visitations

today....we went to the neighbors house for a "gouter" (snack)

they have twins...7th grade twins (however old that is). and they're HYSTERICAL!

especially their daughter. she's a bright one. very quick witted, and VERY VERY funny.

and their mom made me feel better. every time i come home, i enjoy it alot. but it saddens me how much harder i have to think to speak french. i wish i could go back to the days where it came easier than english. where it was so natural. BFA has deadened my poor francais. but today, she said my french was "impeccable" (uhh...perfect-ish. i suck at translating). no accent. no nothing. and it made me feel like maybe there is still some of that little french girl in me, the one i used to be.

i leave tomorrow. goodbye home, hello school.

AND JANET!!!!!!! ;) yay!

i think i need to go to bed!

bonne annee tout l'monde! (for you anglophones out there....happy new year!)

i wish...

i wish i could write
so i could describe for you
the sights and sounds
that are still
so familiar

i wish i could write
so i could describe for you
the lights, the traffic, the cathedrals
and the many, many people

i wish i could write
so i could explain to you
how i'm home
but not
belonging
but not

i wish i could write
so i could explain to you
the sigh in my heart
as i sit in my window
loving it
still longing for somewhere else
or even
somewhere else again

i wish i could write
so i could tell you
how much i miss you
and how much i wish
that we could
all of us
be together again

i wish i could write
so i could convince myself
that a life torn in three
or thousands
can be put back together
somehow

i wish i could write
so i could tell you
what's really up
cuz simple words
are insufficient

if only i could write...

it's christmastime in the city

for those of you that didn't see my facebook album (which is probably not very many people) i feel like putting pics on here too! :P


le bord de la seine (from the car)


some bridge. i luv this pic cuz of the lampposts and the cathedral in the background.


i'm in love with the moon. and the pretty city colors ;)


and of course..the good old champs elysees, all lighted up for christmas.

i LOVE my city! it's so good to see something other than corn!

break-ness

sooo....my roomie said i should blog.

so i am.

haven't been up to much. mostly on my computer watchin prison break with the bros. the church program on sunday went really well. we didn't have TOO many visitors but we had some so that was good.

yesterday we went out to the city to the christmas market. i'm a big fan of that market. lots of cool stuff. got lots of xmas shopping done. and took fun pictures. here's one of my faves from the train back.



alrighty. dinner time. swedish meatballs. yummy. luv to all. you know who you are.

christmas break

there are a lot of things that i'm going to miss about this place over christmas break.

i would list them all like usual...

...but what i'm going to miss the most...

...is the part that won't be here when i get back.

simple pleasures...

vanilla cinnamon coffee.

writing notes and laughing hysterically in.....well, yeah.

"falling in love with jesus" WITH harmonica.

"yeeee-hao", an asian cowboy happy bday.

friday singing in the car.

friday watching enchanted.

enchanted in general.

unlimited breadsticks.

friday's chipmunk, pimp.

david being freaked out at friday's chipmunk, pimp.

bringing a smile to a friend's face.

fake ID's as ice scrapers.

paul's confusion.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
but not everything is pleasurable....

i hate hurting for my friends.

specially when there's nothing i can do.

inwardly sighing

today was kind of a weird day. got a nap or two in ;) i've missed those! got out of public speaking...that was nice. but it was weird for more reasons. there've been a lot of things on my mind.

christmas break is so close and yet so far. one more week of classes and four days of finals and yet it still feels a million miles away.

i love meeting new people. there are so many amazing ppl here and i've met so many since i've been here. but, as much as i luv that, i've been realizing lately that in meeting new people, i lose the time that i used to spend with other friends. friends that i really enjoyed spending time with. friends that i still want to spend time with. friends that i end up missing....when we live on the same campus...or the same dorm...

january first can't come fast enough. nuff said.

i wish there were more than 24 hours in a day. no, i take it back. i wish ppl only needed like 4 hours of sleep so that we would all have THAT much more time to hang out. that would go a long way in solving that other problem.

i'm always up for a good philosophical slash theological discussion every once in a while. it's generally intellectually stimulating and my brain enjoys the work out. but lately i've taken to thinking.....do those things really matter? does it matter exactly what a certain word was meant to be translated as, whether we were predestined or not, or what Paul meant by a certain verse? as my AP bio and chem teacher liked to say, God is not going to condemn someone to hell because they believed the world was created in 7 days or 7000. so what's the point of arguing?!?!

ok....i'm sure it's just going to degenerate from here seeing as it's pretty late (or early if you're elijah) and my awaken-ness from the bitter cold outside seems to be wearing off. i think i'll be off to bed.....

things i learned in nebraska

i was muchly educated over thanksgiving break. really.

1. on an automatic transmission cars, when you go from park to drive, the reverse lights flash!

2. if you have cruise control, you can drive hours and hours with simply your right thumb!

3. blue rockstar energy drinks are pretty good, until you get to the bottom at which point it tastes a little bit like medicine.

4. driving on the road with no license plates is illegal. driving in a field however is not.

5. the amazon is NOT in africa.

6. "65, you can be comfortable in a t-shirt or long sleeved T. 50 is good for a jacket. 40 is getting cold and anything lower than that and you're done for" (my lesson in fahrenheit...thanks ru)

and last but most certainly NOT least

7. "Soy Bomb" is Spanish for "I am bomb".

as i said....VERY very educational.

on: nebraska

so we made it...after both our flights getting delayed, a heckuva lot of turbulence in the air, and a ridiculously long run through o'hare. but we made it nonetheless.

the brothers: so much fun. the two youngest, jared and tommy, are really cute and the oldest younger one james and the older one ben are hilarious and a lot of fun. at least from what i can tell after one day. we'll see what i think by the end of the week. it does make me miss my own brothers though.....

the parents: so nice. that's all i have to say about that. pretty much amazing.

the house: such a cute little farmhouse. slightly chilly but not so bad.

and finally, nebraska: cold, but along with that came my first snow of the year. not much, just a dusting, but enough to be a first snow in any case. enough for there to be (according to james) 4 cars in the ditch on the way to school. it's way in the middle of nowhere, i have no cell phone signal (feel free to try, sometimes i have ONE bar....but rarely) but it's still fun.

and i've discovered that guitar hero isn't as dumb as i had originally presumed it was. that probably has a lot to do with the fact that, not only had i never played it, i'd never even SEEN it played. so we remedied that for several hours this afternoon ;)

and now..just chillaxing, waiting to see what will happen next so i can go with the flow, and trying to figure out the best way to keep my toes warm!

happy thanksgiving everybody and happy birthday to my bestest friend EVER! i luv you dear!

it's 0:36...

...and i'm still awake.

now while this isn't anything extremely odd, it is odd in that all i'm doing is sitting on my computer, not talking to anyone, just typing.

and listening to everything in my itunes collection with the word home in it.

i'm so ready to be home.

sometimes i have to let go of something good, because it's not as good as something better.

but i'm not sure it's better yet.

thanksgiving should be a whole lot of fun cuz i'm going home with my friend, ru.

but i still wish that it was christmas.

mom and dad, josh and caleb, city lights and sounds, christmas market, virvolte (if you don't know what that is, it's probably better that way), and much much more.

parfois je souhaite que tout redevienne comme c'etait avant. avant ici. avant l'annee derniere. avant la fin.

but i would have missed out on so much.

i suppose....