My Magical Paris

I realized last night that if you search on www.google.com, key words: "Magical Paris", my blog is one of the first things that pop up.  I wrote a pretty endearing post (if I do say so myself) wrapping up my time in Paris and I can't help but look back and reflect on that post as I embark on this new journey of mine in a few days.  

I realize this next step is not traditional, it's crazy and a giant leap of faith in myself, it's ever-changing and something most people only dream they could do.  I began to realize that many of my friends who graduated college and began "exciting" careers are now stuck in ruts of jobs they wish they had never started.  While my path has included an often empty bank account, relying on my parents and a couple of periods of unemployment, I don't regret and wouldn't change a single decision.  I'm elated that no two days will be the same, a morning won't even be the same as an afternoon, and I will have the flexibility to fly and visit friends and family in my downtime.   

Although it's been a long time coming, I feel as if I am unofficially closing the chapter of Paris on my life.  Yes, I left 6 months ago, but because I haven't officially started anything yet, it makes me miss Paris now more than ever.  That chapter of my life will never be over and I yearn for the day that I will return to the land of nutella crêpes.  I miss daily walks by the Eiffel Tower, having un café at an outdoor terrace in the Latin Quarter, eating Ladurée macarons until there were no more euros in my wallet, and spending afternoons with giggly Marie-Césare and her lovable friends.  

 I am, as always, so blessed and so thankful for my opportunistic life, my perpetual optimism, my ability to learn, love and grow on a continual basis, and for the people who have walked in and out of my life. Each person and each moment has molded me into the person I am and who I want to become and I am forever grateful.  

My Magical Paris: 

Monday, June 25th 2012

"Well, I've tried not to have overly emotional, thoughtful blog posts on my last few months here in the City of Love and Lights.  But since today is my one month marker until I leave Paris...I can't help but do a little reflecting on my time here.  Paris has changed me in a way that I can't even express in words....my friends here, my family, people on the streets, people I don't know at all and people I feel as if I've known forever.  

It's so hard for me to even think about leaving such a magical place....a place where dreams come true daily and certain places just take my breath away.  A place where wine pours like water and baguettes are a major food group.  A place where the elderly are respected and superior and the children run about like wild people.  A place where the sparkling Eiffel Tower and the glow of the Sacre-Coeur meet each other on the horizon.  A place that is my home...that is safe and warm and comforting to think about.  A place that I can imagine living for the rest of my life...but knowing there's so much more to explore.  

My move to Paris couldn't have been at a better time in my life.  I had graduated in May 2009 in the midst of the economic, jobless crisis in the United States.  I was working a part-time job in a small restaurant doing monotonous tasks every single day not really knowing what I was working towards or against.  I was adding bit by bit to my bank account so that I could have amazing European adventures....which were at that point in time, yet to be determined.  I am thankful every day for my friend Katrine in Copenhagen, whom I met at Ole Miss for even introducing me to the au pair network. I never dreamed it would take me to Paris, to the Lachaize family, nor to my life changing (if you ask my dad, crazy) decision that I am forever thankful for.  

Being an au pair has been a privilege..... An incredibly eye-opening experience. Although my time here hasn't been the fanciest, most glamorous 2 years spent in Paris....the people I've met and the places I've been-the crazy, the bad, the beautiful, and the breathtaking have made it all worthwhile.  It's the unforgettable moments like Ashleigh saving an escargot in Giverny, Marie-Césare and her face full of cotton candy, Edelweiss and charcuterie with Taylor at an outdoor café in Budapest, and random "Rozyisms" that I will remember for the rest of my life.  

It's hard at this point in time for me to focus on what's to come...because I am so terribly heartbroken to leave Paris....but I am working on it!  (I am!) Excited to see my family and friends back home, nervous that all my stuff isn't going to fit in my suitcases, anxious as to what my next job and adventure will be, devastated to leave the Lachaize family and mostly Marie-Césare, sad that I will no longer be able to look out my window and see the Eiffel Tower......emotional overload doesn't even begin to describe my feelings.  

So, for now, I am going to savor these last few moments with my friends, eat a million crêpes and macarons, revisit some of my favorite museums and sights for the last time, spend a sunny 10 days in the south of France, and when I return from the south 4 full days by myself in Paris....just as I began some 20 months ago.  Being thankful for the person I've become since moving to Paris and the blessings that have passed my way...and looking forward to the adventures ahead that are certainly on the horizon....

just in the distance between the Eiffel Tower and the Sacre-Coeur."  

What's That?

Blog?  What's that? 

I really hope that after training I can pick my blogging back up with some more interesting stories.  I am planning to journal a few thoughts a day during training so I can recount highlights and lowlights with you all after its finished.... But until then, the business of my last few days at home have set in!  

