because the traffic would have been horrible! But atlas, we finally decided on this park none of us had been to called Bois de Bologne. It was awesome! we had no idea what to expect but the 8 of us headed out on a hopefully fun filled adventure. We ended up finding a pond that rented out row boats and we spent an hour rowing boats around this man made lake. It was beautiful at this time and oh so much fun. We have videos to prove it, but they are in the editing room at the moment. Then we found a place for children with all the bouncy house things and a area with 10 trampolines. For 2 euros you could spend 5 minutes on the trampolines. We all decided to do it. For 5 minutes we were having the time of our lives. It was mostly young children out so we definitely drew a crowd as the guys were doing flips and the girls were screaming. (again, childlike behavior, and why i love my friends). Today I spent 4.50 euros and had the best time ever! Afterwards we ended up at a restaurant that is known for not so great tex-mex but we were hungry and I was dying to eat out. I know I have explained this before but I never eat out (except for Sundays and its always under 7 euros so that usually means subway or mcdonalds) so I was very excited to eat anywhere, didn't really care where it was. I left before everyone else to head home because I still (but only for 2 more weeks) live out in the middle of nowhere but what an evening.

I am so blessed beyond belief to have such incredible friends. I know back in Texas, trying to find a time to get everyone together was like pulling teeth (yes, one of my moms sayings) muchless trying to find something that everyone agreed they wanted to do and then in a budget that was affordable. Today we had no plan and a group of us (that all like each other) headed out the unknown, spent under 5 euros and made such incredible memories. I know I have also told you that I make next to no money, and so I even more appreciate the days when little is needed to make such awesome memories with such awesome people. I learn more and more daily how much the life you lives is about the people around you, not what you do or how you do it. I enjoy tremendously the company of my such incredible friends here that we could be sitting at home eating a home cooked meal or watching a movie (which is also a very common past-time for us) or going out in search of an adventure on a bank holiday, I am a happy gal!

Thats enough of that. Hopefully I remember to post pictures because it was fun and we took a lot.
My next couple of weeks are incredibly hectic as I am traveling to Istanbul on Friday and arrive back Sunday in time for another goodbye dinner for another friend (i am so over saying goodbye to such awesome people). My cool cousin Jackie and her girl scouts are going to be in Paris next week so I am excited to see a little bit of my family, and then the following weekend I move into Paris and then the following Monday when you people back home will be celebrating our countries Independence, I will be on a flight to Romania starting my new job!!! Normal life for me is officially over, school will be out, I'll be starting a new job and I will no longer have a set schedule.

Oh, and in the future I want to start introducing y'all to my lovely friends that I talk about so much on this blog. Are you in? Do you want to meet them? I think you do because they mean so much to me and really have made this experience thus far the most incredible days of my life yet (and to come) and I wish you all to see that part of my life.

Well, I am off to get some sleep. Have a great Tuesday!
Love, me