Au Revoir, Paris!

It's taken me 5 weeks to write this post. Every time I thought about it, I just couldn't bring myself to do it...the last blog entry! But alas, it's time to officially close the door on this chapter of our lives and embrace the new one.

The 2 1/2 years we spent in Paris will always be have a special place in our hearts and memories. We are so blessed to have been able to experience and see as much as we did, meet so many life-long friends, and live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We are forever changed by the experience, growing and learning about ourselves both individually and as a couple.

So first, a little map update and 2 1/2 years by the numbers.
Countries: 18
Cities: 97

And some transportation numbers for fun {not including transport to and from any airports via train, bus}:
Planes: 53
Trains: 62
Boats: 10
Buses: 22
Rental Cars: 8
Other Cars: 12
ATVs/Scooters: 3
Camels: 1
Ski Lifts (non-skiing): 5

Now, for the emotional, how we've grown and what we've learned realizations. We've taken a lot away from our time in Paris, some trivial:

*We really love spicy foods!!

*Our wine budget will need to be increased back in the U.S. now that we've grown accustomed to always having several bottles on hand

*Going back to the real world will be hard. Sometimes it didn't feel like real life, especially for me. Lots of vacation, easy travel, and girls' nights, laughing, chatting, and suddenly realizing its 3am and we need to call Ubers to get home because the metro isn't running any more will be things I miss dearly!

And there are more serious lessons we've learned:

*It's okay to do things alone and be more independent. You never know who you might meet or what you might discover! I always used to be someone who would enlist a friend to do anything, but now I'm much more comfortable going on my own and striking up conversation with someone new!

*Life is too short to deal with drama. Surround yourself with people you actually want to have meaningful relationships with. The expat community can sometimes feel high school-ish, and we learned it is important to realize not all adults are meant to be best friends. Instead of getting bogged down in drama, we chose to seek out and develop meaningful relationships with those we felt strong connections to. And what a payoff--some truly life-long friends!

*Always try something new, even if it's a fear. While we have many examples of this, probably the best example for me is my fear of heights. I'm still not a huge fan of heights, I definitely am more comfortable and wouldn't trade the memories I have where I was pushing the edge of my fear!

*The world is not as scary as the media makes it out to be. Yes, there are bad people in the world, but in all of our travels, we found that in general, people are nice and good. Case and point: Israel

*Life is not all about making money, but also taking time to enjoy life. French and Europeans seem to have a much better handle on work-life balance than most Americans. While, yes, their vacation time may be bordering on excessive, it really is a culture that supports time away from work and making time for family. This is something that we are going to try very hard to make a priority in our own lives. Work is just work, and family and friends are much more important.

Goodbye Picnic

*The grass is always greener on the other side. It seems everyone seems to complain about their own governments, but what we've learned is that there's positives and negatives to everywhere you live. What's more important is making the most of where you live and looking at the positives {even if it is hard in the midst of airline strikes and taxi drivers attacking Uber drivers}

*The U.S. is good for a lot of things {particularly cheap things, convenience, and friendly people!} We feel like too often we took the U.S. for granted, and it's now our goal to approach the U.S. with new eyes, appreciate the cultural differences within our own country, and take advantage of the many travel opportunities right in our own backyard. The bucket travel list has already been created!

*Living in an unknown city, knowing next to no one, taught us to take advantage of events/activities going on in the city and not be afraid to meet new people. We are really looking forward to keeping this mentality as we go forward in the U.S. While the events may not be as grand as the Versailles Ball, Nuit Blanche, etc. we know there are many opportunities waiting to be discovered. This is a huge reason why we chose the location we did to rent in Houston; we have already found some events in the short time we've been here.

So it's au revoir Paris for now. Au revoir literally translates to see you again, which is fitting; we will definitely be back to Paris in the future, hopefully many times. Until then, we'll always have Paris.

Last day was spent at our favorite place: the Eiffel Tower!

And in the words of Dr. Seuss:

"Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened."

Beautiful sendoff on our last night