Paris

Paris. Was. AMAZING. Seriously. And I never really ever thought that I would ever like going to Paris. Until I got there.

So the first thing I basically see when I get off the metro to go to our hotel is the Louvre. And it is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen in my entire life. And our hotel, which was actually a hostel, was almost right across the street from it, so that gave us really easy access to it.

So we got there on Tuesday, and we get to the Louvre, and we find out it's closed. Since it would be open on Wednesday, we decided that we would go to the Eiffel Tower instead. So we go, and the lines are atrocious, like I knew they would be. I finally get to the ticket booth, and I ask for a ticket to the top, and the lady automatically charges me for an adult (someone 25 or older) ticket, and so I say, "Uh, I'm 19." She replies: "Well you should have told me that when you got up here, I can't read your mind..." and starts being a jerk. So I had to sell my ticket to another person, and then go and buy the right priced ticket, and when I buy it she goes, "See, next time you'll tell me your age when you get up here." So basically, French people are tools.

So after the Eiffel Tower, we decide to eat, and it takes forever for us to finally get food, and by the time we eat it had been almost eight and a half hours since we'd last eaten, so we were starving. However, we did end up running into the Paris Opera, which is also one of the most gorgeous building I've ever seen, so of course we had to take some pictures of it. Then we went shopping, then back to the hotel, where we were exhausted, and passed out.

So Wednesday we got to go to the Louvre. And it was AMAZING. I got to see my most favorite sculpture of all time, the Nike Winged Victory at Samothrace, and also the Venus de Milo. I got to see some great paintings, like the Mona Lisa, and also some that I had learned about in my humanities 101 class. I bought some posters for my dorm, and a few other things, and then we went and ate some more delicious food in the gardens of the Louvre.

After that I decided to go the Notre Dame cathedral. And yes, it was also gorgeous. I almost felt like becoming Catholic after going ;) But it is seriously an amazing structure, inside and out.

Being a humanities major, this was an awesome trip to go on, because I was seeing things that I had learned about in my classes in real life. It was great! Me and the girl I went with talked about going and living in Paris for a while :P I have decided that I need to start learning French so that way when I go back next summer I can actually communicate with the people there. And Paris has gone from being a city I never would have thought I'd want to go to, to being one of my favorite cities ever. Yay for the family moving to Europe!

Europe, Pt. 1

So Holland has been interesting, to say the least. It's difficult being in a place where you don't understand the language. The country is beautiful, though, and the bread here is AMAZING. I could eat nothing but bread all day and be happy. The place we're staying at is pretty nice. They have an awesome pool place, and we sleep on the most comfortable beds. Our neighbor at the moment actually speaks pretty good English, so that's nice.

The ward my family moved into is really friendly, I like it a lot (not that it matters, since I'll only see them at Christmas and during the summer). There are English speakers there, and the bishop is actually from Australia, which I think is interesting. How he ended up in Holland, I don't know.

Other than that not too much has been going on. We're hoping to go to Paris next week before I leave for school, but other than that I guess we'll just be chilling in Holland.

Speaking of school, I chose a new major! I'm quite happy about it, to say the least. It's humanities with an emphasis in history. I get to take really awesome classes, like a history class about the crusades, and one about European Jews and the Holocaust. I'll still be taking Russian, which I guess I'm kind of happy about, since I do think it's a cool language, even though it's extremely difficult. And I'm still doing ROTC :) But with my new major, my schedule is more free, so I actually got it to a point where I can do choir all of college! I'll be taking two classes independent study, but that's okay, because I'll do those during the summers I have left. Needless to say, I'm actually really excited for school. I'll be taking classes that I'm actually really interested in, which will be good :)

I think that's about all for now. I'm going to go and buy some bread and head back to my bungalow :)

I don't really have a title for this entry, so...

...I guess I'll just write. I figured that a blog could have fun to have, and not one for academic purposes like I did during the school year for University 101 and Book of Mormon my second semester. A way for me to know what's up with people's lives and for them to know what's up with mine. So here goes.

