Challenge Accepted

Have you ever had that one challenge you always think about trying but back out because it's just more convenient to not?
Well that's me and becoming a vegetarian.
However, there is this time every calendar year where people write down their ideal goals they want to accomplish. My family and I were sitting around the fire reminiscing about all the things we were able to do and what we were most looking forward to this year when I brought up the fact that I was and have been interested in vegetarianism.
Well immediately my loving family scoffed like I had told the punch line of a joke.
Challenge accepted
I'm not that person who is going to go out on the streets to petition against the murdering of animals (although the process is a bit wrong). No, I'm more interested in the discipline behind the idea.
Since this is the first time I've tried something like this though I have decided to go cold turkey on meat (the pun was definitely intended) but in order to maintain omega 3 levels and protein fish have gotten the green light.
So as of January 1, 2013 I have become a pescatarian.
Bring it on

Paris day 5

Versailles!
Although the first four hours of the day were spent just getting there. One train, transfer, second train, get off, the connecting train is having work done so you have to take a different train (the one I was on to begin with) to a different station, take that train, walk 20 minutes and voila! I have arrived at Versailles. The grandeur of it all is almost overwhelming. To begin, there were gold gates at the entrance and gold detailing on the building. And that's just a bit of the outside. The interior is breath taking. So much detail and elegance! My favorite room was the queen's room. Gorgeous. Such extraordinary decoration. And the gardens are enormous. I'm talking it takes a solid 30 minutes to walk to Marie Antoinette's estate. But it's so worth it! But before I went there I stopped and had a bite to eat at the restaurant out in the gardens and by a bite to eat I mean a crepe because who can turn one of those down? By the time I got back to my room--seven hours later--my feet were in serious pain. That's how most of my days have ended but I like it. It means I've gotten to walk in Paris and see wonderful sites all day long. Now tomorrow I have to find a new suitcase and pack because my time here is coming to an end an it makes me very sad. Maybe I'll accidentally miss my flight tomorrow. Oh I would if I weren't also excited to get back to Colorado

Day 4 Paris--nothing exciting

Today was my easy day. I went and walked around and it was glorious. I found souvenirs for the people who were on my list, mailed off postcards, and had a glorious lunch. Nothing too special just a nice easy day in the rainy streets of Paris.

Day 3 Paris

If you walk far enough into the streets of Montmartre you find the best hair salons for the best prices. Of course they don't speak English at all so I had to dive into my reserve of French vocab to get them to understand what I wanted. Success. One hour later and three inches less I walked back out into the cold rain and found the best cafe. Hello pizza! Boy oh boy have I missed real food. Not to say the food in Africa was bad. It just all tasted the same. But the rain died down a bit and so I paid and headed out towards Le Louvre. I had planned on taking the train but hey, I'm young, I'm healthy, and insane so I decided to walk. The walk itself isn't so bad. But I had walked all day yesterday in uncomfortable shoes (the only ones not destroyed in Africa) and it's rainy and cold. I broke down and bought a coat because I was about to turn into a French Popsicle. Again. I spent some time walking up this street and down that one just to kill time and I found les Galeries Lafayette. Which is the official name for every high end shop imaginable all in one location. I'm talking Tiffany's, Chanel, Mui Mui, and a hundred others. Bags in one place, shoes downstairs, and makeup in the middle. It was packed. But also a lot of fun! After I had my fill if playing rich and famous I headed back out into the cold and continued on to Le Louvre. I got there two and a half hours too early so I sat on a bench and--as Ms. Tidd recommended--people watched. Oh the fun things I got to see and hear. Finally six o clock rolled around and I got to go inside. By this time if the day my dogs were barking. However I was too excited to be at Le Louvre to care. I think I'm more interested with the ceilings of these places than the actual pieces on the walls. I spent 90 percent of my time looking up. Twice I ran into someone and I only tripped once. The coolest part was when I was in the rooms of Napoleon. From one of the grand windows you can see the Eiffel Tower and because it was dark and it was the top of the hour, I got to see the light show. It's a lot mor impressive from farther away. It looks like a Gina's sparkling diamond...an odd shaped diamond. Sadly it was time to head back and although I was brave and walked to Le Louvre I was not about to walk back. Instead I walked down to Notre Dame (cars splashing people in the sidewalks doesn't just happen in movies) and grabbed a train from there. This time when I got out of Le Gare du Nord I actually took the right street! And the entire way back I didn't use my map once. I am now the master of the metro! Or at least to and from downtown. An after an adventurous day, I'm dreading the few steps to my bed. My dogs aren't barking any more; they are yelping.

