Reflections on India - 6 Months Post Study Abroad

It's been six months since I ventured entirely out of the realm of my comfort zone and visited India.  My last "reflections" post was written about 4.5 months ago, and I was still disappointed with both my experience, and my reaction to that experience.  Probably more to my reaction if I'm being honest.

Still when asked about my trip, I am hesitant.  My typical response goes something like, "Umm, well, it was challenging..." To which questions follow and a discussion ensues.  I then, more often than not, find myself explaining my experiences, the people, the culture, the political situation, the wedding we "crashed..."

Today, I took part in a Non-Traditional Student Study Abroad Information...something or other.  Basically, it was some of us non-traditionals sharing our study abroad experiences with other non-traditionals that might be thinking about going abroad.  I was able to answer questions, share a snip-it of my experience (the positive snip-its as we were trying to "sell" the programs).  I enjoyed discussing our experiences among others who went to places like Peru, Ireland, Italy, and China.

The more I talk about my experience, the more I realize that I really learned very much!  Though I do hope to go back to India one day, I can't say that I'm chomping at the bit to get back.  This could have very much to do with the absolutely miserable trek required just to get there.  Those 27 hours of travel might have truly been the most miserable travel hours I've spent.  A French child sleeping across my lap is not my idea of a great flight, after all.

However, the experience itself is growing on me.  As I begin to remember, I catch myself smiling at Nate's sweet and fresh excitement at everything!  Zaheer's kind and gentlemanly behavior, making sure that the girls were safe and protected.  Briana was thoughtful, emotional, excited, and in awe of India and her glory.  Kearstyn, fierce and sassy, ready for anything.  Rebeca with her strong will and emotions, and Connor and Alex, Fraternity brothers for life and all that it entails.  Dr. Dembla seeing India through an entirely new set of eyes for the first time ever in her life.  And Ria:  Respectful and funny, full of tradition and beauty.  My confidante, my friend, my sister while I was away from my sister.

Our student hosts who were kind, inviting, gracious, and so hardworking.  They were up for anything as long as we were excited about it.  They loved our naivety about their culture and life (Crossing the street requires hand holding in Mumbai.  Seriously.).  They were accepting and inquisitive; American sarcasm is entirely lost on them, and they are easy to entertain.

I find that as the sting of disappointment ebbs, curiosity and gratitude take its place.  I am blessed to have the ability to work hard and fulfill dreams of seeing the world.  I worked hard to earn that experience.  To find myself hurt and full of sad, disappointed memories is absolutely unacceptable.  I gained memories and lessons from every single second of that experience.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.  Frayed emotions, fragile moments, exciting new experiences, and a heart full of love are some of what I left with.  Memories are what I have now.  In addition to periodic discussions via text with Zohra, the oh-so-sweet Indian student with whom I share Harry Potter, Grey's Anatomy, and so much more.

Most importantly, more importantly than all I learned, and experienced, and saw, and did, I remember how excited I was to come home to the most important people in my life:  My Erik and our family.   

Retreat in "Paradise"--Coles Scholars Retreat 2014

Well, the first Coles Scholars Retreat has quickly come and gone.  Our first official outing as the first class of Coles Scholars was 2 nights spent at Brasstown Valley Resort in Young Harris, GA. It was entirely jam packed! Just to give you an idea...

Day 1:

Depart KSU

Workshop style lectures

Amazing race 

Glow Golf

And lunch & dinner thrown in, too

Day 2:

Rafting on the Ocoee River

Lecture

Info session about our trip to Guatemala (May!!!)

Wild West murder mystery dinner theater

Breakfast, lunch on the bus to the river

Day 3:
Breakfast in the dining room was fantastic!
lecture
check out

With only 12 hours to get all of this done in each day (1 & 2)....good gosh, it was just non stop!