There are SOOOOO many things happening in my life right now. At the moment I'm sitting at my family's Mac in Bolling AFB (for those who don't know where that is, it's in D.C.). My parents surprised me with an invite to fly out and help them move over to Holland! Basically the best thing I could have done to end my first college summer vacation :) The pretense behind the whole trip is that I'm helping them out-process from Bolling and I'll be watching my brothers in Holland while my parents are in Germany for a couple of days for some briefings (my dad's job just sounds horrible, doesn't it?), but I know that they really just missed me ;) However, with my dad's order saying this next PCS will be 36 months long rather than the 24 we were expecting, a lot of opportunities are starting to arise. For instance, I could actually live in Holland with my family for a year or something and get some awesome abroad experience.

But that creates a lot of questions and problems. "What about school?" leads to, "Is my major really what I should be majoring in?" which leads to," Is the Air Force really for me?" School might not be the hardest of the problems. I'm thinking about academic deferment and maybe even going to school in Europe for a while. But I've had this whole mindset of learning Russian for the Air Force, with everyone telling me that I shouldn't learn Russian because it's not important right now, and Spanish is the one to learn, and yada yada yada.

And then there's the Air Force. Is it really what I should do? It was a last minute decision anyway, but I absolutely love the program and the people I've met in it. Not to mention the extreme guilt and shame I would feel if I dropped out, especially since I've told basically everyone it's what I want to do, and especially since the female numbers are dropping radically within our detachment. I kind of feel like I've got expectations to live up to. And I know it's what I've been saying I want to do, and I would love it...but is it what I want to do? I still think it is, but maybe I'll find out down the road that it isn't. I just think I would be super disappointed in myself if I dropped out.

But trying to figure out what my major will be is the toughest thing for me right now. I think almost everyone expected me to do something with music, either majoring or minoring in it. But let's face it, it's almost impossible to make it in the music/performing business, and I absolutely refuse to be a hobo that lives in her car in New York while trying to break out on Broadway. As much as I love music, it can't be my first career choice. But I at least want to like my major, and the thought of majoring in European Studies just doesn't spark excitement within me (as I'm sure it didn't spark any excitement within anyone who just read this sentence). But now I face the dilemma of choosing a major I actually want to pursue, and then the whole grueling process of getting an entirely new schedule layout for college. Jeezaloo. I guess I have a couple of weeks until school starts to try and figure it out.

And school itself. I cannot tell you all how freakin' excited I am for school to start back up. This summer was boring, except for one or two highlights. Probably the best part was going to my best friend Trevor's missionary farewell in Las Vegas. I miss that kid SOOOOOO much! He is seriously my brother from another mother :P There was also my roommate Jessica's wedding, which was fun, because it was the first wedding I'd ever been to, and I got to be a bridesmaid and play piano during the reception. She and David (her husband) even asked me to sing their First Dance song, and sad to say, I butchered it. Apparently nobody noticed, though, and so I was grateful for that. A friend from high school, Kaitlin, also got married, and getting to see her entire family at the reception was great. It was like getting a lovely slice of California while I was still in Utah, and let me tell you, I miss California like crazy. It is still my home and always will be, and I wish that I could have gotten home for even a week this summer, but alas, I'm a poor college student and family and school take priority over fun with friends. However, I do plan to get back at Thanksgiving, and will do my darndest to make it happen.

For the record, I think it's ridiculous how many people I know that are my age that are either married or engaged right now. It is seriously ridiculous. And I'm not just talking people from BYU, I'm talking girls from high school. It is crazy, and just one more thing that I have to worry about it my life. But not right now ;)

I guess I'll just finish off this post with one more story. A kid I knew back in Nebraska, Ammon, died a few days ago. I'm not saying we were friends, but his mom was one of my Young Women's leaders, and his dad was one of my Sunday School teachers. He was a few years older than I was, but still very young, with a whole lot of life ahead of him. I guess he and some buddies were out on a lake, and they were wake boarding; his buddy driving the boat turned around to go and pick up a kid who had just wiped out, but he turned the boat too sharply and Ammon fell off and was run over by the boat. He never surfaced, and by the time his friends got to shore and called for help it was too late. They didn't even find his body until tonight. This is just a heart-breaking story about a life cut short, and I think it can serve as a reminder to all of us not to take our lives for granted, and to live everyday to its fullest potential, because we can never know when our lives will be over.

Sorry to end this on such a sad note. I promise not to end every posting on such a melancholy note. But for now, I need to be off to bed, because it is super duper late and the movers come early in the morning to get all of my family's stuff. Yay for moving across the ocean...