Author: Erika Wilmes

I promised a reflection on my time abroad-and 4 months later it is finally here! The beginning is advice to future exchange students- after that is the good stuff!

When I was in France, I was homesick. A lot. I talked to my friends from the U.S almost every day, my family every other day, relied on social media to keep me in “the loop” of my senior year in my American high school etc. I spent a lot of time thinking about home, writing to people from home, or imagining my return. Everyone warns you of this before you go abroad-not just homesickness, but relying on home to make you feel at home when you aren’t. For anyone currently studying abroad or thinking about it: turn off your phone. delete social media. journal about your experiences in your host country. You can not pretend that you are home and abroad at the same time. When you are homesick: missing your best friends laugh, wondering what your boyfriend is doing, thinking about how thanksgiving was with your whole family together except you, seeing your friends post pictures of that great party or the last football game… whatever it is that is keeping your head at home… let it go.

My only mistake while abroad was thinking I needed to keep up with my life back home. It just can’t be done!

Text your parents “I need to stop living at home. I am here. I need to be here. I will talk to you if I absolutely have to, otherwise I will call you in a few weeks” It’s hard. Tell your best friend “I’m sorry I can’t be there with you. I miss you but I just can’t live in two places at once. I need to focus on being here and I will talk to you in a few weeks.”

Set aside 1 or 2 days a month (I know it seems like it’s not enough-but trust me/everyone… you need it!) dedicated to talking to everyone you want to from home, posting your new pictures, and to just embrace that this is not permanent. It’s not an easy task! I didn’t listen to anyone when they said you have to control how often you contact home, and it ended up creating a paradox in my head of what was real life. You wanted this experience. Live it. Home will be there the second you get back, and just like that your time abroad has come and gone.

Now. Enough advice. Back to my blog post.

I was homesick for home. And now I am homesick for my adventure. It was hard. It was mentally strenuous. It was emotional. It was challenging. But when I think back…life never had so much adventure. I got to walk down streets built hundreds and hundreds of years before America was even discovered, eat what some consider the best food in the world, make friendships with people from literally all over the world, learn the most romantic language there is, drink wine, eat bread, and just be.

These are things I miss more than anything. And things I am most thankful for in which I experienced last semester.

Paris. 

I don’t know if this needs explanation. The most magical place there is. The streets are full of baguettes and stilettos and tourists and 27 languages and love and gratitude.

Home away from home.

My host family was gracious enough to let me stay in this beautiful home. This is the place where I learned french. I played Modern Warfare while listening to my 16 year old, dear host brother, yell curse words at the TV I could only try to translate. I painted my nails while discussing France tabloids and fashion with my fabulous as french as can be host sister. Where I dried the dishes with my host mom, trying to explain the jean brand “Levis” is not pronounced “lehfeehz”. Where I sat down with my french pocket dictionary and my host dad explained every word or phrase I didn’t understand to me as best he could. Where I gained 10 pounds (I am not kidding) from the amazing, fresh, fatty, carby, buttery, sugary food my host mom made every single day. This is the house where I facetimed my family and friends and couldn’t keep a smile off of my face from my joy to see them for the first time since my departure. Where I cried over letters written to me. Where I begged and prayed for patience and grace in the months I had ahead of me. This is the house where I unpacked my suitcase and sat down and said to myself “Well, you made it…what have you gotten yourself into.” and where I repacked my suitcase five months later and sat down and said to myself “Well, you made it…just like that…it’s over.” This is the house that I wrote countless letters to countless people whom I loved, and felt so much pain yet so much joy in knowing it would be weeks before they would receive them. This is the house where I didn’t celebrate thanksgiving away from my family, and celebrated Christmas with ornaments I didn’t recognize and received goodies in shoes instead of stockings. This is the house where I ate way too much bread and stared like a deer in headlights from confusion. “Je n’ai pas compris” was my life slogan (English translation: I don’t understand). This is the house that I rewatched the entire series of Gossip Girl in french because my host sister had never heard of netflix before and wanted to see her favorite book made into a TV show (this was a special bond for us). This is the house that through all of the dinner table laughs and late night tears, became a home.

 

The town. Le puy en Velay.