This past weekend on my Atlanta, Fort Bragg and Knoxville loop, I visited some people who are very near and dear to my heart.  It was one of the best weekends I have had in a really, really long time and it was such a great way to spend these last few days before I begin training.  I now fully understand that absence does make the heart grow fonder, and time is something that many of us often take for granted.  

Time is ticking away and I can't believe it is only 4 1/2 days until I board the plane for Dallas and set off on my new adventure!  I am asking for thoughts and prayers continuously throughout the next few months.  I can't wait to share it with you all! 

Pack That Suitcase, Girlllll

As I get ready and am packing for my long weekend in Atlanta, Fort Bragg and Knoxville, I can't help but wonder why people say they hate to pack.  I love to pack my suitcase.  Why?  

Because it means you are going somewhere!! Doesn't really matter where...a place you've never been before or a place you've been a thousand times-there is something to learn and discover in every opportunity.  

Ask me that in about 6 months and I might be singing a different tune!  But as for now, my tune rests.  

Snow!

Snow in Lawrenceburg doesn't even compare to snow falling in Paris...but I suppose I will take what I can get!  Thursday morning around 10 am, snow accumulated on the ground and quickly melted about an hour and a half later due to warming temperatures.  Not even long enough to build a quick snowman!

Last year's snow day in Paris....

And a little dusting this year at home..

Help!

Thanks for all the kind words and encouraging thoughts blog friends, family and followers!  I'm going to begin saving for an iPad if I do indeed pass training and begin to fly the friendly skies.  That way, I can still blog and stay connected but without the bulk of my computer all the time.  I 100%, without a doubt, know that I will have some interesting stories to share.  I'm thinking maybe The Sweetness of Life à Paris needs a redesign to accommodate my change in career?  There are tons of flight attendants with blogs, so to differentiate I'll need an edgy spin.  Who wants to help?  

(FYI:  Flygirl, Thirty Thousand Feet and Up, Up and A Gay are unfortunately already taken. ha!) 

Send me your best suggestions and ideas! 

For Those Of You Who Have Been Wondering...

For those of you that know me, know that I have been personally struggling with career choices here lately.  I was offered a position with an airline (name cannot be disclosed due to compliance an security reasons) as a Flight Attendant the beginning of December (yay!), and received my letter and training handbook to begin a three week training period the 10th of January 2013.  About a week after I got home from the medical exam, I received an e-mail from Another airline stating that they were interested in me as a French speaking flight attendant to fly internationally.  Then, a couple of weeks ago I received a phone call from Delta Airlines wanting the same thing.  I had a personal phone interview with Delta, a computerized phone interview, as well as a computerized language test.  With The other airline, I got as far as a personal phone interview, a computerized phone interview, and an online personality survey.  No language test.  

With The airline I chose, you have two chances to accept the date for training.  I couldn't decide whether or not to just go for it and forget the international flying, or to wait and see where it went with Delta or the other.  I struggled for days and asked opinions of all of my family members and friends, and it ended up that three days before I was to leave for training in Dallas....I decided to postpone until the next training class.  

It's only about 25 days of delay, and in theory I probably should have just gone in January, but I just didn't want to make a hasty decision because I knew as soon as I did I would get a call from Delta.  I am still hoping and waiting things out (and they are both aware that I have been offered another job with another airline), but if I don't.....  I will be perfectly content in flying with the current airline.  It is not flying internationally, and I wouldn't get to use my French skills, but I would be flying all over the United States and still be able to use my flight privileges to fly internationally when I have the time.  

That is, of course, if I pass training....

There Are Those Few...

Missing certain people in my life today with a crazy ache in my heart.  Here's to hoping conversations get longer, distances become shorter and thoughts turn to reality! 

Thanks Ash!

I check dear Ashleigh's Tumblr every day not only because I miss her oh so much and love to know what's going on in her life via a few sentences and pictures...but...she also posts pretty cute blurbs and photos that I don't go looking for very often through blogspot.  

Enjoy!

Merri-Mac: First, Last and Always.

Today was the celebration of life of a very great man whom I have known for most of my life.  Not my dad, my grandfather, an uncle, a cousin or even a best friend.  I can't even imagine that he even knew my name, but he has touched the life of thousands of girls...who are now wonderful sisters, wives, aunts, friends and daughters all over the world.  

I remember one summer when I was little, my mom approached me with an old VHS tape of a camp deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina, not far from where my family vacationed each fall.  I remember that old tape like it was yesterday, and still remember some of the familiar faces and the bluegrass song that played in the background as groups of girls hiked along the ridges of the mountains at sunrise, cheered loud and crazy songs in the dining hall, and repelled off of ginormous cliffs at sunset.  

