Well, friends, I'm back in the good ol' United States of America. First, let me say, what a trip! I learned so much, got over some fears, faced fears, even if I didn't get over them, made new friends, ordered food in two different languages, saw more art than I could handle, and was inspired beyond belief. I have so much to write about, and will probably do so through photos on here. I suppose I'll start from the beginning...but not tonight. There is too much on my mind; for this post, I simply wanted to say, "I made it."

Adventure time!!

I leave in 2 days! Tomorrow I'm going back home to spend the day with family, then on Sunday morning they're taking me to the airport! Goodness, I'm so nervous.


My life has always been so mundane and just...unadventurous. Now that I finally have an adventure in front of me, I'm terrified! I've always been the type to love traveling...but the fact that its my first time leaving the country, my parents aren't around to protect me (I know, I'm 21, but you're never too old to have your daddy protect you), and I have NO CLUE what to expect just freaks me out. I don't like not knowing.

But gosh, I'm so excited, too! I'm totally unprepared, but I'm so excited! I can't wait to experience what lies ahead! Don't worry, I'll take a kajillion photos and post them on Facebook. I'll also be updating my blog here now and then, but not too often because I don't want to sit on my computer and miss everything thats going on. =)

Nine More Days!

Holy moly, I'm in the single digits now. Nine days until I'm on my way to Paris. How exciting is that? Its pretty darned exciting...and scary. It's definitely a bit scary. I've never been out of the country and my total in-air time has only amounted to about 6 hours. I'm terrified of flying. I guess I'm going to get over that really fast.

I also just watched the movie "Taken." Every time I told someone I was going to Paris, they'd say, "Don't share a cab!" and then proceed to tell me that I should watch the movie. Finally, I have, and I was very impressed. It was total butt-kickery and name taking. My dad would definitely do that for me...except maybe without the use of martial arts skills because he doesn't have much. Anyways, I feel better prepared now for avoiding kidnappings (joking).

Tomorrow I have to go to the bank, order travelers checks and exchange dollars for Euros. Then I need to buy shoes. After that, I need to buy a "carne de voyage"...the book I will be drawing in, writing in, and scrapbooking in while I'm over there.




I feel like I have so much to do!

Self portrait. I realized I never posted this on here.

79 Days

I'm 79 days away from Paris. 80, if you count the fact that its going to take a whole day to get there, haha. I can't wait...I keep thinking about all the baguettes and brie I will eat while I'm there. Yummmmy.

I got excellent news yesterday, too; the Honors College at USF gave me a $1500 scholarship to help pay for the trip! That will take care of the last payment fees and leave me with $100 to put towards food while I'm there.


In other news, I turned in a huge project today in my class called Real Word. We made presentation portfolios meant to mimic that of a portfolio for job interviews and requests for gallery representation. It was really expensive (about $200) and really time consuming. However, now I have plenty of pretty photos of my work printed in 8x10 and many many more photos of my artwork on my computer. Hurrah.

Here is one now!



Nude model in my Intermediate painting class...finished it a couple weeks ago. Oil on canvas, 24"x36"