Oh Mon Dieu...

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Oh goodness... okay... so when I last wrote so many days ago, I was ready to TAKE ON THE WORLLLLD mwahaha! Well, sort of. Internally, I was really just ready to go to Baden and settle down and start life up again. But, every time that I took this trip into consideration, I would just kind of skip over the month of August in my mind. Think of what I had in store for August: 2 weeks of traveling solo - which I've been known to do... but it's exhausting; then, 2 weeks of going into a weak community, sleeping on a floor and trying to educate the Portugese about the rest of the world; this, then, followed by another week of solo travel. All of this, in addition to a final paper for Geneva and WAY too much luggage. This was sounding less and less appealing the closer it got.

Yesterday, I was ready to tuck tail and go home. A dash to the pride? Sure. But Spain and Portugal just weren't going to work for me no matter how I looked at it. After a few reassuring words from my mom and a dear friend, I'm back on track - but am heading to Austria instead. Thank GOD for Karin and Gerald. Their help and patience is absolutely incredible... I feel like a complete schmuck (which in German, by the way, actually is a kind of necklace) and like I'm taking advantage of them - but it sounds like we have a reasonable plan for what to do with me for the next month before my apartment becomes available.

Oh by the way, Paris has been absolutely fantastic. Kathryn and Erica are the ultimate travel buddies and we complement each other very well. Every now and then if/when tensions rise, we're good about wandering off on our own or pairing off and letting one head off alone. It's great. Photos, photos, photos... hooray! But yes, Paris continues to be my favorite city on this planet. Ask for my Euro-video from last year if you've not yet seen it 😉

It's great traveling with people this time, too, because I've done so many things that I wouldn't really have even thought to do when I was here alone last year. Different museums that the girls have wanted to go to, picnics in Jardin du Luxembourg, etc. just really nice things like this. Getting here sucked, though, because we had too much luggage. We had a rather hilarious technique however that really demonstrated our personality types: I would head down (or up) the stairs with my stuff and heave it onto the floor. Then, I would trek back up (or down) and help Kathryn with hers. Kathryn would stay down with the luggage while I breathed and prepared to help Erica... almost like clockwork everytime, some French garcon of sorts would see helpless-Erica (who is, by the way, anything but... but she plays the part well 😉 ) all wilted and just the ideal damsel in distress and he would haul her stuff down for her. It was beautiful.

Anyway, this trip has certainly brought the three of us - three people who would probably not normally become friends - to be lifelongers. It's pretty incredible in that way.

All right, I'm tired of typing, you're tired of reading... so I'll leave it there for now -- and also with some photos 😊

Oh, and with this as a thought to ponder:

Slow down, you crazy child
you're so ambitious for a juvenile
But then if you're so smart, tell me
Why are you still so afraid?

Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?
You'd better cool it off before you burn it out
You've got so much to do and
Only so many hours in a day

But you know that when the truth is told..
That you can get what you want or you get old
You're gonna kick off before you even
Get halfway through
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?

Slow down, you're doing fine
You can't be everything you want to be
Before your time
Although it's so romantic on the borderline tonight
Tonight,...
Too bad but it's the life you lead
you're so ahead of yourself that you forgot what you need
Though you can see when you're wrong, you know
You can't always see when you're right. you're right

You've got your passion, you've got your pride
but don't you know that only fools are satisfied?
Dream on, but don't imagine they'll all come true
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?

Slow down, you crazy child
and take the phone off the hook and disappear for awhile
it's all right, you can afford to lose a day or two
When will you realize,..Vienna waits for you?
And you know that when the truth is told
that you can get what you want or you can just get old
You're gonna kick off before you even get half through
Why don't you realize,. Vienna waits for you
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?


I hope that everyone is doing well and that no one got sucked up in any hurricanes!!!

(PS -- I just realized that a whole ton of my photos are actually on Kathryn/Erica's cameras... so I will see about putting those in a gallery on here once they have gotten home to Boston and can post them).

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Photos

Group at ICRC Museum
Kathryn, Jessi, Yaewon, Meg and Teagan

Final Day :(
Yasmin and Jessi

Woman made me cry, durnit
Jessi and Prof. Denise Garcia

Okay, now on to Paris
Musee D'Orsay
Jessi, Erica and Kathryn

New Friend
(Steps to Sacre Coeur)
This is Kevin - he's a former Marine who was pretty severely injured in Iraq a few years back. He's a really awesome guy and we're glad to have him around :)