I honestly don’t have words for what this town means to me. I have never seen a place more beautiful. I still dream about the many walks I had on those cobblestone streets. All of the walls and coins and chairs and steps and doorhandles that I left my fingerprints on. All of the different feelings I had-extreme happiness, extreme loneliness, sadness, excitement, hunger, fullness, confusion, and sometimes even the feeling that I was no longer a stranger. I felt myself walking down the street, sitting in a cafe, buying my daily pain au chocolat and espresso at the local boulangerie where I became a regular at…in those moments I felt just as much of a member of the community as any other person on the street. I bought way too many clothes and cappuccinos on these streets-and my credit card bill in January showed it. The streets where I made some of the best memories of my life with lifelong friends who I may not see for years and years to come (#Australian bestfriendsproblems) I miss this place so much. So so so so so much.

The food.

Pictures will do this. The last one is my favorite.

Friendships.

Oh. My. Gosh.

I met my friend soulmates. And they’re (all?) from Australia. I love America, I really do. But I think I’m an Aussie at heart because I swear these girls were the coolest people I have ever met and I wish I could see them every day of my life. I also met amazing people from Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Spain, Italy, Thailand, Taiwan, China, Japan, Finland, Norway, Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, etc. Like. It was seriously awesome.

My closest friends I met right in Le Puy. Marjorie, Veronique (lived with my host family as well), Sam, and Stephanie. Then on my trip to Colmar (see previous posts) I met even MORE cool Aussies-Sasha and Alex. Seriously all of these girls will be my friends for life.

Now, I also met really great french friends. But I’m just emphasizing that I made real friendships with those girls. I can’t express how much I miss them. The hardest thing I did by far was leave them in January. I’m most home/Francesick for them I think.

School.

The most exhausting thing I have ever done and ever will do. 8am-6pm of classes in 100% french. I became tolerant to cigarette smoke, truly learned what it means to zone out, feel awkward, and follow people around since you have no clue what’s happening. I translated textbooks. Analyzed girls in the hallway to find the french teen style. Taught way too many people way too many english words.

But the school lunches were bomb. And I learned french. And I kind of made friends.

Just another thing I could never put into words. High school is weird enough- french high school is a whole other story.

Sisters.

So much grace. So much patience. So many laughs, so many late night heart to hearts, rants, and “I will miss you’s”. Thuy, my Vietnam-adopted french host sister, and Veronique, the other exchange student (from Australia) who lived with us for 6 weeks (aka my bestie/sister I love her).

Gosh these two. I have never learned so much or seen so much intelligence and ambition than from these two. And we know how to do a photoshoot.

Road trips.

Lyon, Colmar, St. Etienne, Clermont, and a village on the Swiss border so small it can’t be found on a map. Gosh France is beautiful.

I seriously could go on and on about how blessed and thankful I feel for this experience. And more than ever, after months to reflect, I feel like this is the best possible choice I could have made and the best way to spend (half of) my senior year. It was hard. But it was the greatest decision I have made thus far. I hope to have more adventures that could sum up to even half of the experience this journey was.

Thank you for reading and following along with me… and being patient for this final reflection post. Until the next adventure!

I’ve been home for 47 days now, and it’s strange.

Sometimes, I forget the last 5 months happened. Sometimes, I feel like I am worlds apart from who I was before France.

In the last 47 days, I have moved into a new house, began my senior year, reconnected with new friends and let go of old ones, evaluated myself and how I have changed yet stayed the same, and most of all, realized the impact such a trip has had on me.

I have become stronger in my independence, yet weaker in my love and need for support.
I have become patient with others, yet impatient for my future.
I have learned my love for language and travel, yet realized I love my home.
I have changed over the course of 5 months, and am accepting that others in my life have as well.
I have seen that I have more courage than I thought, yet am still scared for the bravery I will have to have in the future.
I have gained appreciation for my friends, but understand that there are billions of people in this world you can connect with just as well.
I have gained appreciation for my family, but have learned that home is where you let yourself feel at home.
I have learned that sometimes, you can expect outcomes and experiences and get things completely different. Some of those differences will suck, and some will be incredible. You will be okay.

I learned that french rap is very strange, I shouldn’t eat fries without a fork in public, it’s “grenouille” not “grenoyly”, and, sometimes, life isn’t as glamorous as Instagram makes it appear.

I look back on pictures and I think… “that happened?” “I was there?”
It wasn’t easy or perfect by any means…and there have been consequences with my friendships and relationships back home, but I wouldn’t take it back for the world.
I think everyone should have the opportunity to do something like this. It’s hard! You’re thrown into a new country, school, family, language.. and just have to go with it. It gets lonely and difficult and questionable. But regret?! I can’t even say that word.

