Thursday, April 23

Je vais en France

Well, it's official. I have my ticket and I am departing for France in only a few weeks. I will be living and working with a catholic family in a suburb of Paris. During my stay I will make the Chartres Pilgrimage (map) which many of my dear friends have tread before me (including several of the monks prior to their entrance to the monastery).

There are several reason for my upcoming voyage – for one I will fulfill my dream to live and travel at leisure in Europe instead of madly rushing around in attempt to see everything in typical tourist fashion. I will learn one of the beautiful romance languages. It is important that the situation be safe and since my friend has already worked with the family I have a fairly good idea of what to expect. I will spend most of the week helping the family (I imagine they will need to help me a bit with my French) and during my free time on the weekends see myself spending quite a bit of time at the Louvre art museum.

It is rather funny - this image is below is one that I have had framed on my wall every since our move to Oklahoma several years ago. All these years it has been only a distant dream to imagine myself as the girl in the picture - and now it seems that it is about to become a reality.



Some of the places I hope to visit include : Rome, Assisi, Fatima, Ireland, England, Germany, Austria, Lisieux, Lourdes .... the list goes on. We will see how many I actually get to. Once in Europe I will get a better idea of the travel situation and see what is realistically possible with schedule and finances.

I will come back to the states for a short time at the beginning of August - two very special weddings and a big family reunion. After what I am sure will be a very busy few weeks I will return to France to complete my year abroad. I am still working out all the logistics but so far I have mostly been sitting back a watching God take care of everything. The situation literally "fell in my lap" when my friend came back and told me about her time as an au pair, and all the paperwork for the visa has been going much more smoothly than I could ever have expected.

Please keep me in your prayers during my time abroad. And I would imagine I will have quite a bit to blog about this next year (lol)

8 comments:

Don said...

How exciting! I'm so happy for you! Rebekah will be in Paris until the end of May, so be sure to get in touch with her. I'm sure she can help get you oriented, and help you with your translations.

clairity said...

Well, how cool is that! Do you know Miriam and I will be in Paris from May 23-30th. Any chance of sightseeing together? Love, Sharon

love2learnmom said...

Wow - that sounds incredible! Prayers for safe travels and a wonderful experience. Love, Aunt Alicia

Kelly B said...

I am so happy for you girl! I'll be calling you soon... :)

arlawless said...

Wow, Michaela, that is so awesome. How wonderful and exciting!! I'm very happy for you. I hope you'll consider blogging while you're out there; I would love to read all about your adventures while you're living them!

I hope you add Spain to your list. It's a beautiful country. I lived there for two years, ya know. (I was only 3 to 5 years old, but still. ;-) And of course while you're there, perhaps you can pick up a little (or a lot) of another beautiful Romance language: Spanish! :-)

You're of course in our prayers for safe travels. I'm sure this experience will prove to be one of the best of your life!

God bless you. Have a fantastic time!!

Love,
Aunt Molly

mystical_rose84 said...

Thanks so much for all the wonderful comments! Yes, I would love to meet up with Rebekah - I will contact her soon I am sure. Aunt Sharon - I know that for sure I will have Sundays off, so the 24th should be wide open. This is going to be so great! Aunt Molly - Of course! I will have to visit Spain! My friend Meghan lived there for a few months and really loved it :-)

Andi said...

Well, Michaela, I am very happy for you, and I am going to miss you, even though I never see you. You'll be so far away!!!! And I look forward to seeing you in August! :)

Ruth said...

Oh wow! That is amazing! Have a wonderful time. You're in my prayers.