All Good Things...

...Must Come to an End.

Our time in France is almost over...we fly home to San Diego on Monday.

I can't believe we've been away from home for over nine weeks already, and that we've been here in Villefranche for almost eight of those! It has been an *AMAZING* adventure, and as it winds down the feelings are bittersweet. On one hand, I'm super excited to be going home. Home to our comfy bed, home to our friends, home to good sushi, home to our dryer (seriously!), home to our cars, home to awesome San Diego. And on the other hand, I'm sad to be leaving this beautiful place we've called home these last two months. The picturesque views, the cruise ships in our harbor, the three-day weekends of adventure and fun, the fresh bread, the buses and trains, the freedom from our "things-we-have-to-do" syndrome.

We have both learned so much about ourselves and each other this trip. What we like, what we don't like, what we'd do differently the next time. And really, that was the whole point of this adventure. To go out there and do this thing we've said we wanted to do for so long, see what it's like, and see if we'd want to do it again (yes!!).

Probably the biggest lesson I learned about myself is that it's really important for me to speak the language of the place I'm living in. Not just so I can have bare-minimum-to-get-by communication, but so that I can actually socialize with people! I am a social creature by nature, and to not be able to just shoot the shit with people was really missing for me.

Almost as big a lesson is realizing that small-town living is not for me. My whole life I've really only ever lived in suburbia, first in Silicon Valley, and then in San Diego. Villefranche sur Mer (which is not necessarily as small-town as you can get, I grant you), though quaint and gorgeous, just doesn't have enough life to it. This was never more apparent to me than after we spent a few days in bustling, amazing London. So maybe next time we'll have to try big city living (I vote for London!), though I imagine I'd get tired of that as well.

All in all, this has been the adventure of a lifetime, and I am SO VERY THANKFUL that all the pieces came together so that we could do it! We are so very blessed!!

(Image Source)

My Parents Inspire Me

My parents are currently heli-hiking in the Canadian Rockies.  It's the culmination of a three week hiking trip they're on, just for the heck of it.  My parents are 66 and almost 71, and they're scaling peaks, hiking up treacherous paths, hiking on glaciers...they're freaking awesome!!! 

My dad has been posting pictures from their trip every day, and every day I look at the pictures and I think to myself, "Man, I have got the coolest parents ever!"  How great is it that this is what they do for fun?  And seriously, they look so happy in some of the pictures...it makes my heart smile!

What great role models for me to have.  Already I attribute my travel bug to watching them travel all around the world and have great adventures.  And yeah, maybe I don't *love* hiking, and maybe I don't go out and do it all the time, but just the model of being healthy and super active and adventurous at their young ages is so awesomely inspirational! 

Here's to you, Dan and Sarah!  May you have MANY more years of fun and adventure!!!  Love you!!!

Apparently I Needed a Break

It's been a month since my last blog post.  Apparently I needed a break!  :)  And boy is there a lot going on!

I'm focusing on finishing up my coach training program, and am hoping to be certified by around the end of June.  It's been going really great, and soon I'll get to focus on building up my business, my presence, and my clientele!  In truth, I'm nervous about that part.  I have a past experience of myself as someone who wasn't motivated to do what it took to build up my last business, and I really don't want to repeat that experience with my coaching business.  Guess that's a good awareness to start with!

The biggest thing that has been in the works lately is our trip for the fall.  We've been talking about it and semi-planning it for a while now, but these last few days we actually booked most of it, and we're definitely going!!!  The plan is to leave just after our one-year wedding anniversary in August and fly to Israel for my cousin Ella's wedding.  We're going to spend a week and a half in Israel seeing family and being tourists.  Donovan has never been to Israel, so this will be an adventure for him!  Also fun is that his parents are going to fly from Hawaii to Israel and hang out with us for the time we're there, too!  My parents and lots of my other family will also be there.  It's going to be a blast!

The view from our apartment balcony in Villefranche

From there we fly to Nice, France (on the French Riviera).  We're renting an apartment in the coastal town of Villefranche sur Mer, about ten minutes outside of Nice, and we'll be staying there for eight whole weeks!!  Donovan will be working his regular four-tens while we're in France, so we'll have a three day weekend every weekend to go and explore the area.  We're not planning on renting a car in France, and are going to take full advantage of the buses and trains.  I know we'll want to visit Nice, take the train to Monte Carlo, take the train into Italy, maybe spend a few days in Paris...there are so many options!  I have no idea what I'll do during the day while Donovan is working, but I'm sure I'll figure out ways to amuse myself!  I have no qualms about checking out the surrounding areas on my own (scouting, if you will...) so that I find cool stuff for the two of us to do on the weekends.

We come back at the end of October, about nine and a half weeks after we leave.  I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about this!!!  Donovan and I have been talking about wanting to live in different places in the world for a few months at a time practically since we met.  And we're finally doing it!!!!!!!!!!  There are lots of preparations to be made, including me learning French!  I already did lesson 1 in Pimsleur French 1...only 89 lessons to go!  We leave in just over three months from now, and I am so very very stoked!!!  It's going to be such an amazing adventure for us!!! :)