The beauty of learning and living and being in an new place with completely different people and a new culture-walking down roads of a new city, eating foods you couldn’t even find back home, practicing a new language, laughing with friends from all over the world who you could have never met otherwise…it’s unreal.
I guess the point of this is to say being home is wonderful. I feel refreshed and experienced and different. I will forever hold Le Puy and the people I met there in my heart. Thank you to everyone who supported me in this journey, I am looking forward to the next chapter of adventure in my life.

I’ve said my Au revoirs and Mercis and I have my suitcases packed, train ticket in hand and ready to return to the good ol usa. (After a week in Paris with my mom!)
Although bittersweet, I can’t say I’m not excited to return home. I can’t believe how long I’ve been here- and it’s really only been about 4 months. I’d like to give a moment to appreciate those people who spend so long away from the people they love- for whatever reason- studying working or serving… And usually from months to years and years. It’s a brave task and when I think back to September, I’m surprised at how okay I was with “well only four more months!” I’m surprised by my bravery to come here, because if I had known how hard it would’ve been I may have talked myself out of it.
I would love to explain every detail of “what the experience is like” but I really can’t put it into words.
It’s like moving, only alone, to a place where you know no one and even when you try to make friends your communication is limited by the language (in the beginning)… You talk to your family maybe once a week, sometimes less… Your friends still talk to you about their lives and their high school drama, but you feel worlds away and although it interests you, you realize of how little importance it is in the scheme of life. You go to a new school and take classes spoken in a different language 100%… You come home and you do homework and go on social media or watch tv like normal, but at dinner time you sit with a new family and talk about new topics and eat new foods and have new rules and new routines. You sleep in a new room and a new bed and honestly homesickness isn’t even a little inevitable. You walk in a new town that looks so different from home that it makes you say “how cool is it that I am here, living this life so personal to me, so personal that no one I know at home will ever see or feel this life quite like I can” but at the same time you crave to be able to share it with someone, to live this new life with someone else.
I appreciate everything a lot more now, I’m more confident in who I am because I think I figured that out a bit too. I’ve realized what things matter and what things don’t.
Thank you to all those who supported me to have this experience; financially, mentally, emotionally…it’s been quite the journey, positives and negatives, I wouldn’t take it back for anything.

Now here for some photos :

Merci à tous!
Catch ya on the other side of the pond (;

Nov 28. On the train.
I love trains. I don’t know why. They’re more comfortable than planes, and you just feel much more travel-y when you hear the train cars bump and rattle against the tracks. I’m sitting facing the back of the train, watching Paris get further and further away as we head to Strasbourg. Yesterday I skipped school to take a train to Paris (alone!) to stay with some family friends. Their apartment overlooked a beautiful Parisian street and had a view of the sacred coeur in the distance right next to the moon. I don’t have a picture, but it was one of those “Paris is so cool” moments. This morning, I got up early and took the metro to the Gare de L’est (all by myself!) to meet a group of exchange students through WEP to head to Alsace for the weekend. I’m surrounded by conversations in French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Hungarian, Dutch, and if there’s no common language-French!
November 30. On the train back to Le Puy.
So sad this weekend is over! We had a wonderful Friday and Saturday walking around the beautiful town of Colmar and walking through the famous Christmas markets. There’s not much to explain other than the old, colorful buildings is what makes Eastern France is so cool.
It was so nice to speak English for a whole 2 days and hang out with some new friends! I continually meet Australians and continually think they’re the coolest people I’ve ever met.
Can’t believe tomorrow is December! My last full month… Doesn’t seem possible.
Pictures:
Musée de jouets (history of toys), Christmas markets, and pretty streets.

