When Good Americans Die, They Go to Paris

Oscar Wilde got pretty close to how I feel about Paris. It truly is a magical city. I spent hours of my young childhood flipping through my mother's many art books. My mom has a massive crush on France considering she majored in French and lived over there for a little while. She has a serious thing for impressionist painting and I do too thanks to her. As the impressionist movement was based in Paris, it really isn't a suprise that the most renowned works of impressionst tried (and succeded) and capturing the magic of Paris.

They really loved Paris; Monet, Manet, Renoir. It's difficult to not feel the same they did as they did such a remarkable job of convincing you that Paris was the most beautiful city in the world.

The Louvre was everything and more than it is cracked up to be, but the Musee D'Orsay captured my heart. I even teared up a little bit as I stood in awe at how transcendent all of it was.

While we were in Paris, we also go to go to Notre Dame which took my breath away at how massive and elaborate it was. It took 200 years to build. Can you even believe that? America has only been established as a country for that long. I wish as much dedication and reverence was put into buildings here as went into so many of those in Europe.

We also got to go to Sainte Chapelle which is better described in pictures than in any words I could come up with.

The Effiel Tower was also pretty spectacular. I wasn't expecting to think much of it, but I found myself marveling at how impressive it was. The architectural design is pretty genius and going to the top gives you a spectacular view of the city.

The food was not as amazing as I expected, but we really only had a total of five meals there and two of those were in the hotel. I would definitely want to come back and do a better food hunt :) Now here are just a huge smattering of pictures for you

One of the most remarkable sculptures I have ever seen. The skill required to make this is astounding!

Hermaphrodite sculpture. Sel loves this one

No words needed

Notre Dame. Sadly no hunchback was spotted

But some gargoyles were..

King Louis XII Bed Chamber

They had this amazing bird market while we were there

This doesn't even get close to giving Sainte Chapelle justice

There Can Be Miracles

No secret here that Sel and I have anxiously been awaiting to hear back from medical schools since his first interview in November. 

And guess what?! SEL IS GOING TO MEDICAL SCHOOL IN AUGUST!!! Wahoo! Happy day!!!

Let me back up a little bit. I had been made well aware by others who have braved medical school that medical school is a rough go. No one really prepared us though for how grueling the application process and waiting would be. The waiting was killer because we just couldn't make any plans for the future at all because we didn't have any sort of a timeline. 

Every single morning poor Sel would squint one eye open and grab his phone to check if by some miracle a medical school had sent us an acceptance. Every single morning for SEVEN months. We've have had SO much to be grateful for in the year since Sel first sent in his application. I mean, how hard is our life when the hardest thing we are experiencing is waiting to hear if Sel will get the opportunity to get the highest level of education available when so few in the world even get to go to college. That being said, it was hard and I am grateful that it was hard. 

I am so grateful for the lessons in patience, humility, and faith I have learned through this process. 

I am even more grateful for the astounding love we have felt from our family and friends through this. 

We have been the waiting list for Ohio State, University of Pennsylvania, and Toledo since about February. Sel's sweet brother is about to start his fourth year at Toledo and was so kind to send two letters to the Dean at the medical school assuring them Sel would do a great job there (because Sel's bro has done a STELLAR job) which I think was a big reason Sel got bumped from the waiting list to being accepted. Sorry, I keep getting ahead of myself. I am just SO excited!!

Sel and I were sitting in our hotel in Amsterdam (we have been in Europe for the last two weeks) and were lucky enough to get a wifi code. We had just been lamenting how sad we were to go back to real life across the pond and how poor Sel would have to start the application process all over again when Sel decided to check his email for the heck of it and guess what was in there?! An email from Toledo offering congratulations at being accepted. I started screaming bloody murder. I have no doubt everyone on our floor thought I was being stabbed Psycho style in the shower. I started jumping crazily up and down on our bed and squeezing Sel really hard and screaming in his face. I then ran out of our hotel room in my underwear with Sel's coat thrown as a last minute thought over my bod dragging Sel behind me to his parents room. We started pounding excitedly on the door and screaming to let us in. I then jumped all over D and D^2. Sel just stood their grinning with a look of incredulity on his face. We called Kit and Kat in their hotel room and told them to bring party favors down to celebrate. 

My favorite and most touching part of the night came when we decided to call my sweet grams. When I told her Sel was accepted to medical school, she started sobbing in the middle of her driveway. "So many people have been praying for you, but I have been praying doubly hard!" she said through tears. Her happiness for us was so tender. I should have realized if someone has perfect and kind has my grams was praying for us there was no way we weren't going to get in. God can't deny something to someone so angelic as her. News traveled fast and we found out the extent of our family in their prayers for us. My sweet Aunt in St. George had put our names in the temple multiple times, my grandma did it double that amount and my parents have done it too. So many fasts have been done on our behalf over the last seven months. How humbled we are for the love and care we have been shown through this. We are surrounded by so many astounding people and we will never be able to repay them for their kindness. Well, maybe Sel can do a free knee replacement or liver transplant sometime for them. :) 

And now, here are a few pictures from Europe :)

 Favorite Asian on the whole trip taking a nap open-mouthed in the Musee D'Orsay

 Laughing in Venice cause it is too beautiful to take seriously

 Trying really hard to be attractive on the Rhein. Pretty sure I succeeded

I wanted that lamb SO BAD from the Keukenhof. He was NOT happy that I kept pulling him away from the grass

 Sel is super cute

Like really cute. This was probably my favorite face from the whole two weeks