Peace Out America

Well the day has come, Irene didn't wreck my flight thank god. Here's some pictures of the havoc she wrecked on Jackson NH. She caused some MAJOR swells and some huge floods! My mom and I had a lot of fun driving around Jackson and looking at all of the swollen rivers.

The water hitting the bride in Jackson.

Mom standing by the epicness that was the Jackson falls

This is normally a nice place to sit... not so much yesterday!

Hopefully all the roads will be open and clear for me to make my way down to Boston! I am very excited and very nervous. But I think that Helen Keller said it best when she said "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." For the first part of my adventure I'll be stopping in England for the next three days to explore and get to know my group members. I plan on doing some major exploring. I would like to meet the queen. Just kidding, but i would like to see her palace and all the other major sights of London! I will try my hardest to fight jet lag even though i know it will be super tough. And then on Thursday morning it's off to France! WOOOO! and then it will be 100% french all of the time. I've got to go make sure that i have everything ready to go. Next time I write i'll be across the pond! :) and now i can say something that i've always wanted to say.... PEACE OUT AMERICA, see ya on the flip side.

Water skiing pictures

As promised, some pictures of my pre-France adventures on Sebago lake in Maine!!

Even mom gives it a try!

My pro moves

Riding the surf

Donovan attempts to get fancy

Well there ya have it, first time water skiing!

THREE DAYS

With little more than three days standing between me and Europe, I'm starting to get a tad bit excited :) Nothing stands in my way, other than, of course, stupid hurricane Irene who, frankly i hope never visits me. If she delays my flight or heaven forbid cancel it, i will be upset. Even though my mom has told me multiple times, there's nothing you can do to change the weather, just accept whatever comes. Which i get, it just doesn't stop me from hoping Irene stays down South.

On a different note, spent some of my last fews days in the MWV with some of my oldest buddies :) Here are some pics from our latest adventures...

Me and Brett

Meg and me :)

It's an attempt at a family portrait...

Also said goodbye to my Burlington family today, Josh, Sharon and Jonus feed me, shelter me, and take me to do touristy things in Burlington, and I will miss them while I am in France! They did however give me the outlet to try waterskiing for the first time ever!!! I can post some pictures of that once i get my camera cable cause they are wicked awesome!

Well that's all for now, I'll post one more time before departing for France!

Goodbyes and See you laters, ONE MORE WEEK!!!

Went up to Burlington this past weekend to hang out with some of my favorite people :) Weekend adventures included cliff jumping at Redrocks, ice cream at Ben and Jerry's, guitar time, and buying a new computer (necessary but sad cause they are expensive!) The goodbyes started with Emily at Hot Topic, here's a picture of us saying goodbye. What this doesn't show is that five seconds later I was in tears and she was running away to try to keep herself from crying. Em studies abroad in the spring this year in South Africa, so it'll be a while before we're reunited. The goodbyes to Kat, Colin, and Leah were not photographed but just as sad. I will miss my smc friends when I am in France! I am super excited for all the new people I will meet and the experiences I will have but goodbyes can be hard. Thank god for Skype is all i can say. On a happy note, got to see Big Purple members SM Hammah and Chief Balla this weekend too! It was awesome :)

On a more France like note, there are only seven days before I depart for Europe! I've gotta start packing!!! There is a lot of stuff on my second bed that needs to be moved into my suitcase! Also need to figure out exactly what I am bringing so I can avoid bringing too much or too little. That is my goal for the afternoon, along with hopefully eventually going for a run. So until later, have an excellent week! I'll write again sometime soon!

Three weeks and Counting....

Bonjour à tous le monde! As the days pass, my excitement for France grows. I dragged my suitcase out from the basement yesterday, it's really quite large. I swear, if my brother was just a little bit shorter he would totally fit inside of it!

He just needs to be a little bit shorter...

He fits sitting just fine!

Other than shoving my brother into a suitcase this morning, nothing much has changed in the realm of approaching study abroad. I'm still waiting for my visa, it should arrive this week! I'm starting to gather my things together, trying to figure out what I will want to have in the four months that I am away. Randomly started to worry the other day about the words in French I don't know, like salt. I had a dream where I was eating dinner with my host family and I wanted the salt but I didn't know how to say it. It's le sel, by the way, many thanks to word reference at 2 am! It was super traumatic, but it has made me think about really obvious words like salt or scoops of ice cream (boules de glace) and of course the age old temperature system differences. This summer i successfully switched myself over to a 24 hour clock but I am still confused about converting celsius to fahrenheit. Whatever happens, even if I end up wearing a sweater in 80 degree F weather or end up asking for pepper instead of salt, it will definitely be an adventure!

27 days till France!!!!

So as you can probably tell from the title, there are 27 (almost 26!!) days until I depart for France!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am beyond excited and starting to get a little nervous, but mostly, I just can't wait to go! Still waiting for my passport to come back to me in the mail along with (hopefully) my visa!

Had some fun Burlington adventures this past weekend with my family and friends. Went with my dad, stepmom, and bro to pick up our family friend's boat and bring it back to Sebago, Maine. It was a journey of epic proportions, exploding tires, near accidents, me attempting to drive a stick shift (something I don't exactly know how to do...), and ice cream with some good friends. I did a drive by of SMC and it just made me miss it, as super pumped as I am to go abroad, I am really going to miss being at Saint Mikes next semester! It's nice to know it's not going anywhere and will be there in January when I'm back!