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November 27th, 2014.
3 months.
THE American holiday.
Unorganized epiphanies that are probably too deep for a “travel blog”

Sometimes it’s just too easy and too normal to be so “used” to our lives that we don’t even recognize or appreciate all of the wonderful things we have been blessed with; I continue to learn this every day, especially since I’ve gotten un-used to all of the things that were so normal in my life.
Today is Thanksgiving, and it’s kind of a no brainer that holidays suck when you’re three thousand miles away from everyone you love. However, while drowning in my thoughts of all the stories of when my parents were in high school, the repetitive questions like “do you have a boyfriend” and “what are your plans for college,” and of course the laughs around the table which is covered with homemade pumpkin rolls and green bean casseroles and a turkey that takes up too much room that I’m missing, I’ve realized that although I’d like nothing more than to be with my family on my favorite holiday, I’m actually thankful that I’m not. I’m thankful that I have the opportunity to not spend thanksgiving as usual because I’m across the atlantic ocean instead. I’m thankful for my homesickness because it means I have people to miss who love me and whom I love.
It’s been exactly 3 months since I stepped off the plane in Paris, and the thing I’ve learned, more than anything else, more than french and more than how good the pastries really are, is thankfulness. Life is really so cool. We have so many opportunities to be happy, even if we don’t always take them.
We let our routines rule us and our familiarity ruin the beauty and just downright coolness of everyday life. Really think about your life. Really think about the good things in it without all the “buts” and “it’d be better ifs.”
I’m recently just so consumed and obsessed with how absolutely fun, or at least interesting in the least, life is. And not just here in France, but especially life back home. Simple things like how my dad will play a song he likes on The Voice over and over for weeks after it airs, how the ideal Friday night with my best friend is a marathon of any and all movies starring Rachel McAdams and a nights supply of zebra cakes. Frozen yogurt dates on the weekly with my 8 year old sister who has better control of how much sugar she can eat before she gets a bellyache than I do. And how my mom always wants to spend time with me whether it’s a 20 minute dinner or a snowed in weekend… And our next travel plans are always a hot topic.
Don’t we all feel a little guilty on thanksgiving? Putting on a small show for the world to name all the things we are thankful for… Once a year we feel compelled to think hard and be deep and crank out a thank you to the universe for “all it’s given me.” And every year we say “I’m thankful all the time for this, but especially today since it’s thanksgiving” … It took me moving to another continent to even realize my appreciation for my more than cool family and friends and my small town that I’ve spent years complaining about that, it turns out, I actually love more than anywhere.
I can’t believe how mad I’ve gotten over my mom posting an embarrassing picture on Facebook, my dad for not letting me go out 2 nights in a row, my sister for asking me to play a game “one more time” 5 times. Little nuances like that don’t even matter anymore. My heart has softened and my brain has matured in these past 3 months in ways I thought were out of reach in such a short time.
Love your life and laugh at stupid things you do and if you fail be happy you have a chance to succeed in something else and tell people you love that you love them even if they drive you crazy and remember that you’re not “stuck” in life. You can really choose the path you want. It seems out of reach, but the world is a plane ride away, and your happiness relies solely on a slight change of perspective.
Happy turkey day from my baguette, macaroon, and I.

Is it November 7th? Because I’m already HALFWAY finished with this incredible journey!
These past 2.5 months have taught me more about life and how to solve problems and have patience and be aware of others and pay attention and care about what I’m doing than I’ve learned in years of school. I can’t believe it’s already halfway through.
These months have been full of happiness and homesickness and feeling like I’m on top of the world and like all I need is to go home. I’ve felt a real taste of independence and a lot of tastes of really yummy food.
Some things that have happened since I last wrote:
Every 7 Weeks from Sep-June, there is a 2 week vacation. Those were a wonderful 2 weeks for me because I got a rest from school, got to spend time with my host sister more than normal, and we went on a couple of trips! The first was to a larger city-Clermont. Just the girls spent the whole day shopping and for lunch I had my first burger since I’ve been in America! It was a pretty good burger I’ll admit. It was really fun to have a day out. The second was to Jura, a region in the East of France. It was in the country and so I left my phone at the house and didn’t use any technology for the weekend which was so nice. We met up with their entire family and I had my first legitimate french food experience.
In between lunch and dinner, usually at 5pm on the dot, is time for a snack. But this wasn’t a piece of cake or some chips… This was a 6 course snack. Ham and salami and bread and those giant circles of cheese that take 2 years to become really good and apple crisp pie and coffee and 3 different wines (the first wine I’ve ever tried and actually enjoyed) homemade brioche, jam, homemade alcohol with a sugar cube dipped in and then you eat the sugar cube-not my favorite
And yeah that was just a really wonderful time because it was a 3 hour event and it just felt soo… French!
I also went out to lunch with the Australians who are also studying in Le Puy, which is always fun to catch up and tell our stories! And a giant fair came to town and is here for a whole month which is super cool. I also got to go to my first nightclub which was actually really fun… And

Sometimes I reread my journal from the beginning of this and I just can’t believe how time goes. It’s weird to me that I can’t remember what happened on Sep 8th because I’m sure that 2 months ago today I was wondering what it would be like in 2 months… And now here I am!

