My Sisters

 Well as I lay here being sick, my sisters are doing some pretty exciting things! [Yes, everything caught up to me and I have some upper respiratory/cold thing. :( It could partly be allergies but I think it's mostly my crazy busy life - I just go and go and go, not getting enough sleep, not taking time to rest when I need it. And now it's turning into a cough. meh. One thing's for sure, I'm resting now, hopefully catching up on some reading and some more re-runs of Fresh Prince. woot.]

On Thursday I mustered up strength enough to make it to New Life Christian school's spring musical, Aristocat Kids. And guess who had one of the lead roles? Hope! She was Duchess! I am so glad I was able to go. She, along with everyone else, did such a fantastic job!! Way to go, everyone!!

Duchess and Marie

Duchess and Thomas O'Malley

Photo-op after the show :)

Hope and I after the show!

My big sis, on the other hand, is not even in this country anymore! Yesterday we took her to the Toronto airport and I am happy to say that she is safe and sound in Istanbul. She will be spending the summer in Turkey and hopefully doing a little bit of traveling around the Middle East. Yeah Ang!! This is just the break you deserved! :) I just spoke with her on the phone although she's pretty exhausted, she's excited and it's all finally starting to sink in that she's there. Ps, did you know that Istanbul is two times the size of NYC with 15 million people? That's insane!! I guess the traffic there is ridiculous, too.
She's gonna have such an amazing time.
God bless and protect her every day. Please, if you can, remember her in your prayers this summer!

yay Turkish money!

Ang at the airport in front of the cool floating cube thing :)

Istanbul is known as the crossroads of Europe and Asia, as it is actually located on both continents! The Bosporus Strait runs between them and the city is on either side.

Other cool pics:

7-STORY UNDERWATER HOTEL!!!

I can't wait to see all of her amazing pics! :)

Ciao for now~

Flower fashion

Si. I mean Oui.

At the moment I'm actually in Italy but I wanted to catch up a little bit with Paris first. I've found that it's very hard to keep up with this blog, but now that I have a few days to relax, I may have a chance to upload a few things. Paris was great. It reminded us of home instantly because it was overcast and cooler. Go figure. We found Paris to be much better than Madrid. The food was great and we were just able to function better. Probably because it's the #1 tourist city in the world so most people spoke English, and by this time we were used to using a metro system and navigating on our own. The people were actually pretty friendly and a few times we were saved by the kindness of strangers. It was pretty hard in the beginning to get out of Spanish mode! I found myself saying "si" many times instead of "oui" and it was hard for my brain to stop thinking in Spanish. We were able to cram a lot into 2 1/2 days! I got to do so many wonderful things. My favorites would probably have to be climbing up inside the Eiffel Tower at night when it was all lit up, and seeing the Paris Opera House. I also really enjoyed my banana and nutella crepe =)
Here are some highlights of Paris in pictures:

The Palace of Versailles!

Versailles Gardens

Marie Antoinette's House

(Room inside the house)

The Seine River (and Notre Dame)

The Louvre

The Mona Lisa!

Notre Dame at sunset

Climbing inside the Eiffel Tower!!

Inside the (gorgeous) Paris Opera House

It was also here in Paris that Melissa and I had to say goodbye to our wonderful friends we made on our trip. We all became family for 4 weeks, and we've seen each other at our worst and our best lol! It was such a pleasure spending time with you girls and I can't wait until our reunion! I am going to miss you girls! Love you!!