The resort is absolutely amazing!! The views are beautiful, and they're seen from every window in the place! We went for a "hay ride" at one point and saw views of the valley and of Brasstown Bald, and heard the story of the turtle. This is a Cherokee legend of a large turtle saving the tribe in the valley during a flood, and in fact bringing the Cherokee to the valley. This explained the turtle logo all over the resort. I had been curious as a bear or deer or something of the like seemed more appropriate. But alas, there was a reason, as there often is.

I was pleasantly surprised that the group seemed pretty cohesive pretty quickly.  Though I somewhat expected to have seen groups form in our couple of days, aside from the people who were already friends coming into this outing, there didn't seem to be tight groups form while we were away. 

We did work in multiple different groups on various activities allowing us to meet everyone, work with everyone, and finally meet our teams for the remainder of the semester.  I'm pleased with my group!  We all have strengths in differing areas (done purposefully), so hopefully we'll all be able to pick up any slack in those areas that we're strongest.  Theoretically, this should mean that these teams should be the best we work with.

On our way home, I sat with my roommate, Olivia, and 3 guys (there are 12 guys and 5 girls in the group) that I hadn't spent much time with yet while we ate lunch.  We discussed all kinds of things:  What we'll do with our degrees, who will stay here in the US, who will go back home or abroad, and among others, what was our favorite thing about the retreat.  Overall, the favorite seemed to be Whitewater Rafting!  Of course, this was my favorite as it's right up my alley!!  I was surprised and intrigued to find that most of my groupmates were intimidated, at the very least, by the prospect of rafting.  I asked the two that had been nervous why they had felt that way.  Responses were pretty typical:  "I didn't want to drown!"  I tried to explain that this is a hard concept for me as this kind of activity is within my comfort zone, while something like the murder mystery theater was entirely out of my comfort zone!  It was interesting to try to understand everyone's perspectives.

As for the other activities, I tried to make the best of each of them.  I am not athletic in the least, so The Amazing Race was a challenge, though it was fun and everyone seemed to be helpful and patient with everyone else!  The challenges ranged from stacking three tubes of chapstick on a table using only chopsticks to a scavenger hunt on one of the resort's trails.  In between each of the ten tasks, we "ran" furiously from place to place.  I ran for the first two stops before I was wheezing and just couldn't run any more.  My legs still ache very badly today (3 days later)...I very clearly need to start exercising again.  Maybe one of my athletic groupmates will volunteer to be my trainer??

"Glow Ball" is a form of mini golf played in the dark on the putting green of the golf course.  The balls, well, glow.  Unfortunately, the stars didn't align very well for this activity.  We had been going non-stop all day long, there were only 6 putters and there were approximately 20+/- people playing.  As if all of that wasn't enough, the sprinklers were on out on the green, so a couple of the holes couldn't be played at first.  All that said, a couple of the other girls and I asked for permission to spend some time relaxing in the hot tub before crawling into our beds and sleeping like babies!  I absolutely hated not participating in every activity, but I was SO tired!  I didn't have the patience in me to wait my turn, and then pay attention to play a game that I'm terrible at on a great day.  Fortunately, we had a very sympathetic professor who was also very exhausted--Thank you Dr. Campbell, for understanding!

RAFTING!!  I was super excited to go whitewater rafting, as I said.  I hadn't been in years!  The guides were absolutely great!  Mine, Philip, is a teacher at a very small private school working with children with various special needs.  They allow him to come late in order to finish his rafting season.  What a life!  Play all summer, teach fall and winter?  Yes, Please!  Wildwater Rafting is highly reccommended!  They have rafting adventures on the Ocoee, Pigeon, Nantahala, and Chatooga Rivers (we rafted the middle of the Ocoee), among other activities.  Check out their website with the link above!

