Sunday, May 1, 2011

it's official: paris, here i come!


Knock, knock...hey readers, are you still there?  I haven't written in ages; many reasons why, and so much has happened since my last post.  For starters, I bought a one-way ticket to Paris.  (!!!!).  I am leaving August 29, and that day can't come soon enough!  

I have been interviewing with a French family living in the 16th arrondissement.  I will find out later this week if I will be living with them as an au pair!  Whether or not they pick me, it's looking more and more like I will be spending at least the next year in Paris :)

As far as why I haven't written in so long...well...we all know I've had my thesis, which I have been working on very hard for the past year.  Last Monday I submitted the final draft and Friday I defended it in front of my readers, Croft faculty, and my dad and friends.  It couldn't have gone better.  And, words can't even express how relieved I am that this whole process is finished.  It was an invaluable learning experience, but I am so glad I am graduating in two weeks.  Thesising really burned me out for now.

In the midst of all this writing and defending my thesis, the thing that you think will never happen to you happened to me.  During the crazy storms of the past few weeks that have been ravaging the south, my parents' home was struck by a tree that was uprooted by a tornado on Wednesday morning around 2:30 a.m. (and, not to mention the three lovely oaks in our backyard that were completely uprooted...thinking about the force that must have ripped those up sends shivers down my spine).  The sirens weren't sounding, so the whole family was in bed asleep when the tree fell on the house.  I am so thankful that they are all okay.  

The damage from the tree wasn't too bad...it just caved in the roof of our back porch and cracked the entire roof.  The real damage came from the fact that there was a torrential downpour from the time the tornado hit until about twelve hours later.  About half of my parents' house is going to have to be renovated due to water damage.  I went home on Wednesday to help clean up, and I spent the entire day emptying buckets of water and then placing them back under parts of the ceiling in various rooms where water was coming in.  Clumps of ceiling were literally falling to the floor left and right.  It was a very strange feeling seeing your house coming apart.  But thank god my family and pets and friends are okay.  My heart goes out to those who completely lost their homes and loved ones, as in Tuscaloosa.

Here are some pictures of my parents' house:



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