engine check, breaks check, wings check

In 15 minutes I am leaving for the airport. The same airport that has had two plane crashes in the last month. I know that sounds horrible- but that's because it is.
I am already usually a little nervous flying - but these facts and figures are not helping me today.

Deep breaths.

Faux Pas 1: cause I am sure more are to come...

The more I learn French, the more I learn I know nothing at all.

Example # 1

The other day I took two girls to a restaurant and attempted to order water.

Me: Carafe Du L’eau S’il vous plait (Craft of water please)

Server: Petit or grand

Me: Grand

The server then returns with three large coffee’s. Clearly a mis-understanding I try to explain that’s not what we wanted, we only wanted water- The server then cleared all the coffees from in front of us, only to return five minutes later with 3 large cups of hot water for tea.

I gave up.

Example number 2:

Sitting on the Metro the other day I saw a Lady wearing really cute shoes. In attempt to practice my French I turn to the lady to compliment her shoes:

Me: “J’aime vous Cuisses”

Lady- gasp and an awkward look of horror comes across her face

Me: “Je suis desolee “ (I am sorry), uh uh uh pointing down to her shoes, “Vous Chaussures”

Lady: Get’s up and moves down the metro

Me: Immediacy get off the next stop to avoid further embarrassment.

In an attempt to compliment the lady’s shoes, I accidently mispronounced the word for shoe and told the lady: “I like your thighs.”

Spectacle de Danse

When I first arrived in Paris I became involved in dance classes as a way to meet people in the city and to do what I love- dance. I never imagined that taking a class would have ended up with me dancing on stage, but it did. Last night after 5 months of taking class here in Paris was the student showcase and I had the absolute time of my life performing with the girls I have come to know over the course of this time.

I loved every moment of being a part of the dance show. I loved being there early in the morning to start rehearsal. I loved practicing on stage, watching other groups do run throughs of their routines and everyone spurring one another on. While sitting and having someone do my hair and makeup the way they had been instructed made me feel like a model being transformed into what the artist wanted and that was essentially what our performance was last night. We were transformed into the vision our teacher wanted. My hair and makeup and costume were all things I would never wear independently but putting them on for an eight minute performance and becoming someone else was an absolute blast.


Getting all glamafied! My hair was out of control and I absolutely loved it!

Being that dance is a form of art, people are inspired by many different things. One of the choreographers said he got one of his ideas for the show when he saw a student bend down and tie their shoe. But the two most influential inspirations of the show last night would be Michael Jackson and the Jabbawokeez. With the unexpected death of Michael Jackson, suddenly many of the solo’s of students incorporated many of Michael’s famous moves, and during intermission only his music was played. Second- From the show “America’s Best Dance Crew” there were about four routines that took the Jabbawokeez style and wore masks while dancing. Those who had to wear the masks I felt horrible for, in having to endure the insane heat while dancing under the lights, but for some the routines the masks really made their performance stand out.


This was my first french friend, she is amazing!

The entire day was sort of a surreal experience for me. I have always wanted to be in a dance show since I was in high-school and would watch in awe of the performances the dancers would put on. After college I started taking classes of my own, but never imagined I would actually ever have the opportunity to perform. It’s insane to me how small desires of your heart can be answered even when you are sent off to a foreign country and don’t speak the language. I am so thankful and blessed that last night one of my many crazy dreams came true- and how thankful I am to the Lord for giving me that desire of my heart, while I was here in Paris.


Girls from my dance class right before going on stage.

Flip the Switch

Last Tuesday complete devastation hit my apartment… My internet service went out!

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I called my service company and they told me someone would come next Tuesday to fix the problem.

Tuesday came – I waited at my apartment for someone to come as I was instructed. No one did. But! I did receive a phone call from a technician informing me that the internet was reactivated. As instantly that my internet went out- it was now turned back on, a week later.

The best person to describe this entire situation is Brian Regan. This sketch fully describes my disconnected phone and internet situation.