Spencer Boyd, who directed Camp Merri-Mac long before I was born, created a place where girls could go to be girls.  No television, no electronics, no boys, and no cell phones (which, when I started going, wasn't a problem at all) were all key elements in the magic of Merri-Mac.  

I was destined to go to summer camp, as Molly was my beloved American girl doll and what she did, I did..right?  Molly Saves the Day? Camp Gowonagin?  Merri-Mac was just Camp Go-On-Again in real life! Yes! 

That first summer I was a "first session" girl, and I began with going two weeks.  We packed my bright blue trunk, filled the lid with pictures of friends and family members, and neatly folded clothes just barely fit inside.  I remember pulling up to the green painted cabin with Tweedle Doe written across the  doorway.  Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum were both connected to Tweedle Doe, but I felt safe right in the middle.  Charlotte and Ansley were my counselors, and I immediately chose the top bunk next to another girl named Maggie, Maggie Nicholson was her name (funny how you remember things like that, huh?).  We took pictures and I played with a few girls in the creek, mom made my bed and I put some things in my old plywood cubbies.  I did cry that year when my parents left, but dad tossed me his package of Big Red gum so that I could chew a piece when I was feeling homesick.  

What I didn't know is that I would be beginning a summer experience that would forever change my life.  The gravel roadways leading to Lake Doris, the Mike, and Senior Hill where all of the grown-up girls lived were where I received my first and only scar on my knee.  The canoe dock is where I first learned how to roll in a kayak.  The old fire ring at the camp craft hut is where I built my first fire...by myself.  Stardust cabin is where I first learned to sweep.  The counselor's ring deep in the mountain is where crazy people came out of the woods and painted my face and pronounced me to be not an Iroquois, not a Choctaw, but a Seminole...which I will now and forever support and be with pride.   Because SBT!  Comet cabin is home to the first toilet I ever cleaned.  That a package labeled "The Wrinkled Egg" was probably going to be the highlight of your week.  The ropes course beside the Big House is where I had my first boost of self-confidence and then got rope burn on the last swing.  And the horseback riding ring is where I realized that I really hate to ride.  

The list goes on from running to be the first in line for trading post to yelling at every meal: "Announcements, Announcements, Announcements! Spencer's Got Another One, Another One, Another One..." (I won't go on because it's terribly long and those of you that are unfamiliar will really think I'm crazy).   Of course, all of these things don't mean very much if you do not know Camp Merri-Mac, but for those of you who do...I am certain you can relish in the happy memories.  

Spencer created a place where no one ever wanted to grow up...and you didn't have to because there was no rush, no outside world pushing in.  All you had were your best friends, tribal spirit, and the cool mountain breeze whistling through the trees.  My camp friends were a special breed.  Thanks to Facebook, I am still good friends with a few of them.  (Dave, Kelsey Martin, and Isabelle...I'm looking at you!)  Girls from all over the country could come together from different backgrounds, ethnicities, ages, all walks of life...and share the common bond of Camp Merri-Mac that ran thickly through our veins.  The only place I can remember in my life where a 17 year old could be best friends with a 7 year old, where there's a song for every rhyme or reason and you might as well stand up on the dining hall benches and scream it from the top of yours lungs (because..why not?), and a lovely character such as Patti-O would be everyone's confidant and counselor.  It's a feeling and a belonging that I can't describe in words, but only something that can be experienced and cherished.  

When I was about 13 or 14 Spencer handed over the camp to his son, Adam Boyd but you could still spot Spencer riding around camp and visiting with the girls on his favorite white horse.  Adam made a lot of changes to the camp, some...I liked.  Some..I didn't like.  I was accustomed to nothing ever changing (which was why everyone liked to go back every year) and so when Adam made so many changes in one summer I remember being outraged and devastated.  But, he has made so many positive changes to the camp.  Not only has he improved the facilities 100 times over, but he has been able to bring in more girls and better quality of staff because of the camp's national award status.  It has made me even more proud to be a Merri-Mac alumni.    

It was an absolute privilege to be able to attend and experience such a wonderful place as Camp Merri-Mac.  I owe it all to my parents as it wouldn't have been possible without them.  It only got better when Laine was old enough to join in on the experience and be initiated as a Seminole (Seminole pride woop woop! Seminole power! *stomp, clap*) and we shared so many things together and memories that we will cherish for a lifetime.  It prepared me for so many things in life and I only hope that my children will one day have the chance to attend Camp Merri-Mac, be painted in the blue and gold, and swim in Lake Doris...and become a special, beautiful, fabulous Merri-Mac girl.  

It will forever hold a special place in many girl's hearts, and I will always call it home.  So thanks to Spencer Boyd for establishing a place where girls can be themselves and grow up confident in whoever that person may be...and where the Seminoles are always and forever will be: Number 1.

Merri-Mac: First, Last and Always.  

