Back in the USA!

So more people read this blog than I thought, I've been fussed at twice this week for not writing. Even called LAZY once! Well to prove to you that I have been doing things....

I was greeted at the airport by two of my friends, Mary & Lauren V. and my parents.

(Gotta be honest, more German was the last thing I wanted to see, but thanks!)

We all went out to dinner in Charlotte at The Cheesecake Factory!

It was overwhelming to be in a restaurant so huge, with ice in my drinks, and waitresses that are attentive and call me "hun". (I'm used to french restaurants, where you have to search and beg for someone just so you can pay your check.)

I think the next thing I did was go on a retreat with my church. Every year we have to put on some sort of "talent" show. Here is an example of my friend Katie and what her group did. (I'm always lucky enough that no one ever videos my group. I believe I rolled on the ground as a human speed bump this year.)

Then I got my Honda!

Had to personalize her. Go Gamecocks!

My roommate and all our friends started making these cute little fuzzy owls out of felt, just for fun. We had quite a sweatshop going for awhile. I made the one with the glasses, and the one that is pink and purple mixed.

Oh, here they are, I think of them as best buddies.

Then I got to go camping with a few of my bestest friends. Unfortunately, camping turned into "Car Camping" after a long night of trying to find our campsite in the rain. We never found it, we ended up pulling our cars together with a tarp attached to the roofs so we could hang out together. Until it started raining so hard, we were getting wet no matter what. Then we spent a long night sleeping in our cars and not being able to hike the next day.

The night before camping we went to the famous "Beacon" restaurant in Spartanburg.

The following is not my food... but is a perfect example of "a plenty", which means you get plenty of fries and onion rings, to the point that you can't actually see your hamburger.

(Note to Europe friends, I know you think we eat hamburgers all the time. I ordered chicken, and this grease feast is not a typical American meal. My American friends are going to yell at me for acting like I'm not proud.)

We followed up that healthy dinner with an even healthier breakfast from IHOP.

I believe Halloween came next. I went to two parties, the first one I went as an ensemble, with two of my friends as CareBears! I think we were Bedtime Bear, TenderHeart and Lots of Love Bear. We made our friend April, an honorary CareBear, Western Bear.

2nd round, I got to pull out the German dirndl dress. I once got yelled at in Germany, because when I bought the dress, I said "now I have a good halloween costume forever!" I was told "No, now you have a traditional German dress, not a costume." ummm, well....anyway.

Oh and this is my friend Paul, sad, he has now moved to Ohio to get marrrrried!

(Don't ask me what he is, I never know.)

Oh oh yay! It actually snowed in South Carolina this year! Twice! That never happens!

Ok and now for my favorite part! My babies!!! I babysit for this little guy before I left for Germany. Now I just babysit occasionally. I started when he was 3 months, now he's over a year old. I was shocked to see how much he'd changed.

And this is how I spend my mornings, with this little girl....

(We are picking out clothes to wear.)

This is the face I see 99% of the time.

I did some pictures for her family when she turned 6 months!
I did these with a backdrop in their own living room. 

(More of those pictures later...)
And I spend my afternoons with these two!

I actually let them do this when it rains. I even bought rainboots so I could join them!

We got to go strawberry picking the other day!

Lots of fun and lots of red stained fingers.

During evenings and weekends I still work as a photographer, more on that coming soon.
I'm planning a new blog, logo, website updates, facebook fanpage, new frames, albums and more!
I even have a launch party in the works to show everything off.

Also a little out of order but I'd like to show you my Christmas present from my brother. It's a holiday message from all my friends in France (and one in Spain), also just a tour of the holiday lights in Limoges. I was so surprised and it was so good to hear from all my friends again! You have to watch at least to the point where they trick Ghennadi into wishing me a Happy Chanukah.
 Great Christmas present Eric!!!

Paris & Eiffel Tower

On my way back to the US, I was forced to spend a day in Paris. There was no away around it, so I tried to make the best of it. I took it as a good sign that I saw a wedding photographer taking pictures at the carousel in front of the Eiffel Tower. It was like "Laura you are right to be going home."

I had already been to Paris once in 2005 while studying abroad in London. At the time both London and Paris were bidding for the 2012 Olympics, that's why the Eiffel Tower in my picture is adorned with kiddie-colored letters/numbers spelling out "Paris 2012". Gosh 2012 seemed a long way away back then.

