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.