I feel like this blog has reached it's natural conclusion. I've enjoyed writing about everything, but now that my life is a little less foreign, I think I've reached the end. But that's also how I felt about my final days in Montpellier