Or more realistically, it is December 17th for another 9 minutes. I've been working on a few separate longer blog posts, but since they are a bit more complex, I want to make sure I put in a good amount of thought and time to them. But it has been almost two months (EEEP!) since my last actual post, I figured I'd just write something quick (plus I wanted a quick study break).
After some of the hardest weeks of my life academically, my body literally failed on me last week + this weekend, first by catching the flu/possibly bronchitis and suffering through a horrendous cough all week. Then Friday night, being spared of the Gastro epidemic last spring on campus apparently caught up with me when I was struck with the maladie my host mother had been complaining of for two days. Bedridden for the entire weekend and plagued with the strangest dreams, I also had a lot of time to realize how little time remains in this semester and how bloody much I still have to do, see and experience in France and in Europe. Where does the time go?!?! How has a whole semester already gone by? The last few weeks feel like a blur of work, sleep-deprivation, rain and more work, but with my last exam tomorrow morning (for which I really should be studying, damn you work ethic), somehow it's all coming together. I can't help but wonder if I missed out on something by working too much this semester - I finally picked up my Louvre student card on Friday, after ordering it the first week of September. Making a list of all the things I wanted to do this semester in Paris that I now need to do starting tomorrow afternoon and before Saturday kind of highlighted that question : did I make the best of this Fall, or did I miss the point ? It seems like other students have been travelling more, meeting more people, visiting more cultural sites - seemingly more carefree and more what you would expect of study abroad. And a part of me kind of wished I'd had those things; that I had met more people, that I'd eaten out more, that I'd been to Madrid, Prague, Amsterdam and Berlin, that I'd let loose a bit more and drank a bit more. I love to drink and dance, but I can count the number of times I've done those things this semester on one hand. So did I miss something?
The only part I might have missed out on is the people front - my semester has been a bit more self-sufficient and lonely-studying based. But then again, I feel like I made some lasting friendships, ones with a little more depth than the occasional night out. I also spent more time with my host mother and her fascinating group of friends and family members. Eating out more, while lovely, would have put a much worse dent in my wallet but also might not have been as authentically French as what I've been lucky to experience, since my host mother loves cooking and insists on making incredible food every. single. night (better on pocket book, not on stomach). And planning the next few days in Paris and a number of trips next semester has been great fun; it's almost like a challenge now to see if I can get to all of the places that I want to see and spend the amount of time I want to spend there in such a limited amount of time. It seems fitting, after a semester of figuring out more about myself, to demonstrate such a large aspect of my personality in a neutral setting : I am forever drawn to making things more difficult for myself, but loving them ever more because of the pure nature of the challenge. So while I would have loved to have a nice leisurely semester of raging in Paris, I would never have forgiven myself for not taking on Sciences Po. Because the truth is, I loved this semester. They say hindsight is 20/20 - given that, anyone who saw or talked to me the last few weeks of November would probably think that I should look back and say "Maybe it was a little too much". Well, maybe I really am as crazy as my parents think I am, but I wouldn't have changed much at all; if anything, I would have worked harder earlier.
With that being said, I really should finish up studying for my exam tomorrow - three hours to write a dissertation in French on god knows what general subject about the history of kings in France. Yay so much FUN!
naht.
last exam though.
Anyways, California, I'm coming for you Saturday; until then, Paris, be prepared to be criss-crossed and explored by a certain crazy blonde.
Bisousss mes chériesss
After some of the hardest weeks of my life academically, my body literally failed on me last week + this weekend, first by catching the flu/possibly bronchitis and suffering through a horrendous cough all week. Then Friday night, being spared of the Gastro epidemic last spring on campus apparently caught up with me when I was struck with the maladie my host mother had been complaining of for two days. Bedridden for the entire weekend and plagued with the strangest dreams, I also had a lot of time to realize how little time remains in this semester and how bloody much I still have to do, see and experience in France and in Europe. Where does the time go?!?! How has a whole semester already gone by? The last few weeks feel like a blur of work, sleep-deprivation, rain and more work, but with my last exam tomorrow morning (for which I really should be studying, damn you work ethic), somehow it's all coming together. I can't help but wonder if I missed out on something by working too much this semester - I finally picked up my Louvre student card on Friday, after ordering it the first week of September. Making a list of all the things I wanted to do this semester in Paris that I now need to do starting tomorrow afternoon and before Saturday kind of highlighted that question : did I make the best of this Fall, or did I miss the point ? It seems like other students have been travelling more, meeting more people, visiting more cultural sites - seemingly more carefree and more what you would expect of study abroad. And a part of me kind of wished I'd had those things; that I had met more people, that I'd eaten out more, that I'd been to Madrid, Prague, Amsterdam and Berlin, that I'd let loose a bit more and drank a bit more. I love to drink and dance, but I can count the number of times I've done those things this semester on one hand. So did I miss something?
The only part I might have missed out on is the people front - my semester has been a bit more self-sufficient and lonely-studying based. But then again, I feel like I made some lasting friendships, ones with a little more depth than the occasional night out. I also spent more time with my host mother and her fascinating group of friends and family members. Eating out more, while lovely, would have put a much worse dent in my wallet but also might not have been as authentically French as what I've been lucky to experience, since my host mother loves cooking and insists on making incredible food every. single. night (better on pocket book, not on stomach). And planning the next few days in Paris and a number of trips next semester has been great fun; it's almost like a challenge now to see if I can get to all of the places that I want to see and spend the amount of time I want to spend there in such a limited amount of time. It seems fitting, after a semester of figuring out more about myself, to demonstrate such a large aspect of my personality in a neutral setting : I am forever drawn to making things more difficult for myself, but loving them ever more because of the pure nature of the challenge. So while I would have loved to have a nice leisurely semester of raging in Paris, I would never have forgiven myself for not taking on Sciences Po. Because the truth is, I loved this semester. They say hindsight is 20/20 - given that, anyone who saw or talked to me the last few weeks of November would probably think that I should look back and say "Maybe it was a little too much". Well, maybe I really am as crazy as my parents think I am, but I wouldn't have changed much at all; if anything, I would have worked harder earlier.
With that being said, I really should finish up studying for my exam tomorrow - three hours to write a dissertation in French on god knows what general subject about the history of kings in France. Yay so much FUN!
naht.
last exam though.
Anyways, California, I'm coming for you Saturday; until then, Paris, be prepared to be criss-crossed and explored by a certain crazy blonde.
Bisousss mes chériesss
