My Year End Review...ish

Hello.

It's been awhile. I'm sorry there have not been any posts lately, but as everyone knows, the holidays are a busy time. I may have taken a brief hiatus, but fear not, I'm back to work now!

I celebrated my first truly white Christmas with some wonderful people in Budapest and several church services, including a Hungarian service. I am incredibly lucky that people were kind enough to open their homes and lives to me for my first Christmas away from home. I went out on the 24th and snapped a few photos of the city in the snow. It was pretty breathtaking.

 Szabadság hid (Liberty Bridge)

Szabadság szobor in the fog (Statue of Liberty)

After Christmas, my friend and I were able (with the incredibly generous help of our boss) to take a trip to Paris, where we rang in the new year! The city was absolutely stunning even if it was a little rainy. We rented an adorable flat on the north side of the city, outside of the city center, that became our home for the week. I cannot properly explain how comforting it was to have a place to come back to every night that we could call our own, not just a hotel or hostel.

The trip started out a little rough with a very long, complicated, exhausting story involving shuttle services, French information desks, night buses, dead birds, extremely upset passengers and one bizarre yet wonderful taxi ride. I'll spare you the gory details, but know that we arrived safely, even if it took a little work and several hours to get to our flat the first night.

The next morning though, everything changed. I can honestly say that we did not have any other problems the rest of the trip (aside from a few expected metro mix ups). We were surrounded by history and art that defined an entire country (and beyond). We were able to go to the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, Musée Rodin, the Panthéon, Versailles,  Notre Dame de Paris and the most beautiful churches I've ever seen. It was a surreal and humbling experience to be so close to things I had previously only imagined seeing in textbooks.

Tour de Eiffel

Mona Lisa

Venus de Milo

Notre Dame de Paris

The Seine

All aglow for New Year's

Aside from the sights, it was the people we spent our time with that made the trip special. We met with a few old friends who introduced us to the well kept local secrets of the city, delicious food and even better company. We were also able to strengthen new relationships, including a trip to the south part of the city for Sunday service with an old member of the Global Ministries team and the local congregation he now serves in Paris. The hospitality we met during our five short days was a blessing and we are truly appreciative for our warm welcome.

On the way to Notre Dame de Paris

Dinner date!

In Montmartre

I think it's incredibly telling that inevitably the first words you learn in any language are words of thanks. I've said "thank you" more times than I can count this year, and as I look forward to 2013 and a new year full of possibility and promise, all I can say is thank you. Thank you for the support, thank you for the faith, thank you for the prayers, thank you for the opportunity, thank you for all of the wonderful people in my life and thank you for all of the blessings I may overlook during the day to day.

It seems to me that if "thank you" were the only words we knew, we'd get along just fine.