I know I have not written in a while, but the whole month of December has been very busy! Ryan and I said our good-bye's slowly to friends from work and church and then the big good-bye happened on December 23, 2010. We spent the morning packing all of our things into our tiny little car..what a sight! HA! Then we said good-bye to my grandparents and my best friend, Emily...and hit the road to Nashville to spend Christmas Eve and Day with Ryan's family. We all shed a few tears, but the whole process still seemed surreal.
We arrived in Nashville later that evening and were greeted by Ryan's family. We were able to see about 50 of Ryan's family members and close family friends during the annual Christmas Eve Brunch. Then, we spent a quiet Christmas morning at the House of Head..opening presents that Santa had brought! (Yeah...with 4 grand-kids and Ryan..there wasn't much quiet going on! Hehe)
Ryan and I went to bed late and got up early on Dec. 26 to head out towards our first stop on our way to Canada..Washington, D.C. The hardest part of the whole drive, believe it or not, was getting out of Ryan's parents steep driveway, because of the snow/ice mixture that happened the day before! Anyways, we got out of the drive and headed toward D.C. We were on our way to stay with an old college friend for a couple of nights. We made it safe and sound and then the next day were given the grand tour of D.C. by our friend and Sri Lankan tour guide, Sumalka. He was so great! We saw the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Chinatown, Natural History Museum and road the metro....it was my first time, and I love it!
The next day, Dec. 28, Ryan and I drove towards our next destination, Montpelier, Vermont. We drove through several northeastern states and saw New York City from a distance while we drove through Manhattan. We stopped at a Subway in Connecticut for lunch and after we ordered, the man behind the counter asked if we had gotten any snow in Tennessee. I quickly looked at my shirt to see if I was wearing anything with Tennessee emblem that gave him a clue....but no...it was our accent that gave us away! HA! I could not believe it! We finally got to our hotel in Montpelier and it was nice to have a good night's sleep before crossing the Canadian border. Montpelier seemed like a neat city. It is small and quaint, actually the smallest capital in the United States. We had a good night out together, made many phone calls, e-mails, and got some much needed rest.
The next morning, Dec. 29, we started out again towards the Canadian border, which was only about 2 1/2 hours away. We drove the rest of our route along a country, old, snow covered highway through the mountains. It was a gorgeous ride. We took it slow and did not get stuck, even though we were missing snow tires. The Lord definitely blessed our journey through the snow. He must of know that we have very little experience driving in snow/ice being from Tennessee.
Our road adventure started coming to a close when we got to the Canadian border. There was no traffic and no one inside. The whole process took about an hour and everything went smoothly. Then we followed some more country roads and French road signs to our Language School, Parole de Vie Bethel in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Our language school is on a pretty steep hill, so we had a little trouble getting up the hill with some slick ice spots on the road, but we had finally arrived around 12:30pm on Wednesday afternoon! We were greeted by our volunteer apartment caregivers and to an empty campus, because we had arrived early. The rest of the story I will have to tell at another time, because this is enough for now! Thank you for everyone who has lifted up prayers for our safe travel. We were blessed by God to not have any accidents or car trouble. We are so thankful to be here and excited to start learning French!
