Bonjour! Things We've Learned.

Three things we've learned from other travelers...

1. Slovenia is the shape of a chicken....?

2. London is in the US

3. Apparently we went on the Indian Institute of Foreign Languages Eurotrip 2009.

Four things we've learned while walking through Paris

1. Don't wear heels on cobblestone- unless you want to give others a good laugh

2. Maybe all the tunnels and side streets smell like urine because you have to pay to pee

3. A down arrow in the metro doesn't actually mean to go down stairs, it apparently means continue forward. took a few tries to figure that one out.

4. We don't negotiate with climate, we act!

After spending the 3 days in Paris and 5 days traveling, we've come to realize our high at the end of each day has been the time spent just relaxing in front of major monuments while going between laughing uncontrollably and talking deeply. Just shows how great traveling with your best friend can be!

-love from Paris, Christy and Shannon

Arrive in Charles de Gaulle airport- we made it!

Crepes off the street in front of Moulin Rouge

Beautiful Paris

In the gardens of the palace of Versailles

Hello from New Jersey!

Shannon and I arrived in Philadelphia on Thursday evening- away from home but still the states. This is a good transition time for me! (Shannon makes fun of me for my love of transitions)
Seeing family has been awesome. Grandpa and Grandma are doing well! One afternoon, we all sat around and swapped traveling stories- with an age gap of 70 years! Now that's what it's about. One of our favorites was when Grandpa was asked by his job if he would move internationally, and he came home thinking Grandma would need time to think about this big life decision, but her response was 'Sure!' She must have been either very brave, in love, or nuts! Every story lead us to laughter, each of us pitching in international experience. I guess it runs in the family!

We've decided that at the end of each day, we will journal our high, low, and funniest memory. So far, by the end of the day we are laughing so hard reminiscing on all the things that happened that day. Even on a low-key day, there are moments we look back on and just are gut-laughing. A cheerful heart is such good medicine!
High: casually gathered all together in the living room listening, absorbing not only travel stories but 90 years of life wisdom with my grandparents!
Low: Rotten egg smell proliferating through the airplane...for a solid 2 minutes. Gas anyone?
Funniest: Shannon (CoMPLETELY out of the blue, and completely serious): "Now, Christy, I'm not a cat"

LOVE AND HUGS FROM NEW JERSEY TO ALL THE FAMILY BACK HOME AND THANK YOU SOOO MUCH GPA and GMA and Annie for an AWESOME visit!

PARIS HERE WE COME!

ONE WEEK to go!

In exactly one week my journey begins. The week before a big trip is a unique time, it is part of the whole experience- full of a roller coaster of emotions and feelings. I have managed to get through them thus far, and am actually fighting off mentally checking out (my ever expanding to-do list keeps me grounded). It seems that at this point in the process I loose sight of what and why I am doing what I am. So as a re-cap...

-- I am spending 2 weeks traveling Europe with my best friend Shannon
-- I am finishing up college by interning with an international program, Child Family Healthy Internation (CFHI) where I will be working and learning about the health care system in India. I will spend 5 weeks in Northern India traveling around different areas and learning about more rural/traditional medical practices. After this I will head to central west India to Pune (relatively close to Mumbai) to work in a Maternal and Child clinic for the remaining 5 weeks.
-- Then to round out the whole experience I will fly to Malaysia and meet back up with Shannon and see where she will be working and then we will travel through Malaysia and southern Thailand up to Bangkok where we will catch our flight home.

That is the gist of what I'm doing, now as for WHY I'm doing this... Since returning home from Taiwan, all I wanted to do was get on a plane and just GO. the world seemed so accessible, so real, so huge and inviting. Now that months have passed, I've gotten... comfortable shall we say and am needing to remind myself that this trip is what I have been dreaming of for over 9 months. I WANT to go: to travel and see the world, to see if the medical field (nursing) is a fit for me, to learn, to help others, to challenge myself.

After talking with a good friend, I've realized that this trip is not about going out and trying to save all the starving, poor, hurting children in India. I am not a doctor, I will not be able to save lifes or make a lasting difference. But I may be able to help one person, to make their scary trip to the doctor a little more comfortable. I may be able to affect one life that then in turn helps many others. In the end, the person who will get the most from this experience is me. I'm not trying to go out and change the world, I'm going to let the world change me.