So….
I figured Id give some advice to future study abroad students, which also for those of you who aren’t- I suppose its a list of what I’ve learned.
I still have 2.5 more months to learn a whole bunch, but for some of you who may be starting this month or in January, this is for you:
Don’t be shy. I’m not a naturally shy person, but I don’t talk when I don’t need to if I’m with people I don’t know very well. I feel like this has made my experience go a bit slow; this also goes into making effort. Break out of your shell and just talk talk talk. I wish I could take my own advice because truly I haven’t mastered this yet, but seriously. The only way to become comfortable talking is to try talking!
Listen. You’ll be amazed after 2 weeks when you can understand even a little bit of the language through the thick accent and speed of conversation. And after 2 months, you’ll be able to understand almost everything! It’s an amazing feeling, but you have to keep listening for repetitive words and phrases to understand and drill them into your brain.
Calm down! I know I was insanely overwhelmed the first few days in a new town with a new family, having no clue how anything was going to go. But be assured, your first few weeks will fly by (due to everything being so new and interesting) and one day you’ll be in your normal routine wondering what you were worrying about!
Talk to people at school, ask them questions. They’ll probably want to practice their English, but talk back in french! People will want to be friends with you and ask about your life and culture, but you have to put effort forward too! Don’t be scared of not making friends, people are very interested in trying to speak English (they study it in school their entire life!), and especially America.. People will definitely talk to you.
Take some alone time every once in a while and don’t feel guilty about it!
There will be some days where you just really need a break. It could be from the language, from people, from routine… But whatever it is, give yourself a break! Take a walk and journal, go walk in town and buy a treat and take some pictures. It’s so important to remember that this is YOUR experience! You wanted to come here and have the experience of a lifetime, yes, but all good days come with bad and hard days. It’s completely normal to feel homesick sometimes or need to get away…so don’t feel guilty by needing some time to yourself!
I usually go buy a crepe and just go sit and think in the park or write letters.
Don’t spend a lot of time on your phone or computer. I have a really hard time with this. I did okay in the beginning, but now that I’ve fallen into such a normal mindset and this feels like my life, it’s a lot easier to talk to my friends or scroll through Instagram a lot more than I should. Part of it is because I miss home, part of it is I just feel like it’s no big deal to be on my phone, I would do the same at home. But it’s important to remember that you left your “real” life at home when you stepped on that plane- it will be there when you get home! Focus on now.
If you’re bored, take a walk or try to read a book or watch a movie in the language or talk to your host family. I’m still working on this myself, but I can definitely see how this experience could have been bettered if I had stayed off my phone more. Not only does it cause you to think about home, it causes you to think in English, go to sleep thinking about that guy you like or your best friend. Sorry, but they’re 3k miles away and it doesn’t matter what’s going on in your high school back home. Stop thinking about it! It also causes you to feel like you should be home, living life with your friends and family like normal. But you know what? Your peers may look back and remember that “killer Halloween party where I…” But you’ll remember that time you lived in another country away from everything you’ve ever known and became proficient if not fluent in another language at 16/17 years old. That’s pretty cool if you ask me.
Oh yeah- the language. I know students reading this may be going to different places than France, and come from all different levels of language abilities, but don’t expect so much from yourself! Yes, try really hard and care about what you’re doing and listen and speak, but also remember that you’ve spent your entire life completely enclosed in English (most of us) and it’s totally normal if you have no idea what’s going on half the time. You will progress and be amazed at your accomplishments. But don’t get down on yourself if you can’t remember every word or get the accent down or your host parents have to repeat themselves 5 times… You’re here to LEARN not to magically know an entire new language. Strive for progress instead of perfection.
It’s easy to get negative. So write down positive things! For example, things I’ll miss about Le Puy:

The city. It’s bigger than my hometown and I love walking through it
The giant park in the middle of town. It’s like a mini Central Park and it makes me happy
Crepes. Pastries. Cheese and bread.
Being able to walk or take a short bus ride anywhere I need to go
Having a break from my life-it’s made me appreciate it so much more.
Learning french. Every single day hearing constant french and still being awestruck that I’m here. That’s just a really cool thing.
School lunches. Mmm.
New things. It’s challenging me to break free from everything I’ve known for 17 years, which I think is a skill that will help in my future in the transition into college/independent life
Having teenage siblings. It’s really different for me.
Learning lots about budgeting
Not having to be stressed out about doing great in school (because I’m here for french not physics, remember?)
I’m finished with school on Wednesdays at 12, which feels like a day off

I have that saved in my notes on my phone and I add things as it think of them. Things aren’t perfect, but pointing out things you adore about your life abroad help in remembering how awesome it is and how excited you once were for this.
It’s not easy, but you weren’t expecting it to be. I’ve found out a lot more than how to speak french and that I don’t like liver. What begins as an experience to “learn a language and have a unique senior (or junior) year” becomes a life changing time where you evaluate yourself and who you are and who you want to become. It sounds so cheesy and dumb – “finding yourself” … But the truth is, I’ve learned things I didn’t know about myself 2.5 months ago. Things like how much I appreciate my family, how I cant imagine going to college in my home town because of how good it feels to live somewhere new, how much I love my best friends, how much I want to travel the world, and that I’m lot stronger than I thought I was.
And what’s so important to remember is that this is a short portion of your life and one day it will just be a memory-so make it a good one!
A lot of this advice is actually recycled from pep talks my friends or parents have given me when I’ve been having a hard time, and they’re things I wish I had known to remind myself of. Good luck and get ready for a crazy yet amazing experience!
A bientôt 🙂

Now for some random pictures.

Salut tout le monde! J’espère que vous allez bien!

Hey everyone! I hope you all are well. (whoever is reading this)

I’m currently on my 7th week here in Le Puy, and my feelings continue to ebb and flow. But wow! I’m learning so much so quickly. Talking continues to be a challenge, but understanding conversations (or even class!) is slowly becoming decently easy. And reading/writing is by far the most improved. I’m currently reading “The Old Man and the Sea” in English and French (the book is double sided with each language) and with a few glances at the English version just for vocab reference, I can read and comprehend the French version with almost no trouble! Every time I finish a page I feel a sense of accomplishment.

—-> Side note on this; I’ve never realized just how cool (and important) language is. I mean, it’s pretty darn cool that millions of people all can communicate in a single way in the first place. When I talk or write English (like right now) I can’t help but be awestruck just by being able to so easily communicate. I’m also so thankful that I know English already because if you really analyze the structure of our sentences or common phrases, they don’t make sense if you were to take them literally. I’m probably just rambling because this feeling is really something you’d have to experience for yourself.

Communication is really cool and I’m excited to be learning a new way of communicating to a new group of millions of people, that’s my point.

Some things that have happened in the last few weeks:

I took a selfie with the town. Quite successful. I’m living here!

 

We took a short drive to the country. Here you see a small village ft. a snow white look alike house

The sunrise on my way to school is always nice.

 

Showed my family an American breakfast. Eggs, bacon, chocolate chip pancakes, and I tried to make hash browns but it was too hard so that was a fail.

 

Cafeteria food continues to surpass American public school standards

I got stuck in the pouring rain for about 30 minutes under a random persons roof.

Rode a moped with a friend from school. Here, a moped is your 16th birthday gift, not a car. It was way more fun than a car.

Spent the day with an Australian girl who is also on exchange here. We indulged in some good food.

And finally, I discovered that there’s a GIANT park in the middle of town. My new happy place…cant believe I’m just now finding this.

Anyways…All is well here in France. Missing home, but not enough to want to leave here. Learning so much about the world and myself. Really content.

A bientot!

 

Every year Le Puy has a 5 day event called the Roi de l’oiseau (King of the bird)
This year, the 29th annual.
The entire city and it’s citizens transform the town, the food, the clothes, even the homes, back in time to the Renaissance. (It’s seriously so cool and makes me so happy to be able to share it with you all)
Almost everyone in the city is wearing costumes, especially on Friday and Saturday night, when me and my host sister went. For example:

Sorry for the unflattering picture. But yeah. It was SO fun.
There’s entertainment everywhere-bands, plays, dancers… The local theatre company has people dress up as lepers, as kings and queens, as soldiers. You really feel like you’ve gone back in time.
I tried to take some pictures, but it was so crowded and got dark fast and didn’t have a chance… But no fear, I found some fantastic google images for you all !

