Almost Half Way

As we begin the third week, I find myself falling ever more in love with this city.  It’s incredibly easy to get around, fun to explore, interesting architecturally, and the weather always seems to be beautiful, so it’s hard to even try to validate staying indoors.  I feel like this is exactly what I needed in my life.  Anyone who knows me, knows that I can’t stand to be idle, so sitting around all summer wouldn’t end up being relaxing to me.  Last summer, in Oman, as well as the summer before, when I interned at Enviance, I was often stressed – not nearly as bad as during the school year when I go un petit peu crazy, but still stressful.  But here, I feel so relaxed.  Time here takes on a funny meaning.  You see few people sprinting through the streets trying to make it to things on time.  On the contrary, you can’t walk down a single street without seeing a café full of people lounging, casually talking and drinking a sirop a l’eau or un petit café.  Students here usually get two hours for lunch; we usually get an hour and a half, but it’s still plenty of time to walk leisurely to a restaurant, sit down, order, eat, and sit for half an hour talking.  You just can’t not feel relaxed here.

Apart from the day to day stress, this trip has also relieved one of the bigger worries I have been pondering: my choice to spend all of Junior year away from Middlebury, the place that I’ve grown to love as my second home.  In high school, I always wanted to.  Freshman year at Midd, I was even considering trying to go abroad Spring of Sophomore year or Fall of Senior year as well.  Not studying for a year would never have crossed my mind before.  But, as a testament to the amazing community at Middlebury, at the end of this semester, I didn’t want to leave.  Unfortunately for all the people who hoped I would decide to come back in the Spring, I think that chance has been diminished to about 1% haha.  It seems my younger self knew me better than I know myself.  It’s only been two weeks and I can barely imagine leaving France for the few weeks in between this program and when I return to Paris.  But it’s nice to know now that I made the right choice.  I’ll miss Midd, but this is what I love – the place, the people, the language and the culture.  Oh and of course the food and wine!

My host sister also just started taking the French Bac today - she's been studying so hard, I can't even imagine!

I posted a few pictures from the first week and weekend, so check them out!  We do have some work here, so between the homework, exploring, and of course, shopping, I haven’t had a ton of time to post, and so I apologize for that.

Hope everyone is doing well at home!! Bisous