Guillaume made his proposal official after dinner the first night I returned to Paris. On bended-knee and all, he presented a lovely ring made from family heirloom gemstones that I'm now proudly wearing around my left ring-finger! Here it is.



Needless to say, I was very surprised and nearly speechless. I'm so happy.

(thanks for the title, Lindsey)

My bachelorette party was one for the history books. And, if Regina, Melynda, Lindsay and Gladys take my sister's advice, they'll write a book about throwing the perfect bachelorette party. Because, let's face it, my party was the sh*t! I definitely went out with a bang (and I have the drunk bumps to prove that), but it wasn't easy. Tears (and clothes) were shed, champagne was flowing, glasses toasting (and breaking), caviar was eaten, henna was staining and girls were a'(lap)dancin'! Most of the photos can't be shared on a public forum, but here a few of my favorites. Thank you, my lovelies!! I will never forget this most amazing night!!

Haha. I love this sign and I love Austin. Man, I'm going to miss it.

But, for my last 2 weeks in the city, I was able to take it all in with friends an fun..including this:

Saying "y'all come back, now" to Marie & Pascal


Happy Birthday, Irisa-face


Being a biker (I want one)

Today, Amanda and I met Irisa for lunch at this new little gem called Blue Dahlia in east Austin. The menu online sounded so delish, but I wasn't sure if this was going to be another brief Austin trend or a genuine Austin treasure. Well, added to the fact that it's located a mere two blocks from my wonderful hometown church in a neighborhood that's busting at the seams with new, lively development, I found the exquisite food and community-friendliness of the place to be a perfect pot of gold. The tartines that are served here are remarkably inventive, and just plain tasty. I loved my chevre and granola tartine, and was equally blown away with Irisa's chicken salad tartine, (and I'm pretty picky about my chicken salad). I didn't try Amanda's turkey tartine, but that's mostly because she ate nearly every bite, including her and my helping of sliced cantaloupe that's included with the bed of greens and cucumber on the the wooden cutting board the tartines are served on. Perhaps the perfect weather had a little to do with it, but even a brave, hungry bee didn't distract from the absolute beauty of this lunch. I'm sad that I can't eat here everyday for breakfast, lunch and dinner but will make every effort to visit each time I return to Austin. Maybe they'll let me start a franchise of the place in Paris! Now, I just need to figure out how I would export the Austin weather...

OK, so UPS hasn't completely ruined my life...yet (it takes time to steal someone's identity, doesn't it?). That being said, they did give us a scare that they wouldn't deliver our documents as requested the second time around. But, they did, so we're happy about that, and now it's just a waiting game to see if my mom will get her passport in time to fly out to Paris. It's definitely a nail-biter.

I spent the first part of the weekend with my mom, driving into Austin together and enjoying a good dose of tex-mex. We even waited in line for nearly an hour (stomachs grumbling and all) to get seated at a favorite, famous Austin eatery. It was totally worth it, though. I was telling my mom how waiting for that long is pretty much unheard of in Paris - I mean, why wait an hour to eat when you could just as easily go next door for an equally good meal, or heck, find a panini stand and be sure to have a fully satisfied belly?

It's just really crazy that this will be my last week (for a long while, at least) in my hometown. Hopefully, I'll get to see everyone and eat everywhere I love before making the move official. My friends are planning a very secret bachelorette party for me next weekend (absolutely can not wait!), and my cousin from Georgia is coming to celebrate - which is the coolest thing ever. On top of that, we'll be lunching and dining and happy-houring the week away, so much to look forward to in this final week.

The weather in Austin has been some of the best I can remember and the food seems to be tastier by the bite. The long-standing, come-and-go relationship I've had with this city is coming to an end as I leave it for the (possibly) final time, and it isn't letting me go without a good fight. It won't be easy to leave, but I've got to make myself a home in my new city with the love of my life. I'll be back, Austin, so don't worry. And next time we rendezvous, I hope it'll be with my new family and for a time long enough to really enjoy your company.

I had an inkling that the forces that be would come crashing in on me without pause for expecting a simple short engagement and planning a wedding overseas in 2 months. What was I thinking?

It's already a little sad that, besides my mom, my family won't be able to attend the ceremony on such short notice. Now that we've mistakenly relied on UPS to actually do their job by delivering extremely vital documents to a person (not a patio), my mom may not be able to attend either. Not to mention, because of the nature of the documents (not just my mom's, but mine as well), we may run into issues of fraud and identity theft in the future that, with my luck, will be seriously detrimental to my or my mom's life or well-being.

What sort of company allows a delivery driver to provide this information about delivering goods: "left at patio, signed by Sarah?" Does this make any sense to anyone else living a slightly educated life? Didn't think so. Je tu déteste, UPS.

I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to post these - I've had them uploaded for at least 2 weeks! But, alas, here they are at last.

PARIS WITH FRIENDS


BRUSSELS & AMSTERDAM


BACK IN THE STATES

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.