I’m not even sure where to even begin but I believe this trip is helping me learn so much about myself and my relationship with my husband. First, we’re having an awesome time and I’m already loving the French culture and atmosphere.

We had a bit of a traveling mishap. Actually, several traveling mishaps but because we’re spending 5 weeks in France we’ve taken all of them in stride. Our original plan was to leave Omaha on Sunday and arrive in Paris on Monday but because of bad weather in Chicago our flight was cancelled.

We left Omaha on Monday afternoon and landed in Chicago. At some point on our flight from Chicago to Paris there was some minor smoke in the plane so we had to make an emergency landing in Toronto. I promise, it was minor and did not last long but they didn’t think it was wise to continue our flight.  We sat in a “secure” area in Toronto for a couple of hours because of customs.  Eventually went through customs and directed to an attached hotel where we stayed the night.  Our flight the next day didn’t leave until 5pm though and we had another long day in the airport.  We finally arrived in Paris on Wednesday morning.

After arriving in Paris, we rushed to get our luggage and went to the train station to catch a train to Lyon. After several long days of traveling and my body being so confused on whether it was day or night, we made it to Lyon.

The things I’m learning so far:

• The French eat such large meals but are super skinny. I’m not sure how this calculation works out but hopefully I can figure out the math before the end of our trip.
• I love the open markets! I can’t say enough about how fresh and beautiful all of the wonderful things are at the market.
• Lots of people have been so helpful this past week.  So many talk about how the French are rude put I think that might just be because you’re being rude or those individuals are being rude to you. Really, most people are nice!
• I feel guilty for not knowing more French and am trying to learn very quickly. I want people to understand how I’m trying but I’m sure it’s hard when they just trying to work and I’m making it even more work for them.
• Dusty is my hero. I believe there’s at least one person in every relationship that can just figure things out and make it work. It’s my husband in our relationship. Not that I can’t figure things out but he’s about 10 times faster at it then I am. This might be that he spent 6 months traveling across Europe after he graduated from college but really I think it’s because he’s just really good at navigating, predicting situations, and solving problems. All of these things are true in other parts of our relationship as well but they’ve really shown over the past week.