The Wild West Murder Mystery Theater Dinner--a mouthful, I know!  I had never done anything like this before, so I was a bit nervous.  As it happened, we had great fun, though I can't say it was comfortable for me.  I don't know that I'd pay to do it again on my own, but we had a good time with it.  We all dressed up like "wild west characters."  I was supposed to be a flirtacious poker player raised by her father.  I was to pretend like I'm from a wealthy, southern plantation owning family, southern accent and all.  I'm not flirtacious, I don't have an accent, nor am I any good at pretending.  This was the activity that was most outside my comfort zone, but I figured that this was the point; to push us.  I tried to embrace it as best as I could knowing that everyone can't be good at everything and we were supposed to be bonding as a team.  I did feel comfortable enough with most of my classmates by this point that I could relax a little.

After the murder was solved, we all went outside to make s'mores at the campfire which was outside the barn.  I, of course, had to go into the barn.  I miss that smell!  The tack room was closed, and they use chips in the stalls rather than hay, but it smelled like a barn none-the-less.  I called Erik to tell him about my day and wave the fact that I was standing in a barn in his face when two of my professors wandered toward the pasture (and the horses!).  The stable master brought some feed out and we each got a handful which allowed me to pet the horses for a second--they are VERY food motivated.  The stars were out in full force on a very clear night; it was a fabulous ending to a great day!

When we went back to the lodge, everyone dispersed to do various things:  Pool, gym, rooms...I went out on the deck to enjoy the perfect weather!  I also loaded an app on my new iPad Air (oh yeah, we each got an iPad to borrow for the entirety of the program!).  Skyview is amazing!  One of the guys had pulled it out on his iPhone on our wagon ride back from dinner.  For any of you who don't know what it is (like I didn't), it's an app that you turn on and point at the sky so that you can see where the constillations are, the planets, even The Hubble Telescope!  It was very cool, especially on such a clear night!

In addition to all of the activities, we had workshops about ethics, creativity, information on our trip to Guatemala in May, and other info pertinent to our group.  We will climb a volcano (Mt. Pacaya), by the way!  I just can't wait to go meet the people of Guatemala!  We'll have a home stay with local families, staying in their homes, and living as they live.  I can't wait to see that!

All in all, I was very pleased with the 2 1/2 days.  I had been quite nervous before leaving, even telling Erik that I didn't wan to go.  I just wanted to stay home with him and rest before classes start.  By the end of the days at the beautiful Brasstown Valley Resort, I was so glad I'd gone!  I felt like it was a great opportunity to learn and grow as an individual, and as a cohort.  It left me excited to see what else we'll do together, what else we can learn from our teachers, and from each other!  I guess we'll see...classes begin Monday...

Reflections on India

I've been home from my trip around the world for about a few weeks now.  It's taken some getting used to, being back at home.  Driving a car, talking to my family, hugging my husband every day and holding his hand, and the simple comforts of my own home are things that are new to me all over again.  I can't say that I've completely processed my experiences yet, or that I will for a while yet.  I can say, though, that I am starting to understand some of my feelings.

I was a little bit of a lot of things over the course of my three weeks in the country I've visited, thus far, that is least like home.  I remember feeling admiring, amazed, annoyed, awed, disappointed, downright Pissed Off, excited, experienced, friendly, frustrated, grateful, happy, hopeful, hurt, intrigued, let down, lonely, loved,overwhelmed, reflective, rushed, sad, scared, thoughtful, traveled...

I can't say for even one minute that I regret going.  I can't say that I wouldn't do it again from the beginning.  I can say, with 100% certainty, that I will likely return one day.

I'm looking at my photos trying to explain to my family what I saw and experienced, and I'm realizing that I don't have photos that depict what I'm trying to describe.  Everything we did was so very rushed.  Even outings to religious spaces like temples and musjids were rushed.  There were so many people everywhere.  It was almost as if the places of worship were all commodities:  The more people coming through, the more money to be made, or souls to be saved, or...whatever.  Being a moderately spiritual person myself, and a person who prides myself in learning about other religions and cultures in order to be more self aware, and in a country where religion is so very ingrained in everyday life, I was disappointed multiple times on account of the seeming sacrilege.

