K-town and Paris and Summer, oh man.
- Jun 18, 2016
- 2 min read
I'm going to France in eight days. I'm losing half of my summer in the Valley to study in a month-long, International-perspective-based intensive in the heart of Paris with other Social Workers from around the world, with no beaches and none of my people and lots of carbs and cute Parisian boys and the Eiffel Tower and no trace of Canada or the Okanagan anywhere...
I know. You feel sorry for me, I can sense it, and I truly, truly appreciate the sympathy.
But in all seriousness; when I applied for this opportunity last year, I had zero intention of actually being accepted, let alone actually being able to go! I really just wanted to be able to say that I'd tried - something along the lines of "oh yeah, I really wanted to travel after university, I applied to this crazy-cool field school actually, but you know how competitive those programs are...so it looks like I'll just be here, comfortable and boring at home for the next 40 years until I pay off my loans, then I'll travel".
Except I got in. Except I managed to snag a wicked deal on flights. Except my boss gave me the time off no problem, and I got some scholarship money, and made some safe connections to get myself around, and basically every reason I could possibly think of to NOT go resolved itself and now here we are and I leave the country in 8 days.
Praise Jesus, hallelujah. What have I gotten myself into.
Moral of the story is, though, I'm (pathetically) sad about the fact that I'm kinda missing out on the best part of the year here on the home-front. If there's one thing that gets me through the stupidly cold, dark winter up here in the tundra, it's the beautifully warm, long hot days of Thompson summer. May through September here is basically Mother Nature's way of making it up to us for all the harsh, cruel ridiculous weather she throws at us the other eight months of the year, and I'm going to be gone!! Way to go me, good timing...
So, this weekend I compromised: a little beach town adventure for one loooong month away from the water. Not bad, right? I packed up my best Michelle, my two favourite boys under 4, some sandwiches and some sunscreen and we hit the ground running. Hopefully the sunkisses and lake water vibes will be enough to hold me over while I'm away - 5 weeks really isn't THAT long, right?!
Until I'm home in August, I'll be scrolling through these photos to keep myself sane - I hope you find them as adorable as I do (which is unlikely, because there is literally nobody who loves these little faces as much as I do. Or these little bums, seriously!!!).
And when you're done peeking on those, make sure to keep up-to-date on my adventures, which I fully intend to chronicle here during my time away! I'll try to limit the 'coffee & croissant' posts, but I'm a foreign-country-virgin and a purebred white-girl, so I make no promises.
*Jessica.
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