Sand, Sun, Singing and a few Sunburns

Since turning 20 I have had very few moments of realization that I have now begun a fun stage of young-adulthood that exists for everyone to be able to laugh a lot, have a little crazy fun and just enjoy the perks of being young and free.

This past weekend was the first time I have been able to spend a weekend out of town with all of my wonderful friends from school here at Baylor! Thanks to the fact that four of my friends share birthdays on May 19 and May 22, by the suggestion of one of my best friends Austen we decided to head south to the Texas coast in Galveston! We were all so thankful to stay at our best friend Marcie's BEAUTIFUL house for the weekend where we shared many laughs, lots of food and, regrettably, a few sunburns :D We spent Friday evening and all day on Saturday in Galveston doing what we do best: enjoying each others' company and just being ourselves, which made for a wonderful reunion before parting ways again for the summer.

Friday evening consisted of dinner at a yummy hamburger place called Cafe Michael Burger and relishing in the fact that we were all reunited again since the culmination of school earlier this month.

Austen showing off his yummy burger and Erin showing off, well, her lettuce.. :D

After dinner we took a little stroll on the beach and played a hilarious game of Apples to Apples. (That game can get pretty intense, but thankfully we all knew we would still be friends once it was over :) )

Early on Saturday morning I decided to join my friends Solange, Daniel, and Zane for a walk/run on the beach. Since Zane and I aren't exactly the most avid of runners, we decided to take a walk while Daniel and Solange enjoyed an intense run. The sunrise was so gorgeous that morning and the tide was high, so Zane and I relished in the warmth of the start of a beautiful day with our walk. (I'm trying to make myself become more active by walking once or twice a day, and this vacation was not going to stop me! Hehe :) )

Beautiful sunrise

Zane and I decided to stretch before our intense walk ;)

 

 

 

After a delicious breakfast of pancakes made by my roomie Amy and her boyfriend Kevin, we all headed to the beach until lunchtime! It was the most perfect and gorgeous day of not too hot but just warm enough temperatures and the beach was hardly visited by many more people besides ourselves. I swam for quite a while (which reminded me of how much I used to swim as a kid), and many of us laid out on the beach and played a game of frisbee. Austen and Zane decided to build a sand castle, which actually formed into a mini masterpiece! I learned from my friend Daniel how to skim-board (which didn't work out too well), and even Shelby, one of my best friends and his girlfriend, and Austen gave it a whirl! Besides blaming the beach for what led to some very painful sunburns, I could have spent most of the day there. There is just something about being connected to the water and its natural beauty that few other things can compare to. All in all, Saturday morning was what I could describe as a little piece of perfection :)

All of us on the beach!

These girls are so precious to me

Daniel teaching me how to skim-board!

Zane with his(and Austen's) sand castle!

Laying out on the beach!

After lunch we stayed at Marcie's house and spent more time in the sun, on one of the decks in the shade, and I even went kayaking with Zane! Dinner was especially delicious and we ate dessert in celebration of the four birthdays in our friend group. Of course we spent a lot of our time during the weekend singing, as almost all of us are vocal music majors, but Saturday night's escapade of singing on the beach will most definitely be one of my favorite memories from this weekend.

Dinner with our after-sun glows

The GORGEOUS sunset to end the day!

Three of the four birthday celebrators!

We departed early Sunday morning, and I was sad to part ways with all of the people that I have grown to love as my family at Baylor. This weekend came and went in a flash, but we all decided it will be the first of many similar trips in the future :)

I have been so blessed to have developed such incredible relationships with each and every one of the friends I enjoyed Galveston with this weekend. They teach me to stay young, happy and to take each moment and savor it forever. Love all of you, my music major family, and happy birthday to you Erin, Marcie, Austen and Shelby!!

Oh, and here's a street that is just a few blocks from Marcie's house in Galveston that is named after yours truly :) Guess this weekend was meant to be!

Can't wait to begin sharing all of my favorite moments in Paris with you next month! Stay tuned for a blog next week on the stresses(and joys) of packing for Europe!!

An Experience of a Lifetime!

In the spirit of summer and the celebration of the end of another semester, it is officially time for me to start using this blog again. A small face lift was in order for the page itself, but now is the time for the important reasoning for my writing again. In order to respectfully jump back into blogging I have found one absolutely incredible reason to revive my days of authorship via the internet: I am going to PARIS!!! And yes, I do mean Paris, France not Paris, Texas...
During the month of June I will be studying abroad with the Baylor in Paris program which allows me to perfect my French and gain a little (or a lot) of insight into European culture, while also completing my foreign language credit for my degree :) This is a trip I have been praying about, spent all of last summer saving money for and have eagerly been anticipating since October. Needless to say, I am SO EXCITED!!!

Throughout the month of June I will be writing a weekly (sometimes bi-weekly) post in order to share some of my favorite moments of my trip with all of you, my friends and family, back home! I am still in awe that I have received this incredible opportunity to take in the culture in another part of the world, and I know this is going to be a life changing experience. (Not to mention that I also have the huge blessing of sharing the experience with my best friend, Erin!) Erin and I intend to conquer some great self-defined obstacles, will try not to go into a coffee, bread and wine comatose, learn way more about French art and theater than we will ever really need to know and countless other memory-making experiences that I can't wait to share with everyone! Don't worry, I will also be sharing TONS of pictures with you thanks to my amazing parents who invested in a very nice camera so that I can document almost every moment with digital clarity :)

As I have been praying through what some of my personal intentions will be during the trip, I realized that one of my greatest expectations is to learn to appreciate the history that God has written for this world over several centuries. As I learned through my music history class of Ancient Music to the year 1600 and my Christian Heritage class, Paris is an extremely important site of history that helped shape and define the faith that I now claim as my own, even centuries after it was being shaped in Paris. I know through exploring the many sites of Paris that I will most definitely return home as a more humbled believer. Plus, who doesn't want to appreciate all of the art, architecture, music, entertainment and the sheer Parisian aspects of Paris?! And don't worry, I'll make sure I have a little fun from time to time ;)

As a reader, be expecting some eye-opening, jaw-dropping and even some humbling images and words to come from this blog in the next 8 weeks. I know I definitely will be :)

Until I write about the joys and struggles of packing...
Emily