Countdown

Well here we are, one week until my flight leaves for Paris, France and I spend 5 months on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. It's still super unreal. Living in the heart of Paris, studying in one of the oldest universities in the world, traveling to as many different European countries as possible, speaking another language...it seems like another world; it's the other side of the vast ocean!

To be honest, I'm a mix of my stomach erupting in excited butterflies and on the brink of a nervous breakdown. The 6 other girls from Redeemer who I'm going with and I booked flights for a trip to Barcelona and Nice before school starts and as excited as I was as I clicked the "Confirmation" button on the airline websites, I had a stress headache for 3 days. What if I can't actually do this? I spent 5 weeks in Quebec two summers ago in a petite town that spoke zero English. By the end of my stay there I could understand completely what people told me, but I had spent so many evenings with my mind in the English mode that my oral skills in French left something to be desired. It's my goal while in France to keep my mind in French as much as possible. That scares me to death. I have to reach the Advanced or Superior level while writing my entrance exam (which has an oral component to it) or else my credits there don't transfer to Redeemer at the level they need to be at. So much pressure. I just have to spend a lot of time studying and brushing up on my French in the next week before we fly out.

But let's be real - I shouldn't be freaking out about that yet. This is the adventure of a life-time! (Or the adventure for this semester at least.) I know that God goes before me and walks beside me. He invented the French language so no worries that He can't help me with that one. I'm excited to travel and see all the richness of culture and landscape and architecture and eat real, French croissants and EVERYTHING! I'm excited to get involved and live in a room with two other international students from who knows where. I'm excited to get plugged into the church there and to walk the streets of Paris and experience as much as I can. I might as well make the most of it while I'm there.

So here's the countdown - 7 days! I just got back to Redeemer today to spend the week here and it's nice to be back and seeing everyone again. Gives me a bit of normalcy before I head out to the other side of the ocean.