Two weeks ago, I went to Paris. Before studying abroad, I had no desire to go to Paris. I didn't really have a reason behind it, although it probably had something to do with not speaking French or having any desire to listen to people speak French. But when my friends and I started planning out trips to take, everyone wanted to go to Paris. That left me with a few options... 1) miss out on traveling with friends, 2) travel by myself somewhere or 3) go with friends somewhere that I didn't really want to go. So I chose option number three because I didn't really want to miss out. I am so glad that I chose to be open to a new experience. Paris was one of my favorite places that I have traveled to, if not my favorite. The language barrier presented some challenges, but it also gave me an entirely new appreciation for the French language, it even made me want to learn it!
My favorite part of the trip was definitely seeing the Eiffel tower. It was definitely the most touristy thing that we saw but it was my personal favorite. Regardless of it being one of the places I would guess most people want to see before the die, the design of the building along with the design of the space surrounding it was just amazing. I could've stayed there all day just looking at it and taking pictures of it. Also, if you ever go, you must climb to the top! It's worth the money and the soreness the next day!
My second favorite part of the trip actually had nothing to do with being in Paris. We stayed in a hostel (which was an experience within itself) and on our last night we decided to make a small dinner and save some money. We bought baguettes, cheese and fruit and ate downstairs in the kitchen at the hostel. Half way through, we asked a guy sitting next to us if he wanted to join us. His name was Jake and he was from Canada. We hung out with him for a while and then a bit later a group of four guys came downstairs to the kitchen. They were very outgoing and they immediately started saying hello to us and one of them looked at us and said "Do you speak Spanish?" I'm usually pretty shy about admitting that I speak Spanish because I get nervous about being able to understand the person and have them understand my broken Spanish, but this time I told them that I did speak it. Immediately they began speaking to me in Spanish and that was the start of the rest of the night. I can't even describe how happy it made me to be speaking Spanish again. I never would've guessed that I would miss speaking a language so much but it was a wonderful feeling to get back into it. We hung out with them for the rest of the night and had a great time with them. It definitely boosted my confidence which I definitely needed before going to Spain at the end of this week!
I could easily tell you the rest of what we did in Paris, but those two things definitely stand out to me and are the most important parts of our weekend there to me :) After we got back from Paris, we were in our last week before spring break. I am always anxious for breaks two or three weeks out from them because I am usually up to my ears in papers, tests, and homework. I wasn't swamped with work this time around (although I did have the most that I've had all semester) but I was anxious for another reason: it was finally time for Steven to visit! The plan was to meet in Milan on Friday, spend a few days there, and then go to Ireland for the rest of the week. As the day got closer, I was more anxious and impatient for the day to finally arrive. I woke up incredibly early on Friday morning, walked to the train station and took a fast train to Milan that continued onto the airport that Steven flew into. When I got to the airport, I managed to navigate my way through the gigantic airport and finally found him waiting for me!
After we finally got to see each other, we proceeded to explore Milan together, followed by Ireland, then Rome, then finally I got to show him around the place that has become my home! Rather than explaining what we did in all of those places, I'll let the pictures do the talking!
Public transportation is a wonderful thing! We need more of it in Albuquerque!
The Duomo. By far our favorite site!
A tour of the San Siro stadium! Where we also got to watch Intermilan play!
Unfortunately our pictures from Ireland and Rome are MIA right now but hopefully we'll get them back soon! We had a wonderful time in both places though :)
Finally we came back to Florence where I was able to show Steven around all the places that I go frequently. It was so nice to be able to relax, cook together, and just explore many cities together. Our final adventure together was to Barcelona. After my experience speaking Spanish in Paris, I was really really excited to get to speak Spanish in Barcelona. My confidence was higher than normal and I couldn't wait to get there. Barcelona is now my favorite place that I have visited, a combination of great company, wonderful food, and a language that I love so very much.
La Sagrada Famlia
Port de Barcelona
Our best friends at La Sagrada
Authentic Paella!
A gigantic food market that specializes in fish
Bestfriend:)
The harbor
Like I stated at the beginning, the last few weeks have really been focused around the fact that I am incredibly blessed. I am blessed to be studying abroad in Italy, to be learning from passionate teachers, to be surrounded by great friends, to have a wonderful fiancé who is selfless and who provides for me, to travel around Europe with my best friend and the person I am going to spend the rest of my life with, to learn about different cultures and languages not in a text book but in real life, and finally and mainly to learn more and more everyday that there is a great big God who loves me very much and who is taking care of every detail in my life.
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