I spent my last week revisiting some of my favorite places in Paris: the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, Luxembourg and Tuileries Gardens, and of course the Eiffel Tower. I ate crepes, fondue, frog legs (!!!), and quiche. I spent my last night sitting on the Champ de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower, drinking wine with friends and watching it sparkle.
I sad goodbye to my friends (sad), and goodbye to Paris (worse). I said goodbye to my host family (though they were great, this wasn't as hard). I don't think I can put into words what an amazing experience my four months studying abroad were. I showed up speaking basically no French, and now I can get by just fine on my own. I still can't quite believe that I lived with a French family for four months and spoke only French to them!
I think what I am even more proud of beyond developing my language skills is that I have become much more independent and confident in my capabilities. It certainly was not easy: I was the only one in my program who lived outside of the city, I got harassed more often because my red hair makes me look very, very not French and therefore a fun target for creepers, and the whole language barrier thing didn't help either! This was the first time that I have lived without a roommate I was close with: that means I suffered through all of the 4am night bus rides followed by 8am classes all on my own. Luckily...the negative things are few and far between in comparison to all of the positives. I am so lucky that I was able to do something so enlightening and enriching at such a young age.
I'm about to catch my flight home to Connecticut (I instinctively typed Paris first...), and I can't wait to spend the next week and a half catching up with family and friends (and also catching up on sleep..and American culture...and seeing Molly!) Then, it's off to DC to intern I'll report back soon on my reverse-culture-shock observations and also with my pictures from the past week, as the two I've put here are stolen from a friend!