Just Keep Swimming

There are a few things I know I am good at in life. I am good at making and keeping friends- I just love people. Second- I am good with food. I love to eat food. I love to make food. And I love to share food with people. Thirdly- I am good at working out. I am a person who has lots of energy and I need to workout in order to keep myself happy and energized. I like all forms of working out from Dancing, running, workout classes, Pilates, riding bikes with friends, basically I’ll try anything – and I actually enjoy it.

The last few weeks here in Paris I have been rather down. I was unsure what was wrong with me. I knew God wanted me here for this time, I knew that I was blessed, that I actually wanted to be here, and that everything was good- but I wasn’t as happy as Katie could be. Then over the weekend things started to click together for me. I missed being who I was- there are many pieces of my U.S. life missing here in Paris and I needed to find a way to get them back- to get myself back.

I have friends here- I am not a complete loner- but life happens and it’s hard to find a good time for everyone to get together. I needed to be more intentional about meeting up with people my age. That was the first step. Eating was still happening and plenty of it. I am in France after all – Bread (check), Cheese (check, check), wine (check, check, check). So the eating was still in balance- but the working out had fallen to the way-side, or away altogether. I am not going to list for you all the excuses reasons, but tell you what I did to resolve this issue that had thrown my entire personality off the tracks.

Once the light clicked that it was the lack of working out that was making me most miserable in my own skin here in France, I decided I needed to workout and get me back to being happy go lucky me. After dance class on Sunday a girl mentioned she went swimming and I thought- “I want to go swimming!” I found my local pool and it’s only a block and a half from my apartment. I couldn’t wait to be a fish in the water swimming free!

When I arrived at the pool, I was warned me that the water was cold. I shrugged and continued on my way thinking I could just warm up as I swam a few laps. I head to the pool, and felt it with my hand and thought, “not too bad.” I then jumped in and suddenly felt like Rose when the titanic sank and she couldn’t breathe due to the freezing temperature of the water. Gasping for breath and trying to get warm I thought about how there were other people in the water, it couldn’t be that bad- but these people must have really been polar bears cause this water was glacial.

After swimming a few laps I did finally get warmed up. Now, at this pool there were no ropes to divide the swimming lanes. It was all just open and you could swim wherever you would like. Not having dividers is fine- as long as people know how to swim in a straight line. At one point the girl who would have been two lanes down while doing the breast stroke found her way into what would be my lane and thus incidentally frog kicked me in the side of my ribs. I then simply moved over some more and hoped she would go back over two lanes.

My next crazy swimmer run in was again with a lady doing the breast stroke (apparently the breast stroke is more common than freestyle here). We were both headed toward one another and as she pulled the water down and around her outstretched arms had grazed over my butt. Okay- I know I am from San Diego, but I am not the Shamu petting zoo people!

My favorite part (insert sarcasm here) with the lack of lane division, was the young girl who found it appropriate to hangout in my lane. I do believe she swam half a lap at one point but the rest of the time she simply hung on the wall where I am supposed to turn kick off of and chat with her friends who sat on the benches. My next lap, she was dropping her key and diving down to pick it up while I was then swimming above her, hoping as she came up her head would not ram into my stomach. There was not a lack of open space in the pool- if she didn’t realize that fact, I did and I moved down to avoid her. The best part- she then too moved down because her friends were now getting in, this is when she began the floating leisurely at the end of my lane. I just wished she would sink. In a country as formal as France, this girl lacked all swimming etiquette.

What I didn’t understand about the girl was that this was the “lap pool.” There were other pools for her to “float” within. There was a pool for just hanging out. There was a pool just for diving. There was even a pool for those under six years old. After the floating girl left, then came the water polo boys. They were throwing around their ball, sometimes landing on my head or requiring me to toss the ball in their direction mid-stroke. I didn’t mind them really because they stayed in an area of the pool where people weren’t swimming. They were causing no harm or disruption they were just having fun.

