I Hope You Don't Mind That I Put Down In Words...

In less than 48 hours I will be boarding a plane to London, England.  Two days after that I will be boarding a train headed for Paris, France where I will be studying for six weeks.  I must admit that I am a little nervous about flying alone for the first time ever...and to a foreign country...where I will know no one.  However, I feel like a trip of this nature could not have come at a better time for me.  My grandmother, who I was very close with, passed away last Friday, June 17.  Over the last month the rest of my family and myself had to watch helplessly as her health deteriorated.  This was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.  My grandmother was an amazing person.  She traveled to Paris herself in the 1980's and had been raving to me for the past year about how much fun I was going to have on this trip and sharing travel tips.  With everything that was going on with grandma's health, I was uncertain whether or not I could make this trip in good conscience.  As she has done for the past twenty years, grandma sensed that something was troubling me.  One of the last things she said to me was "You need to go.  You need to go to Paris."  It has been my personal experience that disobeying grandma never ends well.  Therefore, I am going to Paris and in her honor, I am determined to have the time of my life.  I think that what started out as a fun way to be emerged into a foreign culture has become much more than that.  I think being able to grieve on my own in unfamiliar territory while meeting new people and experiencing new things is the perfect recipe for some very intense soul searching.  I think I will discover more about not just Paris, but about myself over the next six weeks than I have the last twenty years.  A void appeared in my life last Friday with the passing of my grandma.  She was my hero, my confidant, my source of advice, and one of the most amazing individuals I have ever had the grace of knowing.  I know that grandma will now be joining me on this trip.  As my dad put it, "She is flying co-pilot."  This brings me great comfort.  So, I will fill that void in my life with adventure.  I will seize every opportunity and I will leap into the unknown. But for now, I should probably begin packing :) I would like to close my first post with one of my favorite quotes. "The world is a book and those who do not travel, read only one page." Au revoir America! I will blog often