Part 2 Begins

     Though back in April of last year, it was a MAJOR hassle and I was running all over Belmont's campus and filling out what seemed like endless applications, the choice to participate in two completely separate programs for each semester has been absolutely worth it! One of the best perks has definitely been my two month vacation... That's right. Two months of vacay hanging out in Paris. And in fact, I have not yet started my classes. Still have one more week before the work really begins! 

     People always ask "so what on earth have you been doing in that time??". Well, let me tell you! My lovely family came to visit over Christmas break for two weeks, and that was a ton of fun. We spent one week in Paris and one week in Rome. Coolest Christmas break ever. I still babysit Nadjet twice a week as well. I've been doing a lot of salsa dancing as well, shout out to my girls Marie, Dani, and Abbey who I dragged with me to a possibly slightly sketchy salsa club back in Nashville one time before leaving. Don't worry, I'll take you to my favorite salsa clubs here :) I went to a few art museums, played guitar and piano, read 5 books, and drank a lot coffee. I think there were only 2 days that I never left the house.

     My second program just started four days ago, so I just moved into a new host family. And yet again, God has seriously blessed me and I know this semester is going to be wonderful with my new living arrangements. The second I got the email with the information about my host family, I knew it was all going to be ok, and I didn't need to worry. Last semester I lived with a woman named Dominique who had 2 kids and 2 grandkids (that don't live at home). This semester I'm living with a woman named Dominique Gory who has 3 kids and some grandkids (that don't live at home). Like what!? Probably the most important thing that I should share with you (whoever 'you' may be) is that I actually live on the the top floor of a middle school now...  Madame Gory is the directrice of a middle school and lives on the top floor of the school, a very common thing here in Paris. The apartment is quite large, I have my own room and bathroom and I have an automatic alarm clock set for 8am every morning! It's still a little comical to think about it but so far, I absolutely love it. On top of that, I also live in a really great neighborhood in Paris called The Marais. I am surrounded by a bunch of cute restaurants, cafes, bistros, and of course boulangeries. The Marais is actually known for having some great boulangeries. Ya'll, I have seriously been blessed!! Can't believe I get to call the third arrondissement home for the next 4 months. I'm just a hop, skip, and a jump from the Seine and the majestic Notre Dame is just a five minute walk away.

     No update on classes yet, because like I said, I still haven't started those yet :) I have my french placement exam coming up on Wednesday and after that I'll know how much my french improved since arriving here in August.

His love never fails. 

One Semester Down

So I've clearly struggled with this whole 'blog' thing… seeing as it's been two and a half months since I last posted something. After I got back from morocco, time seemed to speed away from me quite quickly, as I knew it would. Starting with morocco, I was out of town 6 weeks in a row. While it was incredible and I'm thankful for every place I got to go, I won't lie- it was little stressful, and very time consuming. I was not in paris as much as I wanted to be, and when I was, I was unpacking, catching up on school work, doing laundry, and then re-packing. Maybe if school hadn't been in there it wouldn't have been as stressful :)  Every single trip was incredible and I've already put some of the pictures up on Facebook so I'll save you from an endless list of pictures from each one!

First, I want to say how grateful I am for all the friends that I made this semester. I feel like every which way I turned, God continually walked ahead of me and put awesome people in my life. Whether that was at school, at my semester program office, at church, or at work.

As you may know, this semester I've been babysitting a precious little girl, Nadjet twice a week. Going into the first meeting with her and her mother was pretty nerve-wracking- having no clue what the family was going to be like, if they spoke english, if I would be able to understand their french, and so on. And deciding to babysit was once of the best decisions I could have made. Nadjet is absolutely wonderful, her mother is so great as well, and it's allowed me to really practice my french and meet new people (mainly other nannies at the park). I have learned so so much from Nadjet and I am so thankful that I get a whole 'nother five months with her!