After what seemed to be an adventurous hour of swimming, or swimming for survival(Swimming in the pool seemed to have more turbulence than swimming in the pacific.) I left feeling good. I felt like me and as though I had done something and done something well. In that hour in the pool I was able to slightly shift the tables and gain a part of me back. It made me think of Dori from Finding Nemo and say to myself, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming,” and I know in time I will make it through all of this too.

Hey Mr Grump Gills
You know what you gotta do when life gets you down?
Just keep swimming
Just keep swimming
Just keep swimming swimming swimming
What do we do we swim, swim, swim
OH HO HO How I love to swim
When you WAAAAAANNTTT to swim you want to swim

A Mini Please

I do a lot of walking around Paris. It’s really the best way to see the city, watch the people, and discover new and exciting characteristics of Paris.

I was roaming around St. Germain and stumbled upon a street, where I believe you may have had to own a Mini Cooper to live here, because every other car on this street was a Mini. The Mini as a means of transportation makes sense when driving in Paris. Due to the small, narrow, over crowded roads, the Mini is the perfect car to zoom all around the city in. I was so enchanted by all the Minis I wanted to show you a few of the Minis from this small little road I discovered.

Some of the Minis were older (eh hem, I mean classic) and smaller (yes there are smaller versions of the Mini Cooper. I suppose it should then be called a Tini):



There were more subtle and common longer Minis:



And my favorite- A fun, bright, convertible Mini accessorized with a cute little dog too!

The Not so S.O.S experience

After vowing to myself I would have a calm and relaxing weekend of cleaning, studying, and watching movies- I absolutely did not accept an offer to take two pre-teen girls to a Jonas Brothers concert on Sunday. I was not at all intrigued to see the Jonas Brothers (JBs) and I did not not hesitate before saying, “Yes!” Thus I will dedicate this post to a "Not me Monday" hosted by McMama. You can join by going here.



On Sunday I did previously have planned dance class but now afterwards I would be meeting the mom and two teens in Paris to head to the concert. When getting dressed in the morning I did not neglect to think ahead and chose to wear boots instead of flats or flip flops. I would have realized I would be going to a concert and doing lots of walking and that flats for flip flops would be a much wiser and practical choice over boots.



After meeting up with my two pre-teens (Amy and Rose) their mom wanted to grab them a snack. While sipping smoothies I did not see a guy that I had met the previous week while staying at the hostel in London. No way would I two weeks in a row, run into this guy from Australia, in two separate countries. That is not random at all.

Amy and Rose were not at all eager to the Jonas Brothers. Nor did their excitement necessitate us being at the concert doors two hours before the doors actually opened- or three hours prior to the show starting. Arriving early to the concert did not mean standing in a mob of people for two hours of pushing and shoving of some trying to get closer to the front, or endless screaming for the cameras and chants of JONAS! JONAS! JONAS! Not to mention there was definitely not a staunch smell of teenagers in the hot sun in a country where deodorant is often optional. Too bad they usually chose the wrong option. While standing there my only thoughts were absolutely not consumed on my feet and how they were not KILLING me one bit this entire two hour period. I was just as enthralled with the prospect of seeing the JBs.

When the gates finally opened- it was not like a mad dash and bull run to get through the entrance. Girls were not trampled on or pinned between mobs of people and the metal bars that created the entrance boundaries. It did not take a team of 300 pound body guards the size of professional football defense linemen to keep these 80 pound teenagers in line and entering in a calm and collected fashion.



After making it into the arena it was not even hotter and more humid inside than it was outside. We were not now crammed like sardines in the floor area with everyone trying to get as close to the stage as possible. The smell in the venue had not drastically increased in the more compact, steamy ,sweaty surrounding we now stood in. At this point of entering the arena I did not take off my boots. I would be strong enough to tolerate and stand in my own shoes.

