Gainesville->Paris->London->Atlanta->Smoky Mountains->Savannah->Pensacola->Daytona->Gainesville

So, I didn't update as much in this blog as I would have liked.

I think I shall bullet point some interesting tidbits about the past two months and you all can just bring them up with me if you would like to know about it. It has been a crazy past two months. That is for sure:

• Evil EWR
• Missing Three trains
• The lady at the Eurostar counter
• Sitting in the Tip-Down Seat for 3 hours
• Meeting an awesome old British couple
• My accent changing way too many times
• Feeling oddly 'at home' instantly in Paris when I got into the Métro at Gare du Nord
• Meeting my landlord and finding the only French people who don't drink café
• Living in the smallest space I have ever lived in
• A toilet being in a shower
• A bed that is stored in the ceiling
• French junkmail
• The Postal Service on the super-fast moving sidewalk in the Montparnasse Station
• Getting to know the crazy and awesome staff at the PRC
• French Rock Radio
• My students
• Ridiculous stories about what other students did
• Beignets
• Playing Tour-guide for Joe and his parents
• The Blue Eiffel Tower
• Belleville Park
• The search for slouchy
• Michelle came to visit
• Bastille Day in the Bois de Boulogne and on the Champ de Mars
• Drinking on the Champ
• Cafe Cremes with Joe and Tom in Normandy
• The best croissants in the world
• deux pains au chocolat
• Qu'est-ce tu fais tous les jours?
• The markets
• The best strawberries in the world
• The photo exposition
• Getting to know the staff well
• Helping to pull the program together
• Louay's
• Dinner with my old host family
• The most ridiculous cell phone game ever
• The almost-smart-car-adventure
• Chinatowns
• Telling off the people on Montmartre
• Dr. N trying to explain to the Italians that they already were in Montmartre
• Dr. N's explanations
• Laura's visit
• The 1200$ worth of texting
• French Starbucks and Service and the ridiculous around St Mich/St Germ/Odéon
• très sexy
• No scrubs
• My love for the métro
• The NaviGO
• Making lamb
• A Microsoft Publisher Nightmare / Does anyone know about technology?
• That bloody 80s song that got stuck in my head for a week thanks to Laura
• Sleeping on a tile floor for a week
• Leaving France via train and feeling like I've left another home
• The Not-Nearly-As-Awesome Tube in London
• The London Eye
• Big Ben (cooler than you think)
• Mussels and Beer with Laura
• Crazy nights at the hostel
• British Television
• London is the most expensive city ever
• Wandering in London
• An American giving directions to French people in a British accent in a city he's spent a total of 30 hours in.
• Knowing more about London and how to get around than any other tourist I met.
• The tower of London guide who was amazing
• The longest ride home sitting in the back seat of the smallest plane ever.
• Family time
• Camping in the Smokies
• Tubing on the rapids....Thrice
• Getting stung by a hornet....Thrice
• Pop 5 ninjas
• Killing a hornet with a frying pan
• Building and Cooking on a real fire
• S'mores
• : sigh : Yes, I am was boyscout, lol
• Sleeping in BunkBeds with Micah again (this happens too often)
• Beautiful mountains
• Driving slowly for others to catch up :P
• Taking 3 routes to get to the waterfall
• Creek walking
• Mary was hardcore
• Crêpes in the morning with bananas and peaches flambées (flambeee for micah)
• Tons of games with awesome people
• The hot tub
• Lots of alcohol without anyone being drunk
• Funny southern accents
• Wineries in Tennessee
• "What are apple fritters?"
• Forgetting Godfrey
• Sweet-Tea-less restaurant in Asheville
• The chocolate store
• Amazing architecture and renovation plans
• Drives through the mountains
• Savannah River ice cream and talkss
• Jellyfish in Pensacola
• Surprising Mobile
• Sunburnt on the beach with a good book
• Tons of seafood and relaxation with family
• Sleeping in my own bed again

My summer was ridiculous, yes that was a long list. Most will not read it. But it was two months of amazingness that I would not trade...even through some of the rough times. "Without the sour, the sweet wouldn't taste..."

Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.

So, I survived Finals.

Huzzahs all around.

It was a lot of work, I'm not going to lie, a lot of work. I probably could have done a little better than I did. But it was a lot at once. Ah well, it's over for now. After Finals, I was looking forward to the smooth sailing of the summer.

Oh, Matthew. How naïve you are! Life doesn't work like that. Have you not learned from life before? Perhaps you should take a class in history at Matt U.

Perhaps.

