Reflections on the Semester

It is hard to sum up the effects of my semester abroad into one blog post. I still think about it often. In the most simple sense, it allowed me to observe a new culture, speak a new language (better than before), and meet new people. And as clichéd as it sounds, immersing myself in so many new things was incredibly eye-opening. And I think the coolest thing about it was that it not only introduced me to a new world, but it also gave me perspective on my life back in the states--perspective I could never have gained without the physical and psychological distance. It made me realize things about myself that I had always taken for granted, things that might be normal in the US but aren't in France. It made me think about what I like about my life in the states and what aspects I might want to work on. And all of these reflections were coming at a good time, because now that I'm back, I'm a senior in college, which suddenly sounds very adult and real. While we were in Paris, we would joke about how weird it would be to come back to "real life"...and how it was even weirder that we were going to graduate in a year, and begin "real, REAL life." In some ways, my semester was a defined period of limbo where I didn't have to be carried by the natural momentum of a twenty-year-old's life. It was a lovely way to halt that for awhile (for example, I decided not to worry about trying to find a summer internship while I was there...it would be too difficult, and it wasn't something I wanted to concern myself with while abroad). And yet, five months is a long time, and by the end of the semester, I was ready to dive headfirst back into my world here.

And some of what I learned while abroad will help me dive into new and exciting experiences here, I think. For example, the language barrier ended up forcing me to be assertive and a bit more daring than usual. I had to learn to feel totally comfortable lunging into a conversation, even if I didn't feel comfortable with my conversation skills yet. Or going into a classroom full of only-French students, and then listening to an entire lecture in French, and then explaining to the professor that I wasn't on the rollcall list yet, because my program was different. You get the idea. I HAD to communicate with people even when I was terrified to, so now, I'm more used to dealing with nerve-wracking situations.

And all in all, spending so much time in France made me fall in love with this new country, and simultaneously re-appreciate things about America that I had taken for granted. Sometimes, I would be having an amazing time in Paris, and I would simultaneously be kind of homesick for the US. It was a strange feeling. And of course, now that I'm back in the US, I once again take the simplest things for granted...like having the signs be in English, or the stores open late, or access to Hulu and Netflix...All in all, going abroad was a life-changing experience, and to anyone even considering it, I would recommend it in an instant. I have never met anyone who regretted going abroad, and it has the potential to be absolutely amazing. I'm so thankful I was able to go, and now I'm ready to start new adventures this summer!

Traveling

I woke up on June 1 with mixed emotions: I was sad to leave Paris, but totally excited to see the US again. I said goodbye to Jean-Paul and took a shuttle to the airport. It was sad to say goodbye to him, since he had been so sweet and generous to me and had been sort of a surrogate family member while I was there. If I ever head back to Paris in the next few years, I know I'll be able to stay with him. When my shuttle came, he said, "A bientot!" ("See you soon!") and hugged me goodbye.

When I got to the airport, things began smoothly. I had bought my tickets with Iceland Air back in December, before any of this volcano nonsense had started. Even after the spring break debacle, I kept a wary eye to the news to make sure the second, larger volcano had not erupted. And lucky for me, it hadn't. But when natural disasters fail to inconvenience my life, the French bureaucracy steps in. I got to the airport in good time and got straight through security, but the plane was mysteriously delayed for over two hours at Charles de Gaule. When we finally boarded the plane, the pilot told us (in a noticeably frustrated voice) that the French government had been doing a surprise inspection of the plane. The plane passed the inspection, but it had been annoyingly thorough. When we finally took off, I relaxed again (this was my first plane ride with individual video screens, and I hadn't seen "Office Space" in years).

The bad news came at our layover in Iceland. Turns out, our connecting flight had already left for New York. The Iceland Air workers told us, without a hint of remorse, that there were no other planes leaving for New York until the next day, and that they would provide us with vouchers to stay overnight in a nearby hotel. Now, coming home from a semester abroad is a psychologically complicated event. By the time I left France, I was in "home mode"...I just wanted to be in my house in Albany, with my cat Lucy, and a homecooked, American meal, and my family. I just wanted to be home! I was truly heartbroken for a good ten minutes.