This rushed feeling followed me everywhere during my journey.  I never felt as though I had time to simply stand in one place and take it all in.  I didn't get the opportunity to frame photographs or to contemplate questions.  A prime example occurred while we visited Darhavi in Mumbai.  We were given a tour of the slum by a young man who lives there.  The difficulty is, we were submerged into a huge slum and expected to take in everything (smells, sights, sounds, etc) all at once; AND form valid questions in a matter of 8-10 minutes.  Let me assure you that this is quite impossible.

I feel like I left India not learning enough about India.  I went with what I felt were little to no expectations.  I thought this would help me make the most of my trip and the experiences that I had.  Despite this, I realize that I did have a few subconcious expectations.  I think I hoped for a lot of culture.  I hoped to come home with a knowledge and great respect for Indians and their culture.  What I actually came home with was frustration and disappointment at my lack of cultural learning while away.  I realized just today, however, that it might be possible that I did gain an understanding of one key cultural aspect.  Maybe the rush and the (perceived?) impersonality that I had such a problem with was in fact a major part of India's culture.  Maybe I was just so blown away by my frustration with it that I overlooked the fact that it was something I was supposed to embrace.

I had a discussion with one of my group mates while on a van to somewhere in India.  He said that he had prayed about where he is supposed to go next, what he's supposed to do next.  I suggested that he be sure that he opens his eyes in response to that prayer.  I told him that very often after one prays for such things, they are so busy looking for whatever answer G-d means for them that they miss the very sign that is meant for them.  Is it possible that this is exactly what happened to me despite my advice?

I continue to receive questions about my time there.  "Did you love it?!"  "What did you like the most?"  "What was the hardest part?"  My responses have been, "I don't know," or "I'm not sure," or a simple shrug of the shoulders.  I almost feel embarrassed that I can't just say, "Oh, it was just amazing and I can't wait to go back!"  This has been my response post Israel and Europe, why not India, too?  I guess I feel guilty that this isn't my immediate response.  Dr. Dembla made an observation at the end of our trip:  She told me that I'm the most American American she's ever met.  I'm still not entirely sure what that means, but I do know that she thinks I'm too "correct," and that I say "thank you" too often, and too genuinely (or something).  I'm not entirely sure what these two things have to do with each other, but I feel like they do.  I'm sure that they do.

I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that I didn't love everything about my trip.  I'm trying to convince myself that I'm not going to love every country I visit.  I also know that under different conditions, I might have enjoyed my trip more.  Some of my major issues were these:  We were too rushed, we went from utter chaos during week one to lock-down during weeks two and three--I struggle with chaos, and also with extreme mandates such as being locked into my room at night.  We had a great amount of "culture" in our first week and a lot of time with Indian peers, and little to no culture in the subsequent weeks with little time with few Indian peers (and those we did have time with partied a bit hard for me).  Additionally, there were a couple of issues with personality clashes.  I'm a minimum of about 8 years older than any of my American classmates making my interests and goals in this trip very different from theirs.

I do recognize that we were there to study.  So it stands to reason that class time would be a given.  However!  I do feel like a balance of class education and cultural education while abroad is important.  I did bring home an understanding of the Indian personality trait of pushiness.  They aren't pushy, per se.  They are simply trying to accomplish what they want/need based on the means necessary in their home country.  I brought home a couple of "twinkles" (though admittedly, I don't know what caused them, or what that term is meant to describe at this time).  Maybe it is the hope or desire of what I might learn on my next journey?

And those are my thoughts for the time being.... 

Paris, France: June 1-June 4

Our apologies for the length of this post.  It includes 3 days of Paris and photos.  Please note that all links are to TripAdvisor of the given locations.  We are happy to help in you make decisions in your travel plans!