Some people and families will move into big tents and cook over fire and live for 5 days eating, talking, dressing and living as if it really is their life. How cool is that!

Pretty much everyone is drinking, being loud, singing, dancing, eating, and laughing. It was a really fun atmosphere and reminded me how awesome it is that I’m here.
Now.. For some pictures that I did take.

It was fun to have a couple nights out on the town, and experience something really unique to the city.

As my third week is coming to an end, I have some journaling to do. My thoughts are really disorganized. It’s been a long week. Sorry bout it.

A fault I have is constantly looking at the future… for example, I at one point was counting the days to come to France. Now I’m counting the days to know which colleges I’m accepted to. After that I will be counting the days to graduate. Counting the days for college. Counting the days for graduation again. And then, one day, I’ll finally have that good job, that apartment with my own furniture, I’ll finally have “gotten to where I want to be”… and then what?

Life is really such a cool thing. Life can be whatever you choose it to be. I feel like when we are young, in high school, living with our parents, we feel like life is out of our control…”Oh well I didn’t get good grades so I can’t go to that college” “I’m never going to get out of this town” “Ugh I’m never allowed to do anything” “I can’t wait to get a real job and buy a house and have freedom” “If I don’t get into college I’ll never do anything with my life” These are all things I’ve thought, and tons of people I know have thought too. But now, I’m here. In another country, living with a family I met like 3 weeks ago, going to a school spoken in French, walking in this new city 3,000 miles from home. And I’m 17. 17 and I’ve thought to myself before “What if I stay in Boone forever” “I just want to skip my 20s and have my life start already” Like HELLO! Life has started. And there are so many adventures to be had and places to see and people to meet and languages to learn and qualities to gain.

It’s amazing, this experience; and not in a glamorous way, but in the fact that every single day I get up, take a breather, and have to tell myself that I will make the day a good one, it will be a day of learning and progress and friendships and new experiences. Every single day I have to have faith in myself and in my purpose of being here. I have to remind myself to make the most of my time here, how if I let it, it will change me now, and impact my future.

If I’ve realized anything so far, it’s that counting the days does nothing special. Time goes by at the same pace, every day, every night, all year long. I don’t want to be constantly looking for what comes after what comes next. I want to focus on the present, be ambitious for the future, and allow life to do its thing.

Part of me craves home, and yet I know that I don’t want to be home, doing the same things, going to the same places, over and over like I have been my whole life. I think senioritis also translates to seventeenitis. Because at this point, me and all of my peers are looking at the next 9 months that will transition us into a new beginning. If I was home, all I would be doing is counting down the days to finally ‘start my life’. But I’m so very lucky because instead, I’m in France. And while the pace of the days go by the same as at home, it feels like my “life” has already started. I’ve already stepped out of high school-even if I will step back in WHS in 4 months and 1 day (to be exact)! Here, I’m growing as a person, I’m experiencing something extravagant as opposed to my routine I’ve had for years.

And it’s hard to remember that. It really is. But I’m forced to take life day by day, to see the good and the positive in everything; because if I don’t, I won’t make the best out of my time here, and my time will be wasted.

Every single morning I say “Just try your best” And every single day, I try.

Pictures from my new temporary home❤️

Boone is one of a kind. And man do I love that place and the people there.
But I’m becoming really fond of this city. It’s as French as they come. It’s small enough to still be cultural and not get lost, yet large enough to always have somewhere to go, somewhere to explore-and all in walking distance. Everyone is so nice, and I’ve even found a bakery that I’ve become a regular at. Saturday mornings are packed with vegetable, fruit, cheese and pastry vendors, hundreds of people and tourists are filling the squares…it’s really really awesome.
I’m learning so much about the culture, people, and myself. I have more strength than I thought I had, and am finding that I have more motivation than in the past as well. Learning french is becoming a need rather than a want so I think as my brain starts to recognize that, I’m becoming more motivated to learn-and fast. I’m gaining more patience for others and for myself, I’m learning just how much I appreciate my family and friends and America. Not that France isn’t really great, but I’m really blessed to live where I do and have the people in my life who I do. I’m gaining a new love for learning, probably because I’m so eager to be able to communicate without pulling out my mini French-English dictionary, and I also miss sitting in a classroom and understanding what I’m learning. I also have learned just how much I love bread and cheese.