...And yet, somehow, seeing how angry all the passengers were made me think of this youtube clip called "Everything's Amazing and No One's Happy" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk). And I realized there were many worse problems I could be having. I decided I needed to embrace my overnight experience. So, on the taxi ride to the airport, I asked the driver what there was to do in Reykyavik. He told me we weren't in Reykyavik...we were actually in the sister city, Keflavik. He told me I absolutely had to go to the Blue Lagoon...the top Keflavik tourist attraction (ha). And magically, while I was in line at the hotel lobby, a father and son struck up a conversation with me and told me they were headed to this Blue Lagoon.

The father (John) and son (Erik) were actually heading back to Minneapolis, the other destination whose flight had already left. They told me the exact same thing had happened to Erik's sister awhile back, and she ended up having a great time. So I headed to the Blue Lagoon with them! Turns out, it is a geothemral bath that is extremely sulfuric and stays at about 105 degrees Fahrenheit. It was actually unbelievably relaxing and wonderful after the stress of traveling. There was also a swim-up bar. And the bartender had a mullet faux-hawk. And wore a girl's leotard with a bowtie. I could not stop thinking about how random the entire experience was. Also, on the taxi ride to and from the Lagoon, we observed the Icelandic landscape, and it is one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen. It is basically completely made up of volcanic debris, so the entire landscape looks like the Apocalypse. Or the moon. The whole thing was so surreal. After the Lagoon, John and Erik invited me to go to dinner with them, so we went out to the harbor and had Icelandic seafood. The harbor was incredibly serene, and the restaurant was empty except for us! The food was delicious, and it was so much fun talking to the Minnesotans, who were quite interesting people. This annoying travel mix-up had turned into an almost-free mini-vacation! And I weirdly ended up really liking Iceland.

The next morning at the hotel's breakfast, I met an NYU student who had also been abroad, and we killed time together at the airport. Finally, our plane left, and six hours later, we touched down in New York...

1 Day

Well, this post is coming about three weeks too late, but the end of my stay and my return to New York have been such whirlwinds! I will divide up the events up until now into a few more posts before I wrap up this blog.

Anyways, on my last day in Paris, I spent most of the day wandering throughout the city with my friends Toni and Lizzy. We started out at Reid Hall and said goodbye to our little mini-campus. Then we ate one last Frenchy lunch (crêpes at a crêperie nearby). For the rest of the afternoon, we kept wandering to different sites in an attempt to do something Parisian on our last day. We went to the Tour Montparnasse, in order to ride the elevator to the top and see the view, but turns out it was 8 euros...not something we were about to spend money on on our last day. So we began to wander towards the Catacombs, a touristy site I still had never been to. When we got there, there was a sign up saying it was closed due to flooding! Finally, we decided to wander over to the Musée D'Orsay to see the "Crime and Punishment"-themed exhibit there. Upon arrival, we saw that it was closed!...for no apparent reason. Anyways, all of these accidents meant we ended up inadvertently wandering for the whole day, which is actually one of my favorite things to do in Paris and a lovely way to spend the last day. We ended by going to Place de la Concorde and Opéra.

At night, I had my last dinner with Jean Paul (and his granddaughter and his daughter-in-law), and then I finished packing and prepared for a day of travel. Au revoir, Pareee...

3 Days-2 Days

Well, I am writing this on my last full day in Paris...weird. I will post about that later in the day. For now, I am going to recap my days on Saturday and Sunday.

SATURDAY:
The 29th was a day of picnics!! I had been planning to go to a picnic held by Louis and Maggie (Panda's owners) in Buttes Chaumont, the park where I used to walk Panda. By coincidence, when I was in the Marais on Friday, my friends started mentioning how there was this park they kept meaning to go to, and they wanted to have a picnic there on Saturday...turns out it was Buttes Chaumont! So I had two picnics to go to that day. Unfortunately, the weather didn't comply. It rained on and off and in general it was cool and windy out. My friends decided to go through with the picnic, though, so we chilled out, ate, and watched little French kids and French dogs running around. Louis and Maggie moved their picnic to their apartment, which meant I got to relive a little bit of my stay in Belleville! I also got to see Panda and eat more! By the time I got home, I had quite a sugar crash. A wonderful day of picnics and goodbyes.