Oh how we loved Paris!  So our journey to Paris began with tickets on the Eurostar in fold down seats in the end of the car as there were no seats left on the train.  We were to ask an employee after we began our trip if there were seats available.  Well, about 4 minutes after the train started moving, a gentleman asked us if we'd looked for seats.  We said, "no," and followed him to look.  The next thing we know, we have a private carriage  in a car!!  Well, this being our first trip anywhere by train, we were so excited!

 St. Pancras is a beautiful station!

 Our original seats on the train....

And our upgraded seats!!

We spent some of the 2 and quarter hour journey figuring out how to get from Gare du Nord station to our hotel (Hotel la Demeure) on Boulevard St. Marcel.  Fortunately, Erik is fabulous with maps!  We ran into an American in the train station giving away two metro tickets since he was leaving for his next destination.  We were sure they wouldn't work, but they did and we were on our way!  It was a short ride, and a pretty quick walk to the hotel.  We checked in and rested for a bit before heading out to meet my friend, Patrick, for dinner.  He took us to his favorite creperie which happened to be only a short walk from our hotel--Au P'tit Grec.  It was fabulous!  The crepes were HUGE and full of yummy cheese and meat (or not, in Patrick's vegetarian case).  Definitely Recommend for anyone traveling in Paris!

 The view from our room.  You can't see it in this photo, but we could see the top of The Eiffel Tower!

 Our room was just fabulous!  "Parisian small" as I call it, is to be expected in this city as a whole, but the bed was comfortable and the bathroom clean!

Patrick and I outside the hotel on our last night in Paris.

After dinner, Patrick generously gave us a walking tour of the city.  It was wonderful!  We walked from our eatery past the The Pantheon, St. Michael's Fountain, The Sorbonne (the school where Patrick is studying for his masters degree), we got our first glimpse of Notre Dame, City Hall, and more!  Before we new it, the time was 10 PM and Patrick had to go work on a paper.  He directed us toward the right direction and we said goodnight.  

The following morning we woke leisurely and agreed to wander the city.  One of my goals in traveling is to just leave the hotel and walk; "get lost," if you will.  We had a list of things we wanted to see, but other than viewing them on a map, no real idea where anything was located.  On this first full day, we saw the following:

Notre Dame!  There are no words to describe Notre Dame!  It is beautiful!  From every side surrounding the outside, there is a new something that you find.  From the windows, gargoyles, and stone carvings around the cathedral, to the flying buttresses surrounding the beautiful architecture.  When we went inside, we both just stared around at the gorgeous church which is 850 years old!

Following our time at Notre Dame, we kept wandering in search of the Arc de Triomphe.  On the way, we stopped at City Hall to see the beautiful building in the day time.

I just stared at this building in awe of its beauty.  We don't have architecture like this at home.  The building is old and has been used for so long, and its still absolutely gorgeous!

We continued on looking for two things:  Still The Arc, and also Cartier.  One of my coworkers wanted only a picture of Cartier from Paris, so I was determined to find it and take a photo for her.  We found our way through a beautiful park, Jardin des Tuileries, which is situated along side and across the street from The Louvre.  The park was calm and quiet on a beautiful sunny day, with seats surrounding the fountains and gelato and coffee available all over the place.  We shared some gelato and sat down for a bit in the sun.

There are sculptures all over the city.  They are just beautiful!

When we came out of the park, we found a couple more beautiful pieces of art, and beyond them, we got our first glimpse of The Arc de Triomphe!

It's hard to see in this photo, but The Arc is at the end of the road here.  For those of you who watch The Tour de France, you'll recognize this view.

Erik was very excited to see this street sign--he watches The Tour de France....

After looking at an unnamed fountain for a bit (above), we wandered our way down the Camps Elysees, finding all sorts of high end shops on our way to The Arc.  We found Tiffany & Co, Louis Vuitton, Swarovski...I said to myself, "Cartier must be here somewhere!"  Well, we found Cartier.  It was the very last store before reaching The Arc du Triomphe!  So, Jackie, I got your photo!