So day 2 Paris

Luckily one of my roommates said she wanted to see the Eiffel Tower so I jumped up and said I was going (at that time) tomorrow if she wanted to join. (Yay for not having to wonder through the metro alone!
We started off by walking to Le Gare du Nord and after walking around trying to find the correct train we finally got to Charles de Gaule Etoile (another station) and we exited onto the street and BAM! there was l'Arc de Triomphe right there. Glory day! But everything was roped off and there was absolutely nobody on the street. Turns out the president was planning on making his way down Champs Elysées. My lucky day. So we continued to walk down the street and ogle at the shops until we mad a turn off the main road and found a very quaint street with adorable shops to enjoy (of course they were definitely still out of my price range). After wandering around hoping to get lost in the little connecting streets, we happened to come back across the Place de la Concorde. So, crossing the extremely busy street, we turned left and decide to check out Le Louvre. Don't you just hate when you chance to come across famous cultural sites unexpectedly? After checking that out for a while (no we didn't go inside; that's my plan for tomorrow) we strolled across the river and on a whim decided to go visit Notre Dame. That is sooo much bigger than it appears. And being me I couldn't help but take off my ankle bracelet so I could ring the bells at Notre Dame. And you better believe I sang the song too. Ok the next for adventure we decided to finally go find Le Tour Eiffel. La da da walking walking walking. Oh hello Hôtel des Invalides. No big deal. Oh an the Eiffel Tower in the background? It's only natural. At last we arrived at our original destination--the Eiffel Tower. Holy guacamole is that thing tall. A lot taller than I had imagined it would be. Well I wanted to go to the top but my roommate--being afraid of heights--opted out. Exiting the elevator at the very tippy top (or at least as high as you're allowed to go) even I was thinking holy cow I'm going to get blown off the edge. Yes technically it is impossible because they have you fenced in but...that's just my dramatic self. The view though. Breath taking. You can see forever without end. The only thing that comes close is the Empire State Building but a skyscrapers got in the way. The ride down in the elevator was a ride back down to reality. A cold reality. I couldn't find my roommate. She was nowhere in sight and after an hour of waiting at our meeting point I accepted that she had probably left. But I wasn't about to leave. The sun had set and it was starting to get darker with each passing moment--lights time! I stayed and watched the light show and took a million photos. Eventually I decided to walk back home because I was turning into a Popsicle. So, I grabbed a train to Notre Dame and from there the train back to Le Gare du Nord. Thankfully when I opened the door to my room my roommate was there sleeping. At least she made it back. What a memorable thanksgiving it was. Top of my list!

