The First Post

BLOG DISCLAIMER: We can’t promise how often we will write or how long our entries will be. We can promise that we will be honest, share our experiences and keep you all in the loop as often as we can. Keep the link in your favorites and we will do our best to write on facebook when we have a new post up. Also, Emily writes much nicer than Jackie, so don’t expect too much as the grammar and such goes with her posts.

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Jackie here posting pre-departure information:

THE COUNTDOWN

Jackie-10 days to departure

Emily- 30 days to departures

Yesterday Emily and I sat down at an average pizza place for a salad and a calzone in Clarksville. We ran into some parents of someone new knew from middle school and they were very excited to hear about our post college plans. The mother’s first response in hearing about our trip was “Well do you already have a job lined up when you get back?” and when my answer was ‘no’ she gave me a nervous look and asked, “you are at least interviewing right?” and again my answer was ‘no’.

We are not uneasy over this, in fact part of the reason we are able to go on this trip is that we have nothing keeping us here (except of course our family and friends! We will be back..). I am at a place in life where my job standing ranks below my need to explore the world and myself. Emily reassured me that we are just on our own path. One day we might live that life but for now, Europe awaits.

We had a “Goal Setting Meeting” with my mother, a few weeks ago to talk about our trip from all different aspects. We went through how to prepare for the worst, for the best and what we wanted out of our trip. Outside of not going down dark alleys at night, being drunk in public and never tell a stranger where we are staying Emily and I made 3 goals for our trip and they are as follows.

1.Live Simply

2.To Learn

3.Be spontaneous 

We hope to get this plus much more from our trip, but these 3 items best sum up our goals. Easy additives to the list would of course be to have fun, to try as much cheese and wine as we can and to fall in love with Europe.   

On a different note a small brain buster was thrown at us this morning. What is the best type of luggage to pack for our trip? The family at my work place agreed that for the type of trip we are having, a backpack as our luggage might be more of a burden than a blessing. We are not going camping, and we are not going on 3-day hikes through the Himalayas (although I want that on my to-do list). We will be in cities and small towns where there will most likely be sidewalks and roads to roll potential luggage. My boss George said we were being “romantic” with wanting to bring backpacks on our Eurotrip and I think he might be right. But my “cheese making” partner Dave gave me a logical opposite opinion. The backpack acts as another part of the body and when traveling through cities and such, having that on my back and not worrying about it on the ground will be a relief. 

In the great words of my father, “There are pro’s and con’s to both, but whichever you decide it will work out!” I am grateful for my fathers calmness and support over this trip! Yet I still don’t have a decision about the bag…I have faith it will be just fine.

(in between all these conversations I called Emily multiple times at work, sorry law offices of JJ&S, this is important stuff)

Moving on. One of our hosts while are are abroad was in town this week and for all the great things the Stone family has brought me, this was another! Nada is George’s sister and she has lived abroad most of her adult life. We are lucky that she is letting Emily and I work for her, in exchange for a place to live in France for a month. She was in town to do an art workshop at AVAM (American Visionary Art Museum) and took the time to hang out with us. Emily and I had the opportunity to have dinner with her and hear about her life in France. This made us even more excited about our time in France, especially knowing we would be in such good company. Here is a link to her home, located in the Dordonge in France. http://www.marance.net/.

To conclude I hope you all enjoyed my babbling and hopefully you will hear from Emily soon!

A song for the end of the post! (I cant stop listening to this guys music!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=HxJhYpTIrl8

Happy Monday!!!!

Jackie