Vive la France?

Since becoming a student at Baylor University, I have repeatedly changed my major: psychology to nursing, nursing to psychology, psychology to psychology with a French minor, psychology with a French minor to... French.

At first, I felt a little anxious. I knew I absolutely loved the French language, but was I going to graduate feeling jipped as far as my education went? I spoke with multiple professors, my parents, and my friends, and now I am at the point in my education where I know for a fact that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Speak French. (The confirming factor was that I was supposed to enroll in Italian for four semesters, but all the sections were full so I was stuck taking French. Sign from God? I think so.) The awesome thing is that I can work with the French language in a ridiculous amount of settings: schools in America, schools in France, the Government, the Peace Corps, etc. The even more awesome thing is that I have recently come to the decision (with the help of my parents' input) to study abroad in Caen, France at l'Université de Caen Basse-Normandie for the fall semester of 2010.

I think back to over two years ago, when I was a new student at Baylor. There is no way that I saw this coming! Now, it's all that I can think about. Although there will be so much work that I'll have to put into this process in order to make it happen, it will be SO worth it when I return to Texas in December 2010, speaking French (hopefully) nearly fluently. In addition, I'll return home with an experience that I'll never forget. My parents were gracious enough to help me get over to England and Ireland during my junior year of high school (see posts London and Ireland). This time, things will be a bit different: instead of 8 days, I'll be gone 4 months; instead of going with 20 other students, I'll be going alone; instead of hearing English all of the time, I'll constantly be hearing French. I am so incredibly excited and nervous, and I know I wouldn't be able to make it through these next 10 or so months without the encouragement from my parents. The unconditional love and support that they constantly give me is the reason that children have parents. I am so incredibly blessed.

For more information about Caen, see the following links:
UdC's International Student Page (there's a little American Flag to click on that translates the website into English)
Map of UdC and the surrounding area (Caen is about 2hrs west of Paris)

So, here's to the start of an awesome new journey. Stay tuned.