SUNDAY:
Yesterday, I started at Place de la Concorde and Tuileries gardens. I wanted to be there, at the heart of the city, one last time. I eventually wandered over to the Musée D'Orsay. Now, keep in mind, this was a Sunday. I generally try to avoid going to museums and tourist sights on Sundays, because the lines are about a million times longer. But this was my second to last day in Paris, and it's where I wanted to go! As I approached, the entire front of the museum was covered in SWARMS of people...I had NEVER seen it so crowded. And then suddenly I remembered something. My student ID here says that I am an art history major. The people at Reid Hall did that for situations just like this. I calmly walked past the hundreds of people in line, towards the entrance for "people with reservations," a line consisting of exactly 0 people. When I got inside, I strolled past the ticket booth line, and showed the ticket-takers my student ID. I have never felt like such a VIP. It was beautiful. And it was also nice to enjoy one last trip to the Musée. Afterwards, I strolled over to Les Halles and Place Pompidou, and I watched the acrobat performing on the street there. Overall, a nice day of Parisian wandering.

4 Days

Yesterday was quite the classic Parisian day. I started by going to lunch with a few friends at L'As du Falafel, which is famously the best falafel restaurant in Paris, located in the heart of the Jewish district. You can always identify it by the line of people out the door and the bright green facade.

Then we wandered around the area and looked in lots of vintage clothes shops (usually they were way artsy and expensive). Our friend Kyle then told us about something I had never even heard of before--Berthillon, the ice cream parlour where ice cream was INVENTED! And it was in walking distance, on Ile-St.-Louis. Berthillon was also identifiable by the long line outside:

And let me just say, this ice cream was. AMAZING. Amazing. We ate it while looking out across the Seine. It was pretty darn picturesque.
Now, even though we had just gotten ice cream, my friend Rebecca and I had been planning all day on going to Laduree, the famed patisserie known for having the best macarons in Paris. Now, first of all: macarONS in Paris are not at all like macarOONS in the states. Here is a picture of Parisian macarons:

The quest for the perfect macaron is much like the quest for the perfect cupcake in New York. Laduree comes pretty close to perfect. So, we decided to go to Laduree and stock up ("for later"). We walked along the Seine, waited in line (once again), and achieved success.
At night, I saw my first-cousin-once-removed, Christopher Fleischner, for dinner at his apartment. His partner Esther was at a conference in Copenhaagen, but it was really nice talking with him about Paris, America, and family history.
To wrap up the day, I met my friends again at the Eiffel Tower, where they were camped out with champagne. There is a really nice park leading up to the Eiffel Tower where you can sit and chill, which a bunch of people were doing last night. It was the last night (again) for several people, so we made toasts, talked about our time here, and just enjoyed ourselves.

Amen to a very, very Parisian day.

5 Days

So, last night, my friends and I had a goodbye celebration in the Marais. Our friend Lily is flying back today (Friday), and the rest of us are all leaving within the next few days. We had a lovely dinner at a French-Italian restaurant, which included this AMAZING fondant de chocolat:


Afterwards, we went to a bar in the Marais and enjoyed some beer and some conversation about how weird going back home will be (in both good and bad ways). We are all pretty curious about reverse culture shock. Here's part of the group:

It was a really nice evening, and a nice way to say goodbye to some friends.

6 Days

OK, so this post is coming a day late, but as of Thursday morning, I am officially DONE DONE DONE with my schoolwork this semester!! I took my Arts in Paris final yesterday, and I sent in my Jean Renoir essay today! It hasn't quite sunk in yet, but I am going to do my best to take advantage of my FREE TIME between now and Tuesday.

For the record, this was one longgggg semester. It lasted almost five whole months, as opposed to the three and a half month schedule at Columbia.

HOORAH!