The Blink

The day I was leaving for France, one of my good friends who had done this program called me.  I asked if he had any parting words of wisdom and he said don't blink, because you do and then it is over.  He was right.  Despite the countless things I have seen and memories I have made, it does not seem possible that it could be over.  I cannot believe that I haven't seen my parents in person for half of a year. But here we are, on my very last Sunday in France.
Luckily my academic program is not very rigorous here; especially in these last two weeks.  It has given me time to soak up Clermont and spend time with the people here.  I've climbed some mountaints, looked out at some amazing views of the city and even went to a karaoke bar with my host parents.  Some of my time this week will be spent writing papers and taking tests, but other than that I want to spend all the time I can with the people I love.
The other day, I was asked what my biggest regret was from this program, and I couldn't think of one.  Despite this experience being a "blink," I really feel like I did as much with it as I could.  I don't regret any of the amazing voygages I went on.  But I also don't regret those weekends I opted out of the trips and stayed home with the fam or spent time with friends I came with, as well as people I met here in France.  When you get an opportunity like this, you can't waste it.  You have to see all you can see, do all you can do.  But it is also about building relationships.  I really feel like I have built a second family here, as well as making strong relationships with others here that I will never forget.  But I do have to say, building those relationships comes with a price.  I have fallen in love with France, but my heart won't break by having to say goodbye to the country itself.  What I am going to miss the most are the people in it.  I look at my little host sister's face and I am devastated knowing that I am not sure when/if I am going to see it again.  But I am so thankful that I got to see if when I did.
Friday night, we had a bit of a last hoorah with all of the Kalamazoo kids, our professors and our host families.  We all put on a talent show and made a funny video.  I do not have much in terms of talent, so I decided to exploit the talent of being cute that my host siblings possess and do a dance/spectacle type thing with them.  Everyone in the audience awwwed when my little Alyette started spinning around, and everyone laughed when Edmond was being his usual, dramatic, goofy self.  The other performances were great too.  Someone sang "Country Road" and all of the Americans sang along, there was a dance performance where we all went up and joined them.  The night ended with a slide show of pictures of our trip that brought tears to my eye.  I came here with such an amazing group of people.  We are a team.  I did so many things I never imagined.  So I have no regrets from this trip.  I enjoyed every second of this weird and wonderful "blink."



2 Weeks

Two weeks from now, I will be at the Clermont airport with tears on my face, saying goodbye to my french family.  Two weeks.  It doesn't seem possible.  I've been doing a lot of reflecting on these past couple months, like on the first day.  I remember I got to the airport, all nervous and excited, just to find out my luggage had been lost.  I was trying not to cry because I was certain it was lost forever (it wasn't) when my host family comes up.  I was so focused on my luggage I am sure I made a horrible first impression.  But my worry was quickly decreased as they welcomed me and made me feel comfortable and took me to a pharmacy to get all I needed immediately that was in my luggage.  I remember our first dinner, eating outside with the whole fam, already laughing and feeling at home.  It seems so odd that that was only a few months ago.  I feel like I have known them my whole life...
I don't want to think too much about what I am going to miss right now.  The tears are inevitable, so I'd rather save them for the last minute.  So instead, I think I will think about the little things I will miss.  And maybe somethings I won't miss so much.
I'M GOING TO MISS THE FOOD.  The cheese.  The bread.  The desserts.  The wine.  I am going to miss being able to walk into any store and find fresh baguettes and 3 euro bottles of wine.  I'm going to miss the stinky, strong, amazing cheeses that aren't legal in the states.  I will miss eating duck and dessert with every meal and Nutella every day.  But to be fair, I also miss American food.  I miss going to a restaurant, ordering a coke and getting more than one little can.  I miss my dad's steaks that he makes on the Big Green Egg.
I will miss the proximity.  I live right outside of a city, but I drive twenty minutes and I am climbing a volcanoe.  If I want to go to New York or even Chicago from Michigan, it is quite a voyage.  Here, you drive four hours and you are in PARIS.  You drive 3 hours in a different direction and you are in the Valley of the Loire.  You drive a bit longer, maybe 12 hours, and you are in a different country where they speak a different language and have their own culture!  It is fantastic.
I will miss the history.  I have seen so many things since coming to Europe that are older than my entire country!  You walk into ANY city and you will find a cathedral unlike anything we have in the US.  One thing I won't miss so much in that vein are some of the traditions.  With their old, rich history comes old rich traditions, like setting the table in a very specific manner or waiting for the man to serve you wine if you are at a table with a man present.  I won't miss having to navigate between the tu (informal you) and vous (formal you) forms.  Why do we have to label our Relationship like that?  It just isn't my style.
I love France.  I love francophone culture.  It will always be a part of my life, whether I come back here every year or never again.  It is a part of me.  But...at the end of the day I have an American soul.  I miss the relaxed nature and the extremeness and even the idiocy.  No matter how much time I spend here, I'm never going to feel like I fit as seemlessly as I do in America.  So I will miss France.  But I'm ready to go back.

