Au Revoir USA, Bonjour France!

Well, I don't really know how I feel about making this whole blog thing, but it's been on my heart so I thought I would give it a go and use it to pass some time. Yesterday (Sunday) at 10am I left my house in Indy and headed to the airport. I flew from Indy to Charlotte and there I met up with my future teammate Nicole. We boarded our 8 hour flight to Paris and upon our arrival (6:50am Monday) we had to locate our bags and the train station. After finding the train station we had a few hours to kill so we relaxed and observed the French. I think our first hour sums up France pretty well... we saw a dog on a leash poop in the middle of the train station and then we saw about 5 people walk through it. We saw people inside smoking. And Nicole already got hit on by a rather creepy French boy. Welcome to France. I was so happy Nicole was with me so that we could experience those things together as well as find our train and make sure we got on the correct car. We finally got situated and 3 hours later we arrived in the beautiful city of Nantes. We saw our head coach Michel (pronounced mee-shell) towering over everyone else and he was accompanied by assistant coach, Sylvain, and player Valeria (who played at Kansas State but is from Hungary). We were greeted with a kiss (well double kiss) and welcomed into the family. I really love my coaches and I think that we will have a lot of fun this season! They took us to our apartment and we dropped our stuff. We are living in more of a dorm room. We have our own room with a bed, bathroom, desk, table, and small kitchen. I do sort of feel like I am a freshmen in college again but this will be my home for the next 10 months. We dropped our bags and went to see the volleyball facilities where we met the president and secretary and various other important people with the club. After about 8 more kissing introductions we were on our way. They coaches took us to a Target sort of store (but bigger) for us to get a few groceries. Then they dropped us at our new "home" and we were on our own in France. Nicole and I unpacked with out doors open randomly yelling things across the hall at one another. I was super frustrated for a while because my internet would not work for anything but I finally figured out the touchy ethernet cord. Nicole and I later walked back to the Target (actually called Carrefour) to buy a few things to make our "dorm" rooms feel a little homier. We also grabbed our first panini and it was delish!! Now it's 9pm and I am soooo tired.

Ok so there was my day... now I promised a friend (Nova) that if I ever started a blog that I would include my deep thoughts for everyone to read. So here you go Novs... I was sad, nervous, and a bit anxious as I left the good ole US of A, but I am happy to finally be in France. It still doesn't seem real, because I do feel like I am kind of on vacation. I have been praying since January that no matter what I felt God calling me to in my life, that I would reply, "Yes, Lord. Here I am." I'm not sure why France, but I am completely (well 99.8%) trusting in His plan for my life and time here in Nantes. I am really excited to see how He will use me, and more importantly how He will use this time to refine me daily. I have a feeling there will be some lonely and hard days and nights but I pray that in those times, I would truly have to depend on my Lord and Savior. My comforts have been taken away once again but I am looking forward to it. Even though the thoughts of being alone in my dorm room seem so terrifying to my extroverted personality, I pray that I will learn how to enjoy solitude more. I already miss my friends and family dearly, but I have my Rock.

"As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." -Psalm 18:30-32