All in all, this semester has been so much more than I could have ever imagined. It was definitely a struggle at times, getting frustrated with not completely knowing the language, or frustrated at mean french waiters... or unhelpful teachers, or too much school work, etc, but each day was a blessing. The biggest thing I will take away from this semester truly is the people I've met. Whether they've been French, American, British, Australian, New Zealanders (?), Irish, Italian, or German. (Yes.. I really have met at least one person of each nationality!) I have learned so much from them and have loved soaking in as much as possible.

Next semester definitely has a lot to live up to! And it presents a whole new set of challenges- a new host family, a new school, new friends, new almost everything! While I'm am sad to let go of what I had this past semester, because it was so wonderful, I know that it can only mean I have even more things to learn and people to meet. If it crosses your mind, it would mean the world to me if you remembered me in your prayers. That I will be a light and example of the love and joy I have in Christ. That as I continue to explore Paris and meet new people and learn new things that I will know what remains constant no matter what. This semester has been a dream come true and I can't believe I'm blessed enough to have it continue another five months.

His love never fails. 

Long Time, No Write!

I'm so sorry to have taken such a long break! Lots and lots has happened so I'll try and give a summary of the past couple weeks.

Since my last post, I have been able to go on two ISA (my study abroad program) trips-to the Loire Valley and to Normandy. Both were absolutely amazing trips and I got to see beautiful castles, the gorgeous countryside, a wine tasting, an apple cider tasting, and visit the beaches where so many men gave their lives in service to our country. Below are a few pics from these two trips.

Chateaux in Loire Valley!

Chateau Chemanceau

And the most magnificent... Chateau Chambord

And then moving on over to Normandy. We got to visit a war museum, walk along the beaches of Normandy, walk through the American cemetery, see the cliffs, and visit Mont St. Michel. So glad that I got to see those sites! Something I never thought I would be able to see in person.

And then they surprised us with a trip to an apple cider factory! We learned all about apple cider and how its made. And we ended it with a delicious tasting, trying 5 different levels of cider.

And here are a few from Mont St. Michel. Absolutely stunning view. And there are actually a population of about 200 people who live there! We went on a sunday, so when we passed through the church at the top, mass was going on. 

Sorry for the really quick summary and long line of pictures to explain the weekend trips! I took wayyy too many pictures and am still working on even getting them edited and on facebook. They were both lovely trips and jam packed with toursim, pretty sights, good food, and lots of photos!

Two other things I wanted to comment on for fun....

French Fashion

In the two months of my living and shopping in Paris, I think I have had a good amount of exposure to the true phrase "Oh, that's SO Parisian!" . I have come to the conclusion that most french fashion boils down to these three important elements. 

1. some element of BLACK (shoes, jacket, scarf, shirt, pants, any or all of the above
2. a SCARF (because you're actually cold OR because it's just cute, for men and women alike)
3. a BLAZER (any color, always necessary)

     To have all of the three, you are very parisian. Especially if your scarf doesn't really match the outfit... and especially if the blazer is either black or navy. Should you have two, you could pass for parisian but one of the two must be wearing black. And if it's only one.. You clearly didn't spend enough time getting dressed for the day.
     Of course there are other elements to french fashion, such as stripes, a hat, beige and/or earthy colors, sweaters, lipstick, but I have found, thus far, that these three are the key elements to passing as Parisian on a daily basis.

Daily Routines

Something else that people have been asking me a lot lately, is what does my day to day schedule look like. So I figured I would summarize what a week kinda, sorta looks like. Honestly, no two weeks have really looked the same, with random last minute things that come up and are cancelled, and the traveling that I have been blessed to do, but here's a basic and broad summary. 

