La Ville Rose

So, in less than 2 hours, I will be on my way to Toulouse with my Rotary Friends. We're leaving at 2:30 in the morning and we're going to be traveling for over 14 hours to get to the South of France. I'm rather excited. We're going to be spending this weekend in the SUNSHINE. ooooh yeaaaaahhh....

Coming back on Monday around 2:30 in the morning. 

Toodles till then.

French Funerals are No Fun

Un beau jour, ou peut-être une nuit

près d'un lac, je m'étais endormie

Quand soudain, semblant crever le ciel

Et venant de nulle part,

Surgit un aigle noir.

In my short time in France, I was blessed with meeting an amazingn, young and talented girl named Laura. On that fateful day in September when I first saw her, I never realized that only 6 short months later, I would be so touched by her existence that her parting this Earth would affect me like this.

In my class, a class where we take every course together, we have a special bond. We are the music and theater class. We cause havoc and have fun all of the time. I couldn't have asked for better classmates.

One of these classmates was named Laura, a gorgeous martinique-egyptienne who was especially ornery. She was the first person in my class to welcome me and accept me. She was always smiling and happy.  It's so weird that she's no longer there.

This experience, while being really hard, has changed me for what I believe is a lifetime.  There are people here in France who have touched my life in this short time that I've lived here. I can communicate, function, and prosper in a different language while succeeding and actually, doing it well. 

My Best Friends Best of all Best Friends

So, maybe I was a little freaked out the other day. I feel a lot better today. Last night, I had an amazing online skype chat with one of my best friends. For the record, I think that I have 4 best friends from before my exchange. I think that I'll blog about them right now. I know that you're probably disappointed that I'm not going to elaborate on the accidental almost getting on the wrong train and almost ending up in Luxembourg or the day where I ate an american but, I think that this is kinda my blog so I think that I will kinda write what I want lol.

First off, we have Miss T. She's been my best friend since kindergarten. Growing up together was amazing. We were both girl scouts and spent all of the time together in elementary and middle school. We fought like sisters and, that's probably why I feel that she really is like my sister. In high school, it's not really that we grew apart, just that we went to different schools. Now that I'm on my exchange, Miss T is one of those people who I love chatting with. It's like nothing has changed since those days of recess and craft projects.

Now, we have Lia. I have also known her since kindergarten but, we became best friends in High School. French class brought us together. During my high school years, she was the one person who I loved the most. I feel like she knows everything about me, except that I have one secret from France that she needs to know, Lia, please, let's skype or talk on the phone, I can't tell you on the internet...   We've had so many good times like the Madonna movie, the polka dotted maternity dress, the tea bag, starbucks au lieu de the Mona Lisa. Seriously Lia, I don't think you realize how much you impacted my life. I know that I will always be grateful to you and you will always be my best friend.

Now, il y my grapefruit. Haha. I hope that you realize why your nickname on here is Grapefruit (think about desk girl and the color of the fruit!!) You've been someone really important to me ever since the 6th grade when we were in class together all day. One really super memory that I have of us is in Mrs. Benson's reading class and how Aaron and I had a smiling contest. Haha. I'm so lucky that you still are my friend after all of the weird things you have seen me do. Talking to you last night for over two hours wasn't hard at all. I can't wait to see you and get caught up on everything. Let's make a date! Harry Potter 6 (if we can still find it in theaters after I get back from galavanting around Europe), Carraba's (I think that's the Italian place) and coldstone!!!!!!

Lastly, we have ma petite frenchie. She is also, one of my best friends. I am so lucky that she is my friend. We may not have spent as much time as the others but, she completly understands me. We're crazy together and I wouldn't have it any other way. Spending a week at my house in Ohio gives anyone the opportunity to run away but, she did the opposite. Pooooosh =P  Shhh... My mom still doesn't know that we almost ran out of gas lol. Boogie. Ahh. I love you la Miss. Watch out!!! Smores attack...

I can't wait to see you again  =)

Well, there you have it. These are my best friends in the world. My god mother here always laughs when I talk about one of you because I'm always saying, one of my best friends this or one of my best friends that...    Thsi doesn't include KJ. KJ , you deserve your own blog. Don't worry, you just wait for it =)

Questioning the Future

After talking to a dear friend today, I realized that I'm a little afraid. I'm a little afraid of what's to come after my exchange. I guess that I never really thought about what would happen when I would tell everyone in France goodbye (for now) and return back home to lovely ol' Alliance. Everyone else has gotten on with their lives and made new friends. I know that the song that I'm singing is...

Make new friends, but keep the old

One is silver and the other's gold

A circle's round, it has no end

That's how long I want to be your friend

The only thing that scares me about this philosophie is that, what if noone else thinks like me?

Okay. I know that I need to stop. The whole thing that brought this on was my plane ticket. So, I'm returning to the States on the 20th of July. I was thinking about my return and, thinking about what I could do that week and with whom I could do it. What if noone wants to do anything with me? 

Seriously though, I can survive living in a foreign country where I knew noone so, I'm sure that I can survive going back. Right?