The Arc de Triomphe is just amazing!  It is HUGE!!  Ordered by Napoleon and begun in 1806, it was built to honor the victories of the Grande Armee.  We spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to figure out how to cross the round-a-bout to get to the "island" that the arc is situated on.  When we turned around to start walking toward the Eiffel Tower, we realized there are stairs which take you under the street to cross.

Erik standing under a sculpture at The Arc de Triomphe.  This is only about 2/3 of the height of the wall.  It's HUGE!

We did not climb to the top of The Arc.  In all honesty, we didn't even talk about it.  I'm sure the view would have been fabulous!  I was so excited to head toward The Eiffel Tower!!  A friend of mine suggested that we buy a fresh baguette and a bottle of wine and enjoy a date at The Eiffel Tower.  We did, and it was wonderful!  We bought the items on our way to the tower, and continued on to marvel at the beautiful tower before finding a piece of grass to sit on and enjoy our "dinner."  We just couldn't get over the fact that we were there, together, sitting in a park, looking up at The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France!  We sat for a good while, and went to see about getting tickets to go up to see the view.  We chose the middle viewpoint, and it was perfect!

The views were amazing!  To see all of the beautiful places we visited during the course of the day from this iconic tower was just indescribable!  I personally loved every second of our time there.  It was comfortably cool, and our wait times were very low.  We visited the tower in the evening, enjoyed some time chatting and people watching, took the lift up to see the views, and came down to watch the tower light up and sparkle before finding our way to a metro station to go back to the hotel.  It was such a wonderful day!

I really wanted to visit Versailles while we were in Paris.  It was one of only a couple of suggestions I received, and I fully intended to go and visit.  Unfortunately, we only had one day that was simply "free," and I woke up feeling pretty under the weather (I'd been fighting a cold since leaving India).  So instead, we decided to stay a little closer to home base.  We went to get crepes at the same creperie that Patrick had shown us (Erik LOVED them!), and found ourselves at a street side cafe for coffee and tea.  Sitting at one of these cafes was another wish list item for me, so my day was made.  The cafes are situated so that small tables spill out of the building, all facing the street with chairs looking in the same direction.  We chose a table in the front row overlooking the small square and watched the comings and goings of the morning.  After our break, we decided to look at some of the shops up and down the street.  I found a pretty bracelet, and a gift for the children of a friend.

After all of this, we officially decided against going to Versailles, and decided that we would visit Basilica Sacre Coeur and the Moulin Rouge instead.  We would have loved to see the gardens and palace at Versailles, but I must admit that this visit was nice as well.  The basilica is just beautiful and the view from the stairs is marvelous as well.  Photos are not permitted inside, though friends of ours who were visiting Paris at the same time took photos, and they're very nice.  I might just ask them for copies.

This was a carousel at the bottom of the stairs  to the basilica.  I found it enchanting, and it had two stories!

To the left of the basilica, we found the stairs that is in so many photos of Paris (search "Montmartre stairs").  I meant to go take my photo of the beautiful and well photographed stairs, but in my excitement and awe of the basilica, I completely forgot until we were already at Moulin Rouge!  Since there was a metro station directly across from where we were, we went ahead and started for the hotel.

We didn't see a show, though had I thought ahead, we might have.  One American visitor in Paris said that they had seen a show there and it was "crazy!"  Definitely on my to do list for the future (not so sure what Erik thinks about this).

Once arriving back, we decided we were hungry and set off to find some dinner.  We decided on a little French restaurant (we were in France, after all).  I don't think I've ever had French food before, so I don't know how "good" it was, but we found it tasty.  We had our first taste of the famed onion soup (not "French onion soup").  It was wonderful:  Full of flavor, far less salt than we prepare it with here in the US.  Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the very quaint little restaurant.