Je Suis Charlie

Things are pretty crazy in France right now.  I actually first heard about everything happening with Charlie Hebdo from messages from people back in the states asking if I was alright.  And ever since then France has been aflame with fury and sadness and a longing to try and make things right.  To set the record straight, I am fine.  I appreciate all those who have checked in on me but there is no reason to worry, I am hours away from Paris.  The day the attack happened there was a peaceful gathering in our city center where people came out and lit candles and displayed their pens in solidarity with the victims.  The following day we had a moment of silence in my school.
One thing I love about this country is how passionate the French are.  They strike.  They protest.  They fight for what is right.  I remember when it was 9/11 I didn't really understand what was happening because I was too young.  Now being here in France in this time of crisis I have been able to really understand what is happening and understand the devastation it has caused the French people as well as people around the world.  Today a few friends and I participated in a peaceful march in solidarity with the victims.  Even in our tiny town of Clermont, there were thousands of people, holding signs, standing and marching together. It is a tragic event that is hard to wrap your head around, but the people here are doing all they can.

Emma Takes the U.K.

London was one of the greatest places I have ever seen, which is why I was a bit worried that maybe I had made a mistake starting out my trip on such a high note.  But that was not an issue. Every place we visited was wonderful in its own unique way.  After saying goodbye to my amazing family who aren't really family, the next stop was Oxford.  Going to Oxford was truly like stepping back in time.  If Hogwarts were real, it would be Oxford University.  We only had two days in Oxford (thankfully because we were staying in a creepy youth hostel sharing a room with 16 other strangers) but it was a perfect amount of time for the little city.  Mira and I went on a tour of the city, saw one of the academic buildings, climbed a tour to get a birds eye view and did some exploring throughout the city.  Being an English nerd, it was so amazing to see the location where the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland came from, seeing some of the symbols from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe hidden throughout the campus, imagining being a student there when both Tolken and C.S. Lewis were professors.  I could definitely see myself in this world.
The next stop on the list was Bath, another quick stop to finish up our tour of England.  Bath is a quaint, beautiful and proud little town that fits our idea of England.  It was lovely to see the shops, try our first ale in England (not a fan), and go to afternoon tea.  But the particular reason we chose this city to visit was the Roman Baths.  During the Roman empire, Bath became a Roman hot spot due to the natural hot springs.  People would bath and drink from the waters for treatment or just for general well being.  We were able to do a tour of the baths and even drink some of the healing waters, which were nasty... We also went to the Jane Austen center.  Jane Austen lived in Bath and there is a little museum type establishment set up recounting her life and specifically her time spent in the beautiful city.
It was finally time to make our way to Scotland, but to get there we had to take an 8 hour long night bus.  It was not the most pleasant experience in the world but it made me that much more excited when I arrived in Edinburgh.  We spent four days in Edinburgh and those days started with a bang: it was Hogmanay.  Hogmanay is an internationally known Scotish celebration to celebrate the New Year.  People come from all over to go to street party in downtown Edinburgh where there is dancing and fireworks every hour and drinking and singing Auld Lang Syne.  Mira and I were having one of the most amazing nights of our trip thusfar at the beginning of the party until....we were trampled.  