While in the massive crowd of people, I was not at all worried about losing Amy and Rose or the prospect of them being trampled upon. My first concert was at 15 to see Linkin Park with my best friends- at one point a mosh pit had formed – last night at the Jonas Brothers I did not at all once think that these young girls were more intense than the rockers at the Linkin Park show- this is a Disney boy band for heaven’s sake- how crazy can the fans be? Crazy. Hormonal teenagers and the sight of cute boys singing them love songs kind of crazy.

During the concert it was not so ludicrously, swelteringly hot that girls were fainting throughout the crowds. I did not see over twenty girls get pulled out and carried off by security because they had become too weak. Security was not bringing out communal bottles of water to quench the thirst of everyone in the floor area- nor were they taking water and splashing it onto the masses. When the opening act Demi Lovato performed after each song she did not say, “Man it is so hot in here.” I was not the only person in the entire audience that could actually understand what she was saying. Yea for bonus points on behalf of speaking English.

Prior to going to the concert- my knowledge of the JB’s was their hit single S.O.S and that they wore bow ties. I was not at all surprised at how cute these boys were – nor do I now have a teenage crush on Nick and Joe Jonas. I am not a pre-teen that would go ga-ga over these young boys after seeing them in concert. Being there with Amy and Rose, two best friends, did not make me want to be 13 again and with my best friends at a fun concert. I was also not at all surprised I ended up knowing over half of their songs- my music taste is more refined and cultured than catchy, poppy, boppy, hits geared towards young tweens.





Halfway through the show I did not lose one of my boots, I never lose anything. I did not then proceed to get down on the ground on my hands and knees searching for my missing boot. I was not completely relieved when I found my boot that had shimmied itself five people down. Phew.

Cute little Rose is about 4 foot five and 70 pounds and thus much shorter and smaller than others attending the concert. Throughout the night I would not have to hunch down so she could use my shoulder as a support as she attempted to jump higher and higher to see Nick Jonas over the towering crowd. At the same time Amy is not so sweet and kind that she would keep being pushed back through the crowd- I would not have to grab her arm and pull her through 5-10 people who had previously pushed her back out of her place with Rose and me. It was not hard work keeping this concert experience as best as possible for the two of them.

During the second to last song, I did not look at little Rose and see that she was getting weak and light headed. I did not have to carry her and Amy out through the crowd and get Amy to the restoration area before she passed out. I was not at all worried. Once arriving there I did not actually have to check in both Rose and Amy from the heat exhaustion and dehydration. I did not feel like the worst chaperone for having both girls end up in this area to recuperate. I did not feel slightly better that there were 5 girls already in the waiting area and three who arrived shortly after us. The temperature from where we were standing to the rest of the area was not a minimum of a ten degree difference- it did not feel like stepping out onto a cool oasis.

At the end of the night I did not overall have a great time. I did not enjoy one bit seeing the Jonas Brothers perform or even more not enjoyable was watching Amy and Rose see their first live concert to their favorite boy while singing and dancing to all of their favorite songs. I was not endeared by the fact that Rose spoke only five words in English the entire night, but was fully devoted to every single Jonas Brothers lyric. And I without doubt did not realize that it is much more work and responsibility taking two 12 yr olds to a concert, than going with a group of your friends. It is not a completely different experience at all.

After getting to bed at 1:30 am on my relaxing weekend, I was not utterly exhausted with feet throbbing from pain. That would never be me, I am much too young to be this tired. Plus knowing I need to be in French class at 8:00 a.m. the next morning I would be sure to get to bed at a reasonable hour to be fully rested for a morning of class.

Above my bed I have a skylight that can open up. I occasionally leave the sky light open at night to let in a breeze and some cool air. The weather in France is not so unpredictable that one day it can be sweltering hot and then next pouring down rain. I would never have to worry about such impulsive weather and can freely sleep with my window open. Thus – I was not surprised at all this morning while in the midst of peaceful restorative beauty sleep, to be awoken not by my alarm, but a rainstorm showering down on top of my head and all over me and my bed. No, no, no, nothing so random, obscure, and silly would ever happen to me. My life is flawlessly calm, impeccably serene, and the perfect picture of being composed.