Good days!

Well last Friday was a great day for many reasons. I:

• saw the Mediterranean!
• ate Mexican food for the first time since December
• received a good grade on a project that I was really unsure about
• received an email asking for an interview for an interesting internship this summer!

It was a great start to a good weekend. API took us to Nice, St. Tropez, and a little village named Eze for the weekend. It was a very nice trip with some great beach time and great weather. I really enjoy spending time with the other students from API who do not go to my school. The girls are hilarious and always make for a good time. We don't get to hang out too much outside of excursions because our schools are on the opposite side of town and we have very different schedules. Seeing the French beaches was interesting... let's just say they like skin and have very little inhibitions about showing it! The Sea is very beautiful!, so blue, and so clear! (Someday I think that I would really like to go on a Mediterranean cruise.)

School is going well. It's slowing down a bit which is nice. The above mentioned project was one my last presentations and now I mainly have final exams to prepare for. I still have 5 weeks left of school but there are a couple of long weekends thrown in there for French holidays so it shouldn't be to bad.

Things for the summer are starting to shape up. I have a couple of possible internships that I'm interviewing for. One is with the American Lung Association and the other is with planIt Omaha. They are both event planning internships in Omaha. Hopefully they will pay enough and be flexible enough to work as a job for both the summer and fall. We'll see what happens!

Speaking of summer, the countdown has begun... 37 days and I will be back on American soil. I can see the end! It has been such a great growing experience being here; it's hard to believe that it is almost over! At the same time, I'm really excited to be back at home and see what God has planned next.

Well, I should get back to work. Here are pictures of mon weekend á la mer!

Love from France,

Ashlie

It's Springtime!!

Well, the spring weather has definitely arrived! The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous the past few weeks! Today it reached over 80 degrees and is pretty warm. The warm weather is making me excited about finishing my semester here and heading back home. I'm looking forward to the summer in Omaha with grilling out, going to the lake (okay, so really it's more of a park), and being with my friends from home again.

I am also excited about what the rest of the semester here holds. ...Okay take that back, I am looking forward to some of the things that the semester holds! :) (Final exams aren't really much to look forward to, you know what I mean?) I'm looking forward to spending some more time with people and learning what the French do when the weather gets warmer. I hope that I get to spend some time in the mountains!! I hope that, in these last seven weeks, I continue to push myself to work on my French and to get as much as I can from the French culture and being here.

One cultural thing that I thought was kind of interesting was the magical day when everyone realized it was spring! It wasn't really a single day but something definitely changed in the atmosphere around town last week. It was like everyone suddenly realized that the the weather was beautiful and they should be out in it more! All of the restaurants have pulled out their tables, chairs, umbrellas, and lights for outdoor seating. The squares and parks are getting more and more full of people at lunchtimes and in the afternoon. The stores have their doors wide open. The apartments and houses have their cool windows open to the breeze and fresh air. I have always loved the springtime but I think that I love the springtime in France even more! I will always remember this spring.

Here are some pictures from things I did last week.

I hope that things are going well in all of your lives! I look forward to hearing from you!

Love from France,

Ashlie

Trips and life...

Okay, I have pictures for everyone! I'll give a quick run-down on the places I've been and then a current update on how I'm doing!

Milan:
I was able to go to Milan for the weekend with my friend Madison. She invited me to go shopping with her for the weekend in one of the "best cities for shopping in the world." I couldn't turn that down, now could I?? :) We had a great time in Italy. It is an expensive city but we enjoyed eating gelato daily, the amazing pizza and pasta, the sights of Milan and the shopping. It is the first time I had ever stepped foot in some of the stores but we had to check out their luxury shopping streets which are home to stores such as Luis Vitton, Prada, Dolce and Gabbana... the list goes on.
Here are some pictures!!

Beaune and Dijon:
The following weekend was spent in Beaune and Dijon with API, my study abroad program. They took us on a wine tasting and showed us the specialty foods of Dijon. We had a good time.
Here are some pictures!

Eric and the family!!:
The following two weeks were fantastic!! I came home from Dijon just in time to meet Eric and the train station! We had a great week together. I loved getting to show him "my France." The day that he left I took him to the airport in Lyon and then waited there for my family to arrive. We had a great week too but it wasn't without the normal James family vacation hitches! (We always tend to have not so great weather and a few minor hitches throughout our vacations but...we still have a good time and it makes it memorable!) I must also say... it is MUCH more difficult constantly translating menus and conversations for 4 people than it was for one person!! :) We had a great time though! Thank you guys for coming!!! It meant the world to me!
Enjoy some pictures: Album 1 Album 2

After those few weeks, came some CRAZY weeks with school! I thought that I was going to drown in it! I'm still not finished with the crazyness but this week we do not have classes so, I get some room to breath and catch up on stuff. More on that later...

Paris with the host family:
This past weekend my host family invited me to go with them to Paris. My host mom's friend was turning 40 and having a large party to celebrate! I had a great time with them!! The party was so much fun!! It was so elegant, a boat on the Seine with a 4-course meal elegant, and so much fun at the same time. It was great spending dedicated time with my host family too. So often with school work and such we don't spend that much time relaxing together. It was a fun bonding experience!
I added some pictures to the end of my Grenoble album.

Alrighty, I believe that is all of the pictures that have been missing!

Currently, things are going well. I have had some rocky days being so overwhelmed with school projects and tests. I am feeling very stretched but I think in the end it will be a good thing. I have never had courses like these before! There are several in which the only grades are a large project and the final exam! In comparison to the states, there is very little continuous assessment. I have one final that will be 60% of my grade and the rest of them count for at least 40%. Needless to say, as soon as I finish these big projects that are currently on my plate, I will be getting to studying for the exams!! Ugh... :~)

At the same time that I have been overwhelmed academically, I have been looking back on my stay do far. There are days when I wonder if I have built strong enough friendships that will last after this semester and there have been days when I am so encouraged by the people I have met here! There are days when I'm really disappointed in the improvement of my French (it really is not as strong as I had hoped) but then times when I realize that I could totally follow the last 10 minutes of conversation in French! There are days when I miss home so much I can hardly breath and days when I realize the short amount of time that I have left here and realize how much I'm going to miss it.

I have realized a lot about myself as well. I came to the stark realization of how much I de-stress by being around my close friends and how I do not do well when I don't know where to find that!! I have realized how much I love people from all over the world and that I hope that my world never again includes solely Americans. ...the rest of the world has great ideas and perspectives... I have loved joking with my friends about our cultural differences (getting teased for craving Starbucks coffee ... or laughing at them for constantly being late... etc). I have realized that even though I want to see the world and know people from its various sides, it is not about the places but about having people in my life. When or if I do this again, I am bringing someone from home with me but also going to try and dive in as much as possible with new people (I'm not sure that I have done this as well as possible).

Well, I think that is about all for now! I greatly appreciate the contact that people have been making!! I am looking forward to being back home this summer!!! It'll be 7 weeks from Friday then I will be home. ...Its a sad thought, a tiring thought, and an exciting thought all at the same time!!!

Love from France,

Ashlie