Claire wraps up her adventures on study abroad

Welp, Claire has officially wrapped up her adventures on study abroad, and she is glowing from all that she’s learned and experienced.

I don’t think we have any hope of getting that girl yo do a guest post over here with all she’s got going on for the next few weeks, so I’m just writing a quick recap from my perspective so we can have her adventures in this “family journal” of ours.

Claire left back in June. She and a friend left a week earlier than they needed to report at the London Center so they could do some solo traveling learning to get around some big foreign countries independently. It was so fun to see the pictures come in of their adventures.

Travel before the Study Abroad program began

They worked their way around Paris first:

Nailing the metro system, walking so many thousands of “steps,” trying to figure out museums and how to eat on a dime. My niece (Claire’s cousin and college roommate) joined them for a couple days there, and they were so happy to all be together.

I think this was my favorite picture she sent:

Winged Victory at The Louvre is one of her favorite artworks she had studied in college and was SO excited to see it in person. As an art-lover myself, I get so happy when my kids get excited about art.

As luck would have it, she ran into some friends from California at the airport and they met up at the sparkling Eiffel Tower that night.

Those girls made their way to Versailles too.

After taking that city by storm, they headed to Switzerland to stay with my brother Tal.

He took them on the same incredibly gorgeous hike he took us on a few years ago:

Since they didn’t take any pictures on the side of those cliffs I’ll just add this one from our past adventure to give you an idea:

My brother and his family took her up to their “Hut” in the mountains too, and showed them so much of the grandeur of Switzerland.

They felt so loved and taken care of. Thank you so much you Swiss people I love!

And THEN it was time for the study abroad to begin.

London BYU Study Abroad

Oh I don’t know how to even do a small re-cap of Claire’s adventures in this land she has grown to love with all her heart. It’s just not my story to tell. But from her mother’s perspective I just so love that she now feels like this land where I spent so much of my growing-up years is “home.”

She saw so much from Stonehenge:

To camping out overnight to get tickets to Wimbledon:

To the beaches of Ireland:

Brighton and the “Seven Sisters:”

She joined in all the hype and excitement of an Arsenal football match:

She visited the dearest cousins (my nephew and his wife and family) who have made their home there:

And really knew that city from head to foot.

That’s the view from her bedroom (that she shared with 14 people!) in the London Centre up there on the left, and a gorgeous-but-caught-blurry street in Scotland on the right.

And amidst it all, she studied and took tests and worked hard at school work.

But what she got is so much more than crossing off class credits. She learned from everyone in her group. She learned from so many people she came across. And since a couple of her sisters and I got to come over and pick her up, it’s been pretty fun to be with her as she has spilled out so many experiences and loves and wonders and astonishments at the world that are now filling her heart right up. After giving us the biggest hugs known to man.

She is positively glowing.

And she’ll never forget all these good people she got to be with for a couple months in London. Can you spot her?

Now on to the next adventure in less than a month.

Australia as a missionary, here she comes!