7/8/18

Hello dear friends and family!

First of all, thank you for wanting to stay updated with my life, it means a lot and warms my heart <3

From August 24-25th, I fly Portland-->Chicago, Chicago-->Madrid, Madrid-->Marseille, and finally bus from Marseille-->Aix-en-Provence.

For those of you who don't know, I will be studying in the Marchûtz Fine Arts Program at the Institute for American Universities (IAU) in Aix-en-Provence, Southern France, until January 21st, 2019. (Panic!)

To learn more about my program and college: https://iauabroad.org/academics/aix/marchutz

One quite exciting piece of information, I am studying abroad with one of my best friends from Linfield, Maddie Robert! She is a beautiful sunflower soul, and I am so excited to have her as my little piece of home. 

This is Maddie:

📷

As many of you know, my best friend from 2nd grade, Kaidy Sims, ditched me two and a half years ago to live in Germany on her own. Um.... so cool?!?

Anyways, Kaidy and I are already planning many get-togethers. I plan on spending a whole lotta time in Germany, and she better get her booty over to me in France. 

Here is a photo of Kaidy and I on "Colorado Day" in third grade:  📷

I just started to think about packing yesterday.... I am planning on bringing my small travel guitar, a medium-sized hard cased suitcase, a large back pack, and my large side bag with many pockets. If anybody has advice about packing for five month trips, or traveling with instruments, it is gladly welcomed! In fact, advice about anything is greatly appreciated! In the next two and a half weeks, I am working a ton to try to bulk up my savings. I'm packing up my apartment from the summer and preparing for this trip, and that is about all.  Much love to all of you!!! Thank you for all of your positive thoughts and prayers <3