I've been in France for a whole month! As in I left LA a whole month ago! Time really does fly. Wow.
Anyways, lets talk about my week. Last weekend we had people over both days, and OH MY GOSH. Okay, the meals here are so long. Yes, I was warned about this but honestly. We started eating lunch at 12:30 and didn't finish till after 17h. For you americans thats 5 pm ;), but I am now French so I use such things like 24h time. Oh yes, back to food. There were so many courses and I was so full at the end that I didn't even eat dinner that night. But its so good. I also talked to my family on FaceTime (every Sunday night), and I really like that. I think it would be a lot harder to cope with the 5,000-mile separation if I didn't have things like that, so its nice to have FaceTime and texting and other stuff like that.
Today was actually my last day of school before a 15-day break! I am really excited to just hang out and not do school work, but I really like school so I think I will be ready to go back at the "rentrée" (back-to-school). Every day is just so different (partially because all the classes are in different rooms and that is always an interesting feat). My class is so nice ! (Bonjour les gars qui lisent ça!) Its so cool to come to a whole different country and still find so many people to be friends with! It makes me think about the vastness of the world and the amount of people that I could one day meet. Wow, that was really deep for some reason, but it is truly amazing to realize that there are good people wherever you go :)
Observation: I realize now that there are some things I didn't even bother to think about pre-departure. Yes, I thought about my host family and the clothes I would bring and the weather, but would you have ever stopped and thought about what language you are supposed to speak to the dog? It never even occurred to me that June, my host family's dog, wouldn't understand English commands and that I would have to learn French dog commands! It sounds so silly, but honestly that is something I took for granted, speaking English to pets.
Questions:
I get a lot of the same questions here, so I am going to take the time to answer some of them.
- Do you miss your family/friends?
The answer is yes, but I wouldn't say that its all the time. I described it once to my host dad like this: I don't miss my family/friends every hour of every day, but I miss them when I see little things. An example: when I drink my coffee-mixed-with-hot-chocolate in the morning, I always think of my mom because we always drink our coffee together on the front step in the morning. When I run on the track, I miss my dad, because that is something that we both love and do together. Lastly, when I watch my favorite show when it comes back this weekend (!!!), I know I will miss my sister and it will be very weird not to have someone to turn to when something intense happens or to make a comment about how much more muscle-y Daryl's arms have become since the last episode.
So to conclude that question: yes, I miss my family, but not a constant ache in the pit of my stomach, but more like a pinprick every once and a while.
- Are you happy here? Do you want to go home?
Yes, I am very happy here. It feels like I made the right choice, doing this. I am having so much fun and learning so much. It will benefit me for a long time, maybe forever. BUT, there are some moments where I want to go home so badly it physically hurts. To go home to my family, to where everybody speaks English and my brain doesn't have to work in overdrive from the moment I get up in the morning to when I go to bed at night sometimes sounds so good I would get on a plane and go. Then I calm myself down and think about it. I know that leaving right now would make me feel incomplete. That is the best way to describe it. Its like I set myself up for this long journey and all these challenges and if it was cut off so suddenly, I would feel a little lost and I wouldn't know where to put all those preparations. Kind of like if you bought all these ingredients to make a cake but then you were pulled away and by the time you get back you don't have time and you don't know where to put the ingredients because they don't fit in the fridge. (Wow, that was a really good metaphor. I hope Mrs. Brady sees that).Speaking of homes, I feel very in-between right now. For example: When I think of "home", do I think of my house back in LA or my house here in France? When I think of my bed, do I think of my bed in LA or my bed here in France? It's a really hard feeling to describe.
I feel like there are a lot of "hard to describe" feelings while studying abroad. I hope my efforts to describe them to the best of my abilities help other people going through the same thing. With that, I think I am going to sign off.
Observation: I realize now that there are some things I didn't even bother to think about pre-departure. Yes, I thought about my host family and the clothes I would bring and the weather, but would you have ever stopped and thought about what language you are supposed to speak to the dog? It never even occurred to me that June, my host family's dog, wouldn't understand English commands and that I would have to learn French dog commands! It sounds so silly, but honestly that is something I took for granted, speaking English to pets.
Questions:
I get a lot of the same questions here, so I am going to take the time to answer some of them.
- Do you miss your family/friends?
The answer is yes, but I wouldn't say that its all the time. I described it once to my host dad like this: I don't miss my family/friends every hour of every day, but I miss them when I see little things. An example: when I drink my coffee-mixed-with-hot-chocolate in the morning, I always think of my mom because we always drink our coffee together on the front step in the morning. When I run on the track, I miss my dad, because that is something that we both love and do together. Lastly, when I watch my favorite show when it comes back this weekend (!!!), I know I will miss my sister and it will be very weird not to have someone to turn to when something intense happens or to make a comment about how much more muscle-y Daryl's arms have become since the last episode.
So to conclude that question: yes, I miss my family, but not a constant ache in the pit of my stomach, but more like a pinprick every once and a while.
- Are you happy here? Do you want to go home?
Yes, I am very happy here. It feels like I made the right choice, doing this. I am having so much fun and learning so much. It will benefit me for a long time, maybe forever. BUT, there are some moments where I want to go home so badly it physically hurts. To go home to my family, to where everybody speaks English and my brain doesn't have to work in overdrive from the moment I get up in the morning to when I go to bed at night sometimes sounds so good I would get on a plane and go. Then I calm myself down and think about it. I know that leaving right now would make me feel incomplete. That is the best way to describe it. Its like I set myself up for this long journey and all these challenges and if it was cut off so suddenly, I would feel a little lost and I wouldn't know where to put all those preparations. Kind of like if you bought all these ingredients to make a cake but then you were pulled away and by the time you get back you don't have time and you don't know where to put the ingredients because they don't fit in the fridge. (Wow, that was a really good metaphor. I hope Mrs. Brady sees that).Speaking of homes, I feel very in-between right now. For example: When I think of "home", do I think of my house back in LA or my house here in France? When I think of my bed, do I think of my bed in LA or my bed here in France? It's a really hard feeling to describe.
I feel like there are a lot of "hard to describe" feelings while studying abroad. I hope my efforts to describe them to the best of my abilities help other people going through the same thing. With that, I think I am going to sign off.
Lots of love,
Cecilia
As usual, here are some photos from the week. These ones are really silly!
This is my Monday crepe and in front of me is Eva, whose parents have a crepe truck ! (Trop bien !)
This is my school, Lycée Saint Sauveur. Yes it does look like a castle, I know.
Cecilia
As usual, here are some photos from the week. These ones are really silly!
This was Monday night. Monday was "La Chandleur" and its a religious holiday but mostly is used as an excuse to make crepes. Not like we need it.
View outside one of the classrooms. Again, very castle-like.
Djovanni and Estelle taking selfies (ahaha).
Djovanni, Estelle and Louise.
Djovanni, Estelle, Louise and me.
Eva.
Pricillia.
More Djovanni and Estelle. They took a lot of pictures so this is my revenge.
No comments:
Post a Comment