Musings #1

The last two weeks and the month after France were so busy I couldn't keep my head straight. School became so much easier and I made a lot of friends. Me and my host family went to a concert together and visited some of their friends. The kittens were getting so big already and my host mom started giving them away one by one which made me a little sad. I got a new teacher for my first class, Margot who was really really nice. She made class a lot more comfortable and even convinced me to do a presentation that ended up being a half hour!! I would never have been able to stomach that before I went to France.

My last couple nights in France, my school group and Madame Bauge and I went out for dinner and I had the best seared pork that was medium rare!! I even tried frog legs, escargot, and some other French plates. It is almost necessary to become adventurous while you are abroad and if you aren't willing to try new things, then why are you in a new place?

My last night, Robert and I went to the CAVILAM club downtown where we met up with some of my friends from class. It was so much fun and I was really sad to leave them.

Leaving Vichy was the saddest part. I had to say bye to my host sister, Rosie, a couple days before I left because she went to her grandmothers house in Paris. She started crying and it made me start crying on my walk to school. Even though we weren't able to communicate THAT well, I can honestly say we became very close and it was hard to leave each other.

My host mom and her boyfriend took me to the train station where I met Siobhan and Robert to take the train to Lyon. That was also a very tearful goodbye, and my host mom gave me bisous for the first time. I was tearful on the train but it was a long ride and was able to fall asleep for a little bit.

We reached Lyon and had to figure out how to get to the airport via the shuttle and after waiting a half hour, we got on the shuttle. We got to the airport like 7 hours early which was a TERRIBLE idea. We couldn't check in until 2 hours before and the Lyon airport is so tiny there is nothing to do. There isn't even a souvenir shop. I got lost in London, lost my boarding passes for the next day and became extremely upset in front of the lady at the front desk because I was so overwhelmed with flying. But everything turned out fine, they helped me print out a new boarding pass and I ended up sitting next to Michael and his dumb friend Erika on the plane. When we got back in Arizona, Michael and I broke up because of how close he became with Erika while they were studying abroad in Spain but things are looking up.

When Mom and Dad picked me up, it was 120 degrees out. Culture shock immediately set in. Vichy was such a small town, going back to Phoenix was overwhelming but also kind of refreshing.