And thus, we went to bed only to wake up to our last day in Paris.  The day was the only rainy one we experienced in the city, and it worked out perfectly as we intended to visit Musee du Louvre (aka The Louvre).  As neither Erik or I particularly classify ourselves as "art people," we expected to see a bit and go on our way.  Well, we were wrong yet again.  The museum was exquisite!  It has something like 4 floors on 3 wings:  We only visited one floor on 2 wings and a little here and there that we got a glimpse of.  Some pieces didn't strike us, others we couldn't take our eyes off of!  Just like with any art museum/exhibit, there is no rhyme or reason as to which pieces you do or don't like.  Random pieces simply struck one or both of us.  We were surprisingly permitted to take photos inside the museum (no flash=excuse the quality), so we took snapshots of some that struck us.

The Coronation of Napoleon was huge!

Even the ceilings are beautiful!

The Mona Lisa!

Left and Above are inside the same room.  These are The Crown jewels of France.  The photo is unclear, but they are absolutely breathtaking!

You can't see the facial expressions in this image.  My interpretation is that the Angel of Death is taking the man, and he doesn't want to leave his love and their child.  I'm sure it's completely incorrect, but his eyes are very chilling.

We were supposed to have met up with Patrick for an afternoon stroll and lunch, but I should mention that cellular ability for those of us with international phones is impossible.  We could connect to wifi which was readily available all over the city, but our phones weren't capable of using the wifi.  They would be stuck in "think" mode.  In other words, we missed my dear Patrick by only a few minutes and left him waiting for an hour before he headed to the library.  Of course we didn't realize this until we'd trekked back to our hotel and got onto the computer which worked fine in the hotel.  After profuse apologies, we made plans for dinner at a local pho restaurant (Rest Pho Banh Cuon 14) which is said to be the best in Paris.  I don't know about the best, but it sure was tasty!  We all sat and talked for a long while before realizing it was very late and we all had early mornings.  So, our last evening in Paris came to an end.  

One additional activity which we couldn't miss:

We had to put a lock on the bridge (of which there are actually at least two).  Our lock is visible in the photo to the right.

We didn't have major issues with communication, though admittedly, we were pretty quiet around French locals as we were both a bit intimidated.  On the occasions that we did communicate, I gave a very genuine apology for my lack of French speaking ability, and usually the person to whom I was speaking was kind and patient.  Only about twice or three times did we feel the "typical" French behavior toward Americans.  Patrick (who is an American fluent in French, and studying in Paris) was surprised by this, which is quite telling.  

We used the Metro easily.  The maps are color coded just as the lines are making it easy to read.  You simply find where you are, find where you're going, and follow the correct color.  Transfers were made easy by following the line we needed and looking ahead to the end of the line in order to see which direction we needed to go.  It took me a few rides to grasp this; like I said, Erik is very good at maps.  I mostly followed his lead.  We didn't ride the bus once as they seem a little more complicated.  The only up for the buses is that they are readily available.  It can be difficult to find a metro station when you need one, despite the fact that you know you've passed 6 or more throughout the day.  The only time this posed an issue was when we were cutting time close and we were both very tired (They stop running around 12:30 am).  We found a couple of police officers and asked for the next station.  They pointed us in the right direction and we quickly found our station.

Leading me to the next point...Paris is crawling with Police!  We even saw a very large riot squad on two sides of a corner.  I thought better of taking a photo of them.  We didn't see any arrests or crime which leads me to believe that the massive Police presence leads to low crime rates?  This is purely speculation on my part, though.  

Our first experiences in Europe were pretty incredible.  We had highs and lows.  We excelled and were tested.  We learned and grew as individuals, and as a couple.  There is no way that we can possibly know today the extent of the change that we experienced while we were away.  As I said before, we will write more as thoughts come to us.  It will likely happen over the next weeks or months.  As we talk about our memories and remember new ones. 

We know how amazing this opportunity was.  We made a decision to take advantage of the opportunity to see the world.  This is a goal of ours, and we realized that talking about it simply isn't enough.  So we went for it.  And it was entirely worth it!  Until our next adventure...

Keep on Burning....