Classes here in France are all only once a week for three hours. And let me tell you, it's a little difficult at times. It's one thing to have three classes in a day, each for an hour, and another to have the same class- same teacher, same people, same room, same subject, for three hours! And A/C is not a thing here so it's always warmish to stifling hot. When you add in the time it takes to commute to class, a three hour class takes up a large portion of the day. So to the one day that I only have a night class, I save all my errands, grocery shopping, school work "catching up"/studying, random little things, for that morning/afternoon. So while those days are usually pretty open, they fill up very quickly with all the little things I need to do that I didn't get to do over the weekend (normally because I was out of town, I promise!) Then, two times a week I babysit my precious Nadjet:

She's quite the handful at times, but she is a lot of fun and I love that I get to see her twice a week. So before class I make sure there's no homework I forgot about and then make the trek to school and have just enough time to eat a little lunch, and skype my sweet brother for about 20 minutes after class, before going to pick Nadjet up from school. And if you're wondering how Parisian my eating diet has become ( :D ), I have a piece of toasted bread with goat cheese and "saucisson" for lunch with fruit and yogurt. Yumm. And then I always have one day that I reserve for "explore Paris day". My good friend, Kelsey and I, we pick a new place each week to go take pictures of or just explore because we haven't yet! So after I finish class and eat my lunch, her and I meet up and enjoy the afternoon walking around a new part of Paris together. Out of all my days in the week, my Friday's are what change the most. Depending on my weekend plans, my Friday afternoons are sometimes spent practicing music, coffee with a friend, homework I need to do so I don't have to over the weekend, or many other things. And for the rest of this semester I only have two more weekends in Paris!

It's crazy how fast time is flying by and that I've already been here for a little over two months! I'm looking forward to continuing exploring Paris, improving my french, and learning more and more about the world :)

His love never fails.

God Save the Queen

Similar to my first Paris trip with my mother 3 and a half years ago, my London trip was a whirlwind of experience! 48 hours packed to the brim with tourism. We took the night bus out Friday night and arrived early, early, early on Saturday morning. We quickly found a Starbucks, of course, to map out our day. I've decided to adapt to each different Starbucks culture and change my name according to what country I'm in so in Paris, I'm Isabelle and in London I decided to be Abby. Tayler stuck with "Tayler" and this is what happened:

Unfortunately, we couldn't make it to EVERY destination on our proposed list, as there was just not enough time. Nor enough strength in my legs to keep walking... But here are some highlights of what we were able to do.

On our way to the London Tower we of course crossed over the London bridge! And it wasn't falling down which is good. 

The London Eye

Big Ben!

Westminster Abby

And of course... had to take one of these.

And then my camera died right after this. And of course I forgot to bring my charger so I couldn't charge the battery so the rest of my trip I used my iPhone to document our awesome Harry Potter walk through London, which was also full of historical information, our trip to Buckingham palace to watch the changing of the guards, our walk through Hyde Park.

BUT.....

Then a terrible thing happened. The one thing that you pray never happens...

We were visiting the Industrial War Museum and I had just walked through the spy section, learning about all the spy techniques and actual spies of World War II. As I headed back downstairs to the main entrance I pulled my phone out of my purse and as I stepped down, my precious iPhone took flight. I tried to catch it mid air but only further propelled it forwards. It hit the side railing and fell just slightly too far right.. It slipped right between the elevator and the stair case, falling three flights, hitting the elevator at one point and then smashing onto hard concrete at the bottom. I only wish someone could have photographed my face when it happened. I stood there a few moments just looking over the railing in shock. Not believing that that had actually just happened. I finally snapped out of it when someone asked me if I had dropped something and I could only mutter out... "My...phone..." I knew it was a lost cause. Of course there was construction going on so the museum staff had to find the correct key to go all the way to the bottom to even collect my phone. 

Jennifer was sweet and let me borrow her camera for the rest of the trip since my Nikon was dead and I didn't have my phone! After I collected the pieces of my phone, we headed back towards the Thames to the London Eye. We stumbled upon an open air market where a bunch of different local sellers had tents up. So much good food! I had tasty Indian food for dinner from there and I also bought some really yummy butternut squash pesto... It is so so good and if I know anyone going to London I am going to have them buy more!!

That pretty much sums up the trip :)) For future plans, the night bus was a hard transportation method. It was convenient because it only took up time that I would have been sleeping, but it was long and I did not get much sleep! I would recommend trying to take the 2 hour train instead, it will be worth it! 

His love never fails.