5 years later, I still seem to have an affinity for purple jackets.

This trip was a little different because I've already done the whole "frolic-around-Paris-get-really-tired-and-discover-I'm-lost" thing. I had two specific goals this time. 

1) See the Eiffel Tower light up at night and sparkle.

...which sadly did not happen. I was disappointed that I had waited forever in the rain and only saw it light up but not sparkle, so my brother made me this video for me when he had to travel through Paris.

I waited for hours in the sprinkling then pouring rain, while telling a thousand people that "No, I don't want to buy a tiny replica of the Eiffel Tower," then I had to make a pretend phone call to my imaginary boyfriend after one of the vendors came up to me and kept trying to ask me questions and told me we could talk if I was lonely....sketch....

I did get a cool shot of the tower lit up even if it wasn't sparkling.

Obligatory terrible self portrait shot in the rain, barely got the Eiffel Tower in there.

Look how bright this dinner cruise boat was going under the bridge, 

it made the Eiffel Tower look dim.

Second goals was: 2) Take a drastically different picture of the Eiffel Tower, below are my favorites:

It may sound strange but I think one of the coolest parts of my trip was actually finding the Eiffel Tower. I realize this sounds like a joke for anyone who understands my directional deficiency. But it was just cool to follow the map and directions I had written for myself and think "Ok, I should be close to the Eiffel Tower." And then BAM! I turn the corner and this massive universally recognizably landmark was right there. "um yeah, ok, there it is. Found it. Guess I don't need this map anymore, I'm just gonna walk towards it now."

A few more pictures not of the Eiffel Tower. There were a couple of little parks/gardens  surrounding the Eiffel Tower and I saw these tiny birds with humongous feet. They moved pretty quickly, as you can tell from the motion blur.

These are the apartments directly across from the Eiffel Tower. 

Good for those people.

And just for kicks, I like that this girl thought so little of seeing the Eiffel Tower that she could chat away on her cell phone. Not only that, but also block the best views and photo opportunities for everyone else.

So anyway that was my last little bit of Europe. I do plan to do a summary blog and then a blog about what I'm doing now. Also on a side note you should know, I accidently woke up and started packing somewhere around 4:30 the next morning. I was ready to go at 5:20 before I was told what time it was. I had to sit and wait for the trains to start running again. Oh well...

Oradour-sur-Glane & My last day in Limoges

We took a mini-road trip to Oadour-sur-Glane, which is where our friend Robin did his internship. Oradour-sur-Glane was/is a village in France destroyed by the Germans in WWII. There is confusion over why this even happened. Some say it was to quench german resistance in France, some say it was because of rumors of a german hostage, others say they just got the wrong village. But either way over 600 innocent men, women and children where shot here and then the village set ablaze and the following pictures are the aftermath still standing as a reminder. 

These signs point out the 6 different locations where the men were separated out to stand and wait to be shot at. All the guns were supposed to fire at the same time. When one went off early some of the men were alerted to what was going to happen and a few were able to fight back and escape.

The women were gathered in this church. Many could have survived by escaping out this back door, except for the fact that panic had set in. Everyone was pressing against the door and the door needed to swing open into the church, this wasn't possible with all the people pressing up against it.

There was one female survivor who managed to escape by some extreme gymnastics by flipping off a table through a window and landing injured 10 feet below. She dragged herself into bushes and remained there until she was rescued the next day.

The village remains in ruins and a duplicate village was built nearby which is still inhabited. In the fields next to the original village there are several memorials and graves. These two glass cases contain some of the remains found in the burned homes and businesses. 

Well I guess just to continue on this sad note. I'm posting the pictures of my last days in Limgoes. I still have a few more blogs to put up but these are some pictures of me saying goodbye to my awesome friends and brother. 

(We expect to see you all here in the States for next Thanksgiving.)

This is Ghennadi's sad face.

C'est normal.

This is true brochette love.

I just love these next two pictures of William. This one because he looks like a hobbit.

And this one because this is how I will always remember him. Beer in hand, tongue out, sitting in the window smoking.

I do have good news though! I'm posting this blog today because today we are picking up my brother from the airport!!! I can't believe it's already time! 

Saying goodbye at the train station! Next stop, Paris!

By the way, Christelle is moving to America!!!!!!!!! Even better just one state over, Georgia!!!!

And Eric comes home today!!!!

Bisous! Bisous! Bisous!

Next blog....Paris!