After finals I had tons and tons of grading to do. I also had a meeting I had to go to concerning my summer teaching at UF. I was still quite busy for some time, but it wasn't as stressful, which was good. I then went to the meeting and found out my original plans for the summer--which I had stressed about all semester in trying to get perfectly aligned and tried to let everyone know what was going on and not go behind people's backs--were now impossible. The teachers said they don't think it is a good idea and I had to choose between teaching the first half of the summer at UF or teaching the second half of the summer in Paris.

After a lot of debating and discussing with friends and my parents about what the best choice would be, I had not yet come to a decision. There were lots of things to consider: money, time, the ability of each program to replace me, what God might want me to do (if he even has a preference), etc. I was leaning on teaching at UF and then I got a call this morning though, from Paris, telling me that they really would like me to come to Paris and not teach at UF. The director in Paris also tried to talk to the head of the RomLang Dept and ask him to reconsider his decision. Perhaps he might change his mind.

Perhaps.

It turns out we all found a compromise that we could agree upon and I am now able to do both. This is very very good. It's also pretty awesome. I am excited.

So now, I am able to relax much more at home with my family and my friends. I'm going to see Michael, Kathryn, Nicole, & Drew tomorrow. It's going to be pretty sweet. I'm excited to see them. I'll get to see Becca on Friday and hang with Drew (from Gainesville) and Matt Stauffer when they come through too and show them Atlanta. It'll be pretty sweet. I'm excited.

Much less stressful now, which is good. I still have a kink in my back from my crappy chair I sat in way too much during finals week for typing the 50ish pages I wrote for school. But I'm hoping that goes away soon. There are a few things else on my mind, but a lot of them have been eased with the fact that a friend of mine helped me realize that just because you are being patient, does not mean you are not making a decision. Patience is an active decision, it's not laziness. It's something I will hopefully learn to handle well over the summer. That's my goal. God's not finished with me, yet, it seems. Perhaps I'll finally get it. Or, at least I'll be on my way.

Perhaps.

Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.

Apparently Five (or six...depending on how you want to look at it).

So I have gotten word about some of the stuff I'm going to be doing this summer.

I applied way back in the middle of January for teaching over the summer here at UF. I figure, I should probably find a job since I'm going to live here over the summer and I have 'real world' expenses. UF has two summer semesters, both about 7 weeks long. I was assigned to teach Summer B (July to Mid-August). I also applied two weeks ago for a position to teach French in Paris this summer. It would be held Mid-June to the end of July. I am still waiting to hear about that position this summer (hopefully sometime this next week). If I get in--which I hear from my 'secret sources' that I am up there as far as candidates go--then I'm going to hopefully try and switch teaching Summer B to Summer A (May to mid-June). Which means that my summer will be pretty full, but it will also be amazing. And I will have a steady flow of income and actually end up coming out slightly richer (which will be nice since I'm living pretty much paycheck to paycheck at this point...a little more financial security is always nice...for emergencies and such). Plus it will just be an awesome experience.

Anyway, other than that things are going relatively well in my life. I mean, I could complain (we could always find things to complain about) but I shouldn't complain. I've been really lucky and blessed over the past few months.

[Maybe I should tackle one of those things I said I would write about....ok, here goes]

As many of you know there are, in various languages, different ways to say "you". There is a familiar version (French: tu, Spanish: tú, etc.) and a formal version (French: vous, Spanish: vosotros/Usted, etc.) Because I speak French quite a lot throughout the day and I often find myself thinking in French and therefore praying in French, I wonder how I should address God. I mean, the almighty creater of the universe you would think should receive the upmost formality as possible--vous is the obvious choice. However, he is my father, my
Αββα, my אבא, so shouldn't I refer to him as tu? It's such a big deal in the French language and culture to use the right term and I think I just never knew which one. What if it applies in both ways?

Anyway, one day when I wasn't even thinking about it, I found myself on wikipedia (Quelle surprise!) and found out that many languages have two words for "you" including English. It turns out that English--back in the day--used to have a familiar and formal version of 'you'. I, honestly, had no idea.

It seems that back in the days of Thou and Thy these words were, in fact, the familiar versions of "you"; You and your were actually more formal. So when the King James version was being penned back in the ages of...well, King James, they realized that the all three, the Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew referenced God in a very familiar way...not distanced at all from his people as a more formal tone would suggest. We think of the KJV having a very formal tone because Thee and Thou and Thine and Thy all seem very archaic and formal to us, but they are actually showing a more closeness with our God.

I dunno, I thought that was really interesting, so I thought I'd share.

Man, how many languages can I put in one entry? lol...

Actually, I kind of hate Waffle House

Many thoughts.