Literally trampled.  There were 75,000 people there and it became so crowded that no one could literally move, we were all packed like sardines.  And then some idiot shoved, Mira and I fell to the ground and we literally were stepped on.  I was shrieking for help, completely terrified when finally some guy saw me and lifted me to my feet.  I was basically having a panic attack, he calmed me down and helped me find Mira.  I don' think I ever even thanked him because I was so traumatized!  But everything was alright, we were just a bit bruised up and once we calmed down a bit we were able to enjoy the rest of the festival.  It was an...interesting New Year's Eve.
The rest of our days in Edinburgh we explored.  We went on tours including a ghost tour and spent time taking in the city.  Edinburgh is great but in a very particular way.  It is interesting.  They have a sort of dark and eerie history there.  A lot of expressions about drinking like shit faced or hungover come from there (for a reason.  They really know how to drink...).  I saw a million men in kilts playing the bagpipes.  If I never hear a bagpipe again it will be too soon... I highly recommend seeing Edinburgh but I wouldn't say it is a relaxing sort of vacation trip.  My favorite parts of my time there were seeing some of the places J.K. Rowling used as inspiration for Harry Potter since she spent a lot of time writing the books there as well as climbing Arthur's Seat.  There is an inactive Volcanoe right outside of the city that you can climb and get an incredible view of Edinburgh from.  The Emma of 5 months ago would never have even considered spending her precious vacation time being tortured by climbing a giant volcanoe, but the Emma that has since then climbed several volcanoes in France and walks up and down huge hills every day was pumped.  It was amazing.  You would look to your left and see this beautiful natural site, so peaceful and calm and you turn your head and it is this bustling and thriving city.  It was surreal.  On our last day of the trip we decided to take a bus tour of the Highlands.  While most of the day was spent sitting on the bus, it was a highlight of the trip.  The Highlands are absolutely stunning.  It doesn't seem possible that something so beautiful could just be placed on earth on its own.  It was a beautiful way to end our tour of the UK.  The tour also took us to Loch Ness where we went on a cruise to find the monster, dun dun dun.  Unfortunately Nessie wasn't out that day.  We made it back to Edinburgh and headed home.  It took us 24 hours to make it back to Clermont which gave me plenty of time to reflect.  The UK was amazing and it was hard to leave knowing that the next ime I will be able to go, if there even is a next time, won't be for a long time.  When I left Italy it was sad but I knew there were more travels to come and adventures to be had.  But now there is less than a month to go and it will all be spent in Clermont.  Since coming back I have spent tons of time with my host family who I am going to miss an insane amount, but whenever I get sad about that fact I just imagine seeing my parents and sisters at the airport.  This has been the trip of a lifetime.  I have experienced France on a day to day level and have been able to see other parts of the world as well.  But no matter how breathtaking the Highlands are or how exciting the Streets of London can be, there is nothing like the Mitten.  I will be ready to go home.

London Calling

There have been moments throughout this experience when I have just had to stop and remember how incredibly insane my life is right now.  One of those times was when I was alternatively listening to my two favorite bands (The Kooks and The Beatles) as I drove on into their place of origin: England.  I have always thought that the three places I have to see before I die are Italy, France and England.  Not that I wouldn't like to see more, but those three were a must.  And here I was, 20 years old, checking the last one off the list.