From this haven they say you are going.

I will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile.

For they say you are taking the sunshine

That brightens our pathway a while.

Come and sit by my side if you love me,

Do not hasten to bid me adieu.

Just remember this place we call Merri-Mac,

And the friends who have loved you so true.

Bonne Année!

Well, hey total slacker!!! I completely skimped on my last few days of the December challenge, but they weren't very interesting to say the least so I feel like you're not missing out.  How's that for a too bad, so sad attitude?  

Spending a lot of time reflecting on the past couple of weeks, and the past year and I can't believe how much my life has changed in 2012.  I believe I had the same sort of post in 2010...the year I moved to France.  Last year, things were all peachy and hunky dory, because I was in France and was planning to stay in France for the most part of the next year.  But 2013 is bringing an entirely new chapter and adventure....and I'm so ready.  

Celebrating last year in Paris

Loved having the Fowler's last year to celebrate with us!

I don't do "resolutions" per se (last year, my only resolution was to keep polish on my nails and take better care of them-check!), but I would rather look back on what I have learned about myself or my surroundings in the past 365 days.  In 2012 I learned that I should never move to Italy.  Not because of its astounding beauty, sexy language, or its handsome men...but because if I lived there I would eat my way through life and gain thousands of pounds eating world class pasta, focaccia, gelato, pizza..and the list goes on.  

I also learned that I apparently make a really great candidate as a flight attendant.  I suppose it's my hospitality degree and two years of living in France that helps that situation, but I have about three different airlines who are interested in my skills and want to try their hand at having me join their company.  Something I never thought I would consider, but, here I am so..why not?! 

I learned that skiing is really, really difficult.  But it was so much fun!!! I owe Laura who pushed me into going with her for the weekend! Now...it something that I can't wait to go back and get better at each time! 

I have realized how precious my family is to me and that I'm not sure that I want to move a million miles away from them, because I truly do miss them when I'm gone.  The past few months I've spent at home have been a bit boring, yes, but they have also given me a chance to spend time with all of my grandparents, my sister, and my parents...with whom I cherish every second together.  

I learned that it is probably not a good idea that Laine and I ever live together.  We are so similar, and yet so different that sometimes we clash.  I love her more than anything...she is my sister...but we have totally different habits and ways of doing things.  Trust me-it just wouldn't work.  She knows it...and I know it. 

I reconfirmed the fact that I can accomplish any task set before me.  French visa's, new languages, traveling Europe, finding jobs, moving myself back into American society, making friends in new places, and just the daily challenges in a foreign country are all something I'm so very proud of.

I knew, but came to deeply appreciate the world's best dessert...le macaron.  It is perhaps the most perfect cookie/filling combination that, when properly cooked, melts in your mouth and makes your heart smile on the inside.  Not to mention they are stunningly beautiful and so vibrant in color.  

I learned that I can teach a bar full of French people how to line dance.  What an EPIC night.  

You can barely see me but that's me in the back in the tan cardigan with my arm in the air.

As I look back on pictures and reflect on stories of the past year....I can't help but realize how blessed I am to have had the opportunities that are put before me.  I can't believe the places I've been and the people I've been so fortunate to get to know.  I have precious, precious friends all over the world and family that I love more than anything!  I consider that to be if not the most important thing in life...then definitely one of the top three.  I am so blessed by unconditional love and abundance each and every day.  

A few highlights of 2012...

Visiting Kerry for a ski weekend in the French Alps!

Snow! In Paris...2012

Gondola rides through the canals in Venice, Italy

Roma!

Hannah coming to visit!! SUPER highlight.

Our epic trip to London

Jour du Macaron, 2012

Day trip to Mont-St-Michel

Thoughtful birthdays thrown by sweet friends!! One of my best birthdays yet!

Amsterdam with Isabel...another great birthday trip!  Hands down one of the most fun cities-ever. 

Giverny for the......4th(?) time.  I'm pretty much a pro at all things Monet, nbd.  

Wrapping up one hell of a year with my best friend Taylor as his time in Paris came to a close.

The greatest group of friends that any one girl could ask for!

These kind of sunsets..

Spending as much time as possible with these two! 

My last few days in Romans, France with my precious family.

Me and my French counterpart in Aix-en Provence, France.

Home.  Beautiful, beautiful Paris.  

Being welcomed back into the States by this overly fabulous group of friends.  

And spending qt with some of the best!! My cup runneth over with wonderful friends...I am SO lucky! 

And who could forget my first Christmas back home with the fam?!

The gals...too bad you can't see our Christmas pajamas :)

ALL of the Flynn's (except for Ryan) all in one place for Christmas!

Was able to ring in the New Year with one of my nearest and dearest and my unofficial little bro.  

Bonne Année!! Happy 2013!!