I'm a generally pensive kind of guy, but there are these moods I normally get in that are kind of nearly-depressing/emo/serious pensive moods that I get into about once a month or so. I like those moods though. Even though I described them rather unamiably.

Today however, is a bit different. I've just got a bunch of things running through my mind and I'm thinking about a ton of different things...but it's not quite the same. I don't know how to describe that any better....which makes it ridiculous to write in a blog, but that's just the way it is.

I haven't been very good at talking recently, nothing comes out like I want it to. They should just make a way to communicate feelings through a direct internet upload/download system or something. Life would be a lot easier.

---

So Mike and Kat got married this past weekend. I love that couple. I love them...both individually, and as one. I am so blessed and thankful that they are in my life. I kept telling them how excited I was and how I love those two and how awesome it was that they were married...but everytime I said it it never seemed to do justice to what I actually felt. Hurm. Words are ridiculous (which is why I spend all of my time studying them.....irony?)

---

I had a good long talk with Drew at the Bachelor's Party. I'm glad we got to talk. I really didn't get to know him that well until my last two years of college and really my last year of college. But I've really come to love him and Nicole (his wife). It's really kind of a shame that our lives are splitting in so many directions. We're trying to make sure we spend a good amount of time with each other at least once a year.

It was crazy seeing the mass of people at the wedding and pre-wedding festivities that I hadn't seen in ages. So this is what growing up is like. Crazy.

I'm pretty sure that Mike, Drew, and Micah (and their respective spouses/future-spouses) and I should know each other for the rest of our lives and keep in contact. These people are amazing.

---

It's weird that I've traveresed three different worlds in the past three days. Being with my parents and family completely without interaction with the outside world for a few days was good, I do love my family. Then I went and saw all of my best friends from college and my best friend get married to his beautiful and wonderful wife. And it was a kind of surreal experience in many ways. Then I came to Gainesville, my new home, and hung out with nearly everyone I know here and love here.

---

And now, some random thoughts, as that seems to be the trend:
-I talked way too much about emotions in this post, I blame it on the surge of estrogen I've been exposed to in the past few days.

-I definitely need to learn when to stop talking. I have told Mary far too much.

-There are still some things that my mind has not fully found closure on. That bugs me.

-God is ridiculous.

-I've been using the word ridiculous way too much in the past few months.

-I'm not sure how I feel about my party planning being hijacked by my ex-girlfriend. It doesn't really bother me, it just seems weird.

-I need to fly somewhere far away. Just for a bit.

-I'm glad that my electric bill is for the first time under 90$...in fact, a lot less.

-I am not excited to write this paper in the next few days.

-I got a calendar with pictures of Paris and a typography book from Jamie for Christmas. Yes, I'm a dork, but it's totally awesome.

-I also got a lot of practical stuff for Christmas, which is fine by me, I'm glad to get them.

-I was sad that I was not able to be as giving because of financial means this Christmas.

-I am saddened for a friend of mine whom I wish I could be there for more, because I know he needs it.

-I'm trying to learn to have Gainesville be my home...even if it's just a home for right now.

-Love is amazing.

-There are days when I really can't wait to be with the one I'm going to marry. And there are others where I think it's probably never going to happen. I've been doing better at thinking less.

-Still a lot of unanswered questions. I think most of these will probably stay that way until the Big Guy decides to let us all in on His secrets.

-I miss my old church...or what I nostalgically remember my old church being when I was younger.

-Love is hard.

-This post is way too long and scattered (smothered, covered, and capped).

Ma raison d'être

Wangaratta. Warrnambool. Traralgon. Euroa. Geelong. Werribee. Healesville. Castlemaine. Echuca. Essendon. Cranbourne.



These words may mean very little to you. But to me, they are words that remind me of a different world. A world that I once was a part of and that from time to time I am reminded of my life there over four years ago. Every once in a while I'll see a picture or hear something that sparks a nostalgic longing for my travels down under.



Villefranche-sur-Mer. Reims. Versailles. Quimper. Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Bordeaux. Besançon. Argenteuil. Bagnolet.



These words provoke similar feelings that often are accompanied with souvenirs of certain smells and feelings stemming from my time in the land of wine and cheese. Those nights walking the streets of Paris and beautiful fall evenings along the Seine.



As different as those two experiences were, they remind me of one of my greatest desires in life: travelling.



I love to travel. I don't know what it is about it. Meeting new people. Seeing a world defined by a different language, culture, and mindset. A world that is full of amazing similarities and incredible differences. Realizing there are people in this world that have not grown up the same way I have, that have a different lifestyle based on different ideas of what is important. Examining these differences and realizing some of the core things that link us all together. Being in a new place and learning about what people are like there. It thrills me. It excites me. It is amazing.