Worldwide Friends

Mike and I feel so incredibly lucky to have the friends that we do.  After all, they are a pretty great group of people.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), our friends are pretty spread out across the world. We have friends in Asia, South America, North America, and Europe.  Because some of our friends live far away, we take any chance we can to see them.  Some examples: Mike's friend Matt, our family friend Daniele, and my friend Lisa.

Mike and Matt are originally from the same town in Massachusetts. They went to high school together and eventually ended up becoming roommates while studying at WPI.  Although Matt lives in Boston, he and Mike still manage to keep in touch.  And when Matt proposed to his Dutch girlfriend, Ellen, he made sure Mike knew.

Mike & Matt during their WPI days.

When I think of Paris, I immediately think of our family friend who lives there, Daniele. Daniele is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet.  She has opened her home to me many times, and has gone out of her way to make sure I experience important parts of France.  Her daughter and my sister were in the same 5th grade class when her family was living in the US, and they became fast friends, which led to our families becoming friends.  Even though Daniele and her family moved back to France well over a decade ago, our families have still keep in touch.

Daniele at our wedding in September.

And then there's Lisa.  I met Lisa through my aunt, who arranged for us to do an informal exchange between the US and France.  I spent three weeks with Lisa and her family in Corsica, and then Lisa spent three weeks in the US with me and my family.  When we met, we decided that she is my jumelle française, or my French twin.  I haven't seen Lisa since 2005.  We still write to each other in our version of franglais, but nevertheless, nine years is too long to go without seeing someone.

Lisa and I when we got bumped to business class on our way to DC in 2005.

Last month when we got an invitation in the mail for Matt and Ellen's wedding in Amsterdam, it took Mike and I all of five minutes to decide to go.  Although Matt and his wife live in Massachusetts, they are getting married in Holland where her family is.  After consulting a map, I came up with the great idea of extending our trip into France.

Unlike myself, Mike has been to Amsterdam before.  I wanted to explore Amsterdam, so we decided we would spend some time there.  I then gleefully told Mike that Paris isn't all that far away, so maybe we should go there too.  And then we could go to the south of France to see Lisa.  I feel as though if he didn't stop me, I'd probably still be planning on visiting more places.

I am beyond excited for this trip.  Even though I love Europe and France (just ask anyone who has known me since 7th grade), I think am more pumped about the people that I am going to see and, this is going to sound super cheesy so brace yourselves, the new memories that we are going to make.  Sappy, but true.

In case you all are wondering where exactly we are going, here's a map to help you:


Now all we have to do is last the next few days!

PS - I've given my blog a makeover.  Leave me some comments to let me know what you think!