Salt water

I am so sorry that it has been so long since I last wrote a post on here, and for those who have me on Facebook, I'm sorry that there are no pictures of my travels to Barcelona and Nice yet. My laptop has not been turning on properly anf when it does, the internet at my residence hasn't been working for the past two-three days so it's all around a lose-lose situation. Tears are salty. I've only shed a few since being here in Europe and most have them have been due to laughing so hard. Today was different. I'm just fed up with things not working and I have no clue why I'm studying French and what God wants me to do with all of this. Did He even call me to be in French? I kinda just went full speed into it without consulting Him at all. Well, I'm here now and I'm experiencing some incredible things and I have finally been seeing God shine His light through me.

Without writing you a book and keeping you starring at this screen for ages, let's keep this short. My trip with the other Redeemer girls to Barcelona and Nice was actually incredible!! The plane ride over just added to the excitement of spending some time away from Paris. Paris is cold and cloudy and rainy. We had gone skating at an outdoor rink just a day or two before leaving for Barcelona and in the span of the hour and a bit that we were out there, there was rain, sun, rain and then cloud. Paris sounds romantic, but to live there is another story.

So we hop on the plane to to head to Spain and we fly over mountains and catch the first few glimpses of the Mediterranean Sea (something that I've always wanted to see). It was gorgeous! I've always wanted to see the water that's super light blue (like you'd see in the Carribean) and I did not expect to see it in Barcelona, but it was there nonetheless. There was sun and one of my souvenirs was to buy sunglasses. We were there for less than 2 hours before we were down on the beach. It was the 3rd day of February and people were in shorts and tshirts playing beach volleyball and sitting in the soft and sparkly sand. Heavenly! It was in a moment of sitting in the sun in those few days, with my eyes closed cuz it was so bright and feeling the sun beat down on my pale skin that I heard God say, "Remember this moment." God knew I'd need a moment like that to hold on to while I'm here in Paris.

The Mediterranean Sea was cold but felt oh so wonderful to be in! Cheryl even went swimming in it! (For like 7 seconds..but that was longer than the rest of us even dared.) It was incredible to think that that same body of water was what brought Paul on all three of his missionary journeys and what he was ship-wrecked in. Jesus was probably along the Mediterranean at one point as well. And one of my favourite thoughts while standing in the crashing waves was that Africa was on the other side :) I honestly can't wait to go there!

It would take far too long to tell you all about what we did in Barcelona and Nice and Cannes (where we took like a gazillion pictures with the light blue water and took a ferry ride to Ile de Sainte-Margurrite where the man in the iron mask was kept in prison-true story I found out) qnd Eze and Monaco (which is the second most expensive place in the world to live). We ate seafood that came from the Mediterranean and ate fruit that had sat in sugar for like 3 days or something and heard stories of old town Nice where a 15 year old girl was tortured and killed for her faith in God and where Napoleon tried to reform everything and where bricks were painted onto the walls of houses and where you could see the French Alps. We fed fish as we ate lunch along the marina and we saw incredible sea creatures in an aquarium museum. We tanned at tad (my roommate commented on that when I returned) and we enjoyed doing nothing and seeing all the beauty of southern France that God has made. We took a 6 hour train ride back to Paris and now our classes have just begun. Hard to believe what we've seen in 3 weeks and how much more awaits in these next 4 months. Let's hope the salt water stays in the ocean and only runs down our faces when we are laughing so hard that we can barely breathe. And let's hope I can remember that moment in the sun, free from care, that God graciously gave to me.