(the end)
78 pages of french were written this year.
4.5 journals were filled.
5 countries visited.
1000ish photos taken
4 AMAZING friends made
about 60 more friends made =D
thousands of memories lived.
I'm still not ready to go...but I have to. 'Il faut partir pour revenir,' as my host mum says - you have to leave to come back. tomorrow I leave to go to Paris to spend 4 amazing weeks traveling with mum and papa - and God knows I'm excited about that one!!
there will probably be a couple posts, but I promise nothing.
this year abroad has been my dream for 10 years - and I was NOT disappointed in my dream come true.
and now I'm off to one last sortie with my Nantais girls...il faut profiter!!
à +!
15 May 2008
12 May 2008
251 vs...4
days ago I arrived in Nantes...days until I leave.
those chiffres (numbers) scare the living daylights out of me. I can NOT believe this year is over. I'm in the midst of finishing my IS (25 pages so far, and still not *quite* done), taking final exams (only three, thank goodness) and trying to pack (HAH!). of course, there's also the trying-desperately-to-savor-everything that always happens at the end of a school year.
it's just that it's even more extreme than usual. the past two years, it's been to leave for the summer and then come back in a matter of months. now, it's leave for the summer...and come back eventually. sometime in the future. I know perfectly well I'll come back...it may be thirty years from now like mum (who arrived safe and sound, if jetlagged this morning!!), it may be shortly after graduation. on sait jamais (one never knows).
all the same, I'm a veritable jumble of emotions right now. I'm VERY ready to see Mum and Papa and travel with them. I'm DEFINITELY very ready to finish with this IS!! I'm ready(ish) to come home to the states, even though I know it's going to be a really rough transition -but I'm dying to see all my friends, so it'll be more than worth it!! I'm ready to face the summer and all the changes it's bringing to Whitman. I'm REALLY ready to go back to Wooster in August and see all the people I've missed so much this year.
but...(there's always a but) I'm not ready to leave France. I'm not ready to go back to no trams that'll get you anywhere you need to go. I'm not ready to go back to speaking english every day. I'm not ready to go to a place where I can't get fresh baguettes and pain au chocolat whenever I want. I'm DEFINITELY not ready to leave the AMAZING friends I've made here. I'm not sure I'm ready to face the growing pains that I know are waiting for me when I try to find a place for the new person that I am in the old settings.
on verra...(we'll see).
back to IS/studying/packing for me!
à +!
oh yeah...a couple more pictures!
those chiffres (numbers) scare the living daylights out of me. I can NOT believe this year is over. I'm in the midst of finishing my IS (25 pages so far, and still not *quite* done), taking final exams (only three, thank goodness) and trying to pack (HAH!). of course, there's also the trying-desperately-to-savor-everything that always happens at the end of a school year.
it's just that it's even more extreme than usual. the past two years, it's been to leave for the summer and then come back in a matter of months. now, it's leave for the summer...and come back eventually. sometime in the future. I know perfectly well I'll come back...it may be thirty years from now like mum (who arrived safe and sound, if jetlagged this morning!!), it may be shortly after graduation. on sait jamais (one never knows).
all the same, I'm a veritable jumble of emotions right now. I'm VERY ready to see Mum and Papa and travel with them. I'm DEFINITELY very ready to finish with this IS!! I'm ready(ish) to come home to the states, even though I know it's going to be a really rough transition -but I'm dying to see all my friends, so it'll be more than worth it!! I'm ready to face the summer and all the changes it's bringing to Whitman. I'm REALLY ready to go back to Wooster in August and see all the people I've missed so much this year.
but...(there's always a but) I'm not ready to leave France. I'm not ready to go back to no trams that'll get you anywhere you need to go. I'm not ready to go back to speaking english every day. I'm not ready to go to a place where I can't get fresh baguettes and pain au chocolat whenever I want. I'm DEFINITELY not ready to leave the AMAZING friends I've made here. I'm not sure I'm ready to face the growing pains that I know are waiting for me when I try to find a place for the new person that I am in the old settings.
on verra...(we'll see).
back to IS/studying/packing for me!
à +!
oh yeah...a couple more pictures!
06 May 2008
sometimes life is just about making a fool of yourself
So this evening, instead of going to conversation club, Brianna, Vanessa and I performed a little sociology experiment. Near the opera house, there is a roundabout - essentially there version of a four way stop, except that it joins 6 streets, is a heck of a lot more confusing, and has this little grassy circle in the middle. actually, it's a pretty big grassy circle. Since it was a nice, sunny, warm evening, we decided, for lack of anything else to do, to sit in the middle of this roundabout center. So for a good hour, we sat around talking - and people watching from the middle of Place Graslin.
After a few minutes, we turned it into a game. French people can be very...stubborn about showing emotion in public. They live in their own little bubbles - getting a smile on the street from a stranger is UNHEARD of, believe you me. I'm personally convinced that they WANT to smile - they just don't. So we started trying to MAKE them smile. We started by just waiting to make eye contact with people in the cars and smiling. Sometimes they smiled back...and then we started waving. The idiotic, overexcited little kid wave. And trust me, we got more than one laugh out of people!! The best ones were the people that saw us...and then we saw their facial muscles twitch, trying not to laugh. And sometimes, they even waved back! The best ones were the buses that drove by...we got some of the BEST reactions out of the passengers. You could practically see them thinking "what on EARTH are they doing?!"
and it was one of the best spent hours in a long time =)
(a couple more pictures, by the way!)
à+!
After a few minutes, we turned it into a game. French people can be very...stubborn about showing emotion in public. They live in their own little bubbles - getting a smile on the street from a stranger is UNHEARD of, believe you me. I'm personally convinced that they WANT to smile - they just don't. So we started trying to MAKE them smile. We started by just waiting to make eye contact with people in the cars and smiling. Sometimes they smiled back...and then we started waving. The idiotic, overexcited little kid wave. And trust me, we got more than one laugh out of people!! The best ones were the people that saw us...and then we saw their facial muscles twitch, trying not to laugh. And sometimes, they even waved back! The best ones were the buses that drove by...we got some of the BEST reactions out of the passengers. You could practically see them thinking "what on EARTH are they doing?!"
and it was one of the best spent hours in a long time =)
(a couple more pictures, by the way!)
à+!
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