Paris hates me

Before we go any farther I would like to say, on record, the the website of the hostel says to exit Le Gare du Nord and take a left.
Ok on with the story.
So I get into Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and immediately I start following the signs for the RER B line which was only a short mile or five away. But when I finally made it there lugging two giant suitcases, I bought my ticket and grabbed the next train blue train.
So I get to Le Gare du Nord and I'm supposed to exit on Le Re de Dunkerque only there is no sign indicating which direction that street would be in so I just start walking in good faith that I'm going in the right direction. Sure enough I started seeing signs for it. However, the sign said I was required to now ascend two flights of stairs. Don't worry there was an elevator.
The elevator incidentally was broken--now start to worry. I had to drag two extremely heavy, extremely bulky, extremely large suitcases up two stories to then exit onto Le Rue de Dunkerque.
Problem number two: it was pouring, 35 degrees, and I had no coat.
Yes it is true that when packing for my two month adventure, I only packed for Africa and did not plan anything for Paris. I was out in the freezing rain in nothing more than a light 3/4 length sweater. But I now had motivation to find my hostel so I took a LEFT and headed off in search of Le Vintage.
Two minutes later the street ended. Now streets in Paris are not like streets here. They do not have nice neat intersections with bright green road signs to tell you the name of the street. No. Paris has lovely little plazas with six streets coming together in one spot and the street signs (if you're lucky to find one) are minuscule little things pasted on the side of a building. Needless to say I took the wrong street, doubled back, and repeated the process five more times.
Ten my brain really kicked in and I decided I just needed to follow the larger street for a bit because the name probably changed at the plaza.
Sometimes I really should just not listen to myself.
I walked a solid twenty minutes down said road and no Vintage Hostel was to be seen and by this point I was way past the point of being a little misted by the rain and was somewhere in the vicinity of looking like a drowned cat.
I knew I was way off track because the directions said it was a five minute walk tops from the station to the hostel. So I did the unthinkable--I turned on my cellular data so I could use my Maps. Don't EVER turn on your cellular data while you are oversees without a plan. Long story short I typed in the address took a screen shot and turned my data off. Those few moments ended up costing me $198.40. That's not really a fun conversation to have with your parents.
Any way back to my misery.
I now knew where I needed to go which was twenty five minutes in the opposite direction from where I was headed. So I turned around and I got one block before the unthinkable happened.
Yes, my suitcase broke.
The handle by which it is to be pulled snapped and as I grabbed the handle to pull it along, refusing to be defeated by Paris, the seam started to split.
I was not about to have all of my personal affects strewn along a gutter in Paris so I stopped under the awning of a fruit stand and asked the owner where I could find a taxi.
Parisians will not speak English to you. No way. You have to at least attempt French before they will consider you. So I musters up some sort of sentence about needing to go about half way I into the next district over.
The man was kind enough to attempt to hail a taxi but none were going in my direction or only ran in this district and didn't travel to others. He then told me where I could find a taxis stand that would get me where I needed to go. And I patiently reminded him that I couldn't make it there because my suitcase was broken.
Bless his heart, he put my suitcase on his fruit trolly and wheeled it over to the taxi stand while I pulled my other one and I finally got a taxi. Fifteen minutes and 13 euros later I arrived at my hostel which, was in fact, a five minute walk from the station if you take a RIGHT onto Le Rue de Dunkerqe.

That afternoon, after I took a hot shower and put on warm clothes, I walked to Sacré Coeur and the sun was bright and warm and I was starting to fall in love with Paris despite my adventures getting there.
It's easy now to look back on that morning and just burst into a fit of giggles because really...how does one person have so much bad luck?

As proof that I am not lying about the very misleading directions I will attach poof!

My last day at hope

Where do I even begin. Well I didn't even want to get out of bed because that would mean that I had to accept the fact that I had to go say goodbye to the children I have loved and who have become part of my life over the past two months. So after dragging my behind out from under the covers I headed to project where, after being gone for a few days, the children bombarded me with hugs and yelled "Brecklen! Brecklen!" (Yes they finally learned how to say my name properly). They were taking their final exams today so I stayed out in the play yard with the kids who had finished. Basically for my last day I got to play outside in the African sun on the red Kenyan dirt with the children who have changed my life. Towards the end I lined them all up and started to pass out the sweets I brought. But once the kids realized what I had the line was pointless. They all swarmed around me and I had to pass them out at random. When the time came for the kids to go home the ones I had really gotten attached to all jumped on me and gave me a million hugs and kisses an asked me not to go. My heart nearly broke. It wasn't until I got into the van to drive away and the children all lined up in the road to wave goodbye did I really lose it. For as long as I live I will not be able to forget those children or my experience here in Kenya. I'm very grateful for my time here because I was impacted more than words can say