Le Petit Prince

"On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux."
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

"We can see only with our hearts, the essential is invisible to our eyes."
Antoine of Saint Exupéry

Bonjour!!!!!

I'm spending my fall break in Bretagne... it's a truly beautiful region of France.

I've been spending my time at the sea, travelling around the region, eating food that is too good to be true, spending time with the French (which are too much fun), drinking a little wine now and then, eating seafood (tonight was crab, shrimp, oysters, and crayfish [ I think], and really just having too much fun.

The first photo is of me (duh! :) at a "menhir," they are placed all over Bretagne and are hundreds of years old. There is a sort of legend that if you throw a rock up and it lands on the ledge, you will be married within the year... no worries, it took me 3 times to get the rock to land! I guess that means that I've either got 3 more years, or it'll be the third man? We'll see! But I guess that means no worries, I won't come back married to a French man. At least that worry is crossed off the list, Mom and Dad!

I've been lucky with mostly beautiful weather (although the rain can be as equally beautiful as the sun), and truly generous hosts here.

J'adore La Bretagne...

Well, here's a little taste of my life at school... sitting on the Parisian streets during my nice 2-hour lunch breaks! haha. School is, well... I'm trying! But the kids at school are really nice so that makes it better and less "chaint." (don't look that up! and if you do, it's only a "blague.")

I'm heading off to Bretagne next Monday for my fall break and definitely looking forward to that! I'll be a in the country so it will be quite a change from Paris, but I can't wait to go!

Bisous! <3

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DAD!!!!!

Hi to all!

I just realized that I never put this story on my blog... but it's a good one, or at least I think so :) I know that my dad will really appreciate this one!

When I went to go find my rental cello (yes, I get to take cello lessons here!!!), the man at the store asked me where I am from in the US. Usually when I say, "Indiana," they kind of give me a nod and have no idea where that is. When he responded to know Indiana, I said that he was one of the few to know. He replied with "Ah, yessss, the Wabash River," as he pulled an old guitar out of the corner of the shop. He struck the first chord (and it was horribly out of tune) and began singing "Back Home Again in Indiana." Just when this little trip to the music store couldn't get much better, another man started playing it on his clarinet. I was in shock. I was singing "Back Home Again in Indiana" in PARIS, FRANCE. What in the world???

The world feels so big some day, but other day it really is "a small world after all." Music can bring us together, make the world feel smaller, and make incredible connections that could have otherwise been "lost in translation." It's a beautiful things, isn't it?

Bonjour!

This past Saturday I got to have a traditional French meal and I guess it was kind of like a fondue party... but it was really cool. I ate too much, (here comes the exchange student weight gain!!!) but it was just too good. Essentially, you heat a piece of cheese and pour it over potatoes and charcuterie (basically just fancy ham). I liked it, maybe even loved it, more than I ever could have expected.

Most things are like that here, though, different than I expected. I think that it's just because I don't really know what to expect from day to day; but I'm finding that it's also half the fun! I'm still finding surprises at every turn - my biggest being that gym class here is actually mildly fun at times! JK.

I'm still drinking coffee at the local cafés too much and enjoying my time here so thoroughly. That doesn't mean, of course, that there aren't days where it's a little rough. But I think that's to be expected when you move half way across the world for a year. I keep telling my parents that I am just curious about how the leaves are changing back home, and the things that are so normal to life. It was a treat to get a letter from my dad with some Indiana leaves, and I immediately smelled them to, just for a few seconds, take me back to Indiana.

Joni Mitchell's song, "The Circle Game" just came on my iPod shuffle (and it's too perfectly timed), but it's just so true to what I am feeling some days.

The seasons they go 'round and 'round,

and the painted ponies go up and down

we're captive on a carousel of time

we can't return, we can only look behind from where we came

and go 'round and 'round in the circle game.

I'm moving on and growing up, but I still have such a need to hold on to what grounds me... like the smell of Indiana, the smell of home. Well gosh, that just got depressing. Sorry. Moving on...

Tomorrow is my short day at school and I get to go vintage shopping with a couple friends! How fun, right? Only in Paris! J'aime la vie!

Weekend at Mont St-Michel

Over the weekend I got to go to Mont St-Michel and it was quite an experience!!! All of the exchange students from the Paris region got to go, and we are certainly an energetic group! We roughed the dangerous conditions and walked through the quicksand, the river that came up past our knees, and the winds - but it couldn't have been better! We spent about 3 hours walking but enjoyed ourselves the whole way.

After our journey, we had a traditional dinner of the region and got to listen to live traditional music.

The weekend was filled with fun and laughter... it's so great to be an exchange student. I'm still amazed at how lucky I am. I never could have seen myself doing all of these things, but here I am. Wow! Sometimes that's all I can think to say. There is no way for me to express everything that I am thinking, feeling, and absorbing here.

It's been a month and one week since I arrived, and some days it feels like I've been here an eternity, but usually I just can't believe how much I have done in such a short amount of time. I keep meeting great people, learning more and more French (and more and more slang), and starting to realize just how much has been placed before me. It's overwhelming and exhilerating at the same time. I sometimes look around at all of the people on the Métro and wonder what exactly they're doing in Paris. Studying, working, following a lover, escaping another life? But it essentially comes down to the same thing - we're all just living our lives and the rest doesn't really matter in the end. People here are the same as people anywhere else. There are, of course, the cultural differences, but in the end, none of us are really all that different. I love it, though. We're all doing the same thing, just taking our own route to get to the same place in the end. But, as I've always been told, "It's about the journey, not the destination."

Autumn in Paris

I know the cliché is 'April in Paris,' but I sure am loving the autumn here! The leaves are starting to change and it is making the Parisian streets even more beautiful. I absolutely adore the crunch of the leaves under my feet and the cool autumn air on my cheeks. I got caught in a little Parisian rain shower on my walk today, but it felt so good! No harm done! The mist looked absolutely lovely as I was finding my way on a new path that I have never taken.

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost

After writing the beginning of this post, it made me think of this poem. Just a little food for thought...