I don't even know where to begin. So much has happened since my last posting. My wonderful friends came to visit me and Gui in Paris. We had such a great time here and really enjoyed the short side-trips to Brussels and Amsterdam. Brussels is my new favorite place...whoever created that city has my greatest thanks. We all kept a beer diary throughout our trip and filled our diary with entries of every new beer we could treat our taste-buds to. Of course no trip to Belgium could be complete without indulging in chocolate and of course, mussels in Brussels!

We had the time of our lives in Belgium, which might explain my lukewarm experience in Amsterdam. The city, history and architecture are beautiful; the people and the atmosphere are another story. My two favorite moments in Amsterdam were 1) the trip to Anne Frank's old house (I didn't want to leave - so amazing), and 2) the canal boat ride through the city at sundown. Overall, the trip was a great success. We had a ton of fun, and it was great to see my friends on the other side of the pond.

(pictures from the trips to come soon...)

I spent my last 10 days in France sharing as much of my time with Guillaume as possible and trying to organize my affairs for my return back to the States. I've been back now for 3 weeks, and it feels like so much longer. Being apart from Gui never gets any easier. This time was particularly difficult. In the past, we'd always managed to work out a way to spend most of the year together, but this time was a little different. We had come to a crossroads where both of us were embarking on journeys towards our long-term goals, and neither of us knew when we'd see the other next. For us, it made no sense to make plans for our futures without considering how the other would fit in it. So, long story short, we are now making plans for me to indefinitely return to Paris in May after we exchange our vows on April 26th this year. It's the most wonderful feeling to be on the same path with the person I love, and to know that we'll no longer have to tailor our separate lives to be together. I'll be posting my experiences and obstacles throughout the transition, many of which I'm sure will be very difficult and frustrating. But, it is almost an understatement to say that these days I'm a very happy girl.