My trip of the U.K began in London.  It was possibly my favorite city I have ever been to.  It has such a fascinating culture, what with the still existing monarchy contrasting the very relaxed, informal attitude of the people there.  Plus the accents were cool and it was nice to be somewhere where they spoke English again.  We had four days in London and we packed them full.  We went on walking tours, toured a palace, saw Billy Elliot, went to the Christmas markets, went to Christmas services in Westminster Abby and St. Paul's Cathedral, etc.  My favorite thing in London had to have been the Tower of London.  If you are in London DO THE TOWER OF LONDON.  They have these fantastic and hilarious tour guides that take you around and give you so much detail about the history of this place.  It is such an interesting place and just so...English.  You look to your left and you have the Crown Jewels, worn by the nobility with diamonds the size of a toddler's fist.  Turn your head and you have the torture chambers and old prison cells.  It is fascinating.  And every night we would come back to the apartment we were renting and see my dad's friend who is living in London and looked out for us the entire time.  It was so great to know we had someone looking out for us and to hear stories about my dad and my grandparents from when they were in high school together.

My dad's friend Sean was not the only stranger to show us undeserved kindness on this trip.  My godmother Tracy has family living right outside of London so she gave them a call to see if they had any suggestions for me or anything like that.  The next thing I know they are inviting me and my friend Mira to spend the holidays with them!  But before we even got there we were shown kindness yet again!  It was Christmas Eve and we were taking a train to their house when we realized...we were on the wrong train.  We began to ask the passengers what to do when all of a sudden a wonderful lady comes over and tells us how she has a son our age and if he were in trouble like this he would want someone to take care of him, so we got off the train and she drove us to the correct location.  That is true kindness: doing something for someone that can do nothing for you in return. I was never going to see this woman again and yet she took it upon herself to take care of us.  It was a true Christmas gift.

I'd be lying if I said Christmas wasn't tough.  I had been dreading it since before I came to France.  I even considered coming home for the holidays.  But this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and it would be foolish not to take advantage.  But although I missed my family more than I ever have this Christmas, it was one of the best Christmases I have had and one I certainly will never forget.  When we arrived at Fay and Pat's house (Tracy's family) they welcomed us like family.  Over the span of the three days we were there we laughed, we were spoiled, and we truly felt like we were with family.  I will never be able to repay them for their kindness in welcoming two strangers in so they could spend the holidays with family.  We were able to meet the entire family and even had our first celebration of Boxing Day, the day after Christmas.  I felt like I was home.  Their kindness touched me so deeply.  I hope someday I have the opportunity to pay it forward and make someone else's Christmas bright as they did for me.

Les Chateux de la Loire

In a lot of ways France really isn't all that different than America.  The people, the day to day life, it's all very similar.  But one thing that France has that America never will is really really old incredible buildings.  You go to any city and you will probably find a cathedral older than our country is.  I had the opportunity to really experience this unique aspect of French culture when I went with the other Americans to Les Chateux de la Loire (the castles of the Loire river).  On this river there are hundreds of magnificent castles.  We went on a tour of two.

The castles were extraordinary.  Everything is so grand and beautiful. But oddly enough, the more breath taking things I saw the more I realized what a horrible life living there would be.  The royals had no freedom.  Being noble meant wearing certain clothes, eating a certain way, saying certain things.  Everything was controlled.  It may have been a life full of beauty, but it would be a pretty empty one.  We also had the opportunity to get a glimpse into the life of someone that was completely different: Leonardo de Vinci.  He lived in France in the later part of his life.  We got to walk through his home and see all the inventions and ideas he had.  The experience was the opposite of the Chateux.  In the Chateux, everything was beautiful but for no purpose.  Here, the halls were filled with ideas and thoughts and a different kind of beauty.  Walking through his house was like walking through his mind.

I had one of the greatest weekends of my life.  The Chateux and the river and his home were amazing, but it was also the company I kept.  We truly have an amazing group.  Everyone is so goofy and fun and passionate about France.  We had the chance to see these historical buildings, but we also did tequila shots with our professor, taught her what Yolo meant and tried veal tongue/cheek.  I got to experience the beauties of the castles with the freedom of being a 20 year old American college student studying abroad.  Not a bad way to spend a weekend.