I can\u2019t believe it. I have one week, and then I leave.<\/p>\n
These months have gone so fast, in a tornado of trains and French and classes and sandwiches from the boulangerie. I\u2019ve been realizing that this city has truly become my home since I came. When I leave, will leave a piece of myself here, and take a piece of Paris with me.<\/p>\n
I know that before I decided to study abroad, everyone told me to do it. They said I\u2019d grow, change, and learn more about myself than ever before. And honestly? I didn\u2019t really believe them. I knew enough about myself already.<\/p>\n
But now, looking back on these months, I have grown. I have changed. And I\u2019ve learned.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s surface level things, it feels totally now if I try to eat dinner without a fresh baguette. Then there\u2019s more involved stuff. Since returning from spring break, I\u2019ve noticed how outstanding my French has come along. When I first came here I could hardly hold a conversation with my host mom, but now I\u2019m talking for 15-20 minutes a time with my professor, all in French. It\u2019s astounding, and I feel so proud of myself.<\/p>\n
And yes, I\u2019ve learned about myself. I have done so much here, for myself. I\u2019ve gone out there and done things I wanted to do for me. I faced challenges and handled on my own. Being able to live in a strange country, with a strange language, all on my own, I feel as if I can do anything.<\/p>\n
I kept thinking of Ernest Hemmingway, how he was an expat in Paris. I read A Moveable Feast about his time here, and it was honestly a comfort. To hear about this American finding his way here (I heard somewhere he never even learned French, at least I have one up on Hemmingway), and I thought: if he could do it, I can do it too.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t to know what else to say, other than packing is going to be crazy. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll write before I get back to the states, but we\u2019ll see. One thing\u2019s for sure, I am very excited to see my family. I\u2019ve missed them something terrible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I can\u2019t believe it. I have one week, and then I leave. These months have gone so fast, in a tornado of trains and French and classes and sandwiches from the boulangerie. I\u2019ve been realizing that this city has truly become my home since I came. When I leave, will leave a piece of myself…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hollins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15179,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8104\/revisions\/15179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}