A little late

haha, so now that I'm back from China, I feel like writing about the end of my experience in Europe.

So I left off when I was in Croatia. After meeting up with Brandie and Jane, I flew to Dublin, spent the night there, and left the next afternoon to Nice, France. I couchsurfed in both places. I really loved Nice. They guy I stayed with in Nice was very hospitable. He showed me around the city and even bought me some sea food pizza. The next morning I got up and headed out to the ferry which took me to Corsica. Little did I know that this one be one of my most memorable experience from the whole time in Europe.

So I started hiking that first day. There were a few other french guys who started with me. Eventually I left them and headed on at a faster pace towards the first shelter. I arrived at the first shelter a little after 9:30pm and set up my tent. It was much much colder on top of the mountain. Wearing long underwear, pants, a long sleeve smartwool shirt and a rain jacket, i was still cold. So weird, cause during the day it would get very hot while hiking. especially the first day and the last day, coming up the mountain and going down. Along the way I stayed in my tent at the shelters. At the shelters they had dinner every night available, and food to buy, and water and bathrooms. Kinda fancy. I appreciated the water and the places already fixed up by others for tents to be set down. So what did I do about water? well like i said they had water at the shelters, but this water and the water i got along the trail comes from either two places: 1) an underground source 2) fresh melting snow from the mountains. All around me snow was melting off the mountains, so all of the water was very safe to drink (very pure stuff). This is how everyone on the trail drank their water. So this was very different than hiking in NC where you can't really trust any water source and you have to treat your water. What about food? I bought a bunch of food at the grocery store before i got on the trail and carried it with me. This was much cheaper than the food at the shelters, but costly in weight. I had an alcohol stove with me that worked wonderfully. Things I ate included pasta, soup, sausage, cheese, bread, nuts, dried fruit, cookies, crackers, energy bars and chocolate. Yum...trail food :D So I saw some amazing things on this trip. If were an amazing writer, I could describe in huge detail about my trip. I could easily have been inspired to write poems or something about the beauty around me. It was almost put me out of words though. I became so speechless of the beauty that God had laid before me. So I took many many photos. I can't tell you how much I loved hiking by myself. Because I didn't have anyone else to talk to, I would just talk to God all day. I would thank him for keeping me safe and giving me these opportunities, and the creation that he's put me in. Normally when you are by yourself you can only think of other people and you get lonely; there are so many distractions around you. But being outside in God's beauty, all distractions gone, and the pain of the mountain, left me with no one else to come to. It made it so much easier to connect with Him. I wouldn't ever second guess hiking alone again, just because of the time I was able to spent with the Lord and how I learned to rely on him for my strength. Because I also got sick and hurt my ankle half way through. I know it was only God who was getting me through each day safely. So 11 days of hiking. I also made a few friends along the way: Bruno, JS, and Philip. I finished the last few days with them. It was so much fun waking up and having breakfast with them and then seeing them at the end of the day; and even hiking together for a few days. I had to skip a few parts of the trip due to some snow on the mountain that I could not pass with the gear I had. Therefore I must go back one day to finish it :D

Came back to France by ferry to Marseille, applied for my visa to China, went to the beach and came back to Nice where I met my Dad. Dad came for a week to visit and we traveled all around France by car. Starting in Nice we stayed in a near by town, and then made our way to the Gorges du Verdon, did some hiking, and then headed up to the Alps. We spent one day in Annecy and one day in Chamonix. Wow this stuff was beautiful. We also saw the Pont du Gard and the went back to Marseille to get my visa for China. We headed back to Angers and I was able to show Dad my city and the university and my room and everything that had been my life for the past semester. This was an amazing time that I got to spend with my Dad. I got to debrief with him about my experience in France, and we would spend hours at dinner just sitting and talking and enjoying our meal; truly French style.

I stayed the weekend in Angers, saying goodbye to the few of my friend who were still there and packing up. It was so sad to be there while no one else was there. But hey I got to learn how to make a famous Venezuelan desert with just sugar and coconuts from my friend Juan (a brother). It was sad to leave to Angers and to leave France. I hopped on a bus and headed to London where I would have to spend the night, and me being so lucky ran into this guy from London who ended up offering for me to stay at his place for the night. I'm not sure his parents were too excited about that, but he told me it was totally fine. Haha, anyways I got a small glimpse into the life in London and the people there. We went for a bike ride around the city and saw a different side of London (the suburbs). The next morning I woke up and headed out with all my stuff to the tube and took it to the airport where I caught my plane back to the US! Finally home!

So the experience as a whole was unforgettable. I wrote in my journal as I was leaving that there wasn't a moment that I didn't regret. I loved every single moment being there. I don't regret going or anything. I know I learned so much from being there. On big thing was that when I go as a missionary to wherever I end up, I don't want to go by myself; I need community. I sincerely missed community while I was in France. But I learned about what it looks like to live outside of my sheltered Christian community. This is where I need to be. I need to make myself more available to others who need to hear about God's redeeming love. I learned how to live more simply with less things and that I never need to be in a rush. I learned how to enjoy my time with people more than anything else. Sure I may have a paper or homework to do, but when someone knocks on my door or invites me to go hang out, I'd gladly do that than think about all the things I should be doing. I think the fact that I really didn't have much else to do helped with learning this bit, but thats ok. I also really enjoyed getting to know international students. I can't wait to get to know the international students back on our campus. They have come here for an experience and I would love to be a part of that. I'm sure there are many more things I've learned from the semester, but it'd take forever to say them all and I may continue to realize them the further I get away from the experience. So feel free to send me questions, or talk to me or whatever about my time in Europe. I think this blog is even a testimony to myself of all the things that I learned and God brought me through.

Thanks so much for reading. Not sure what I'll be doing with the blog from here on. For now it will be done, until I decide to write more about other things.

p.s. sorry i ran out of room on my account so I can't add any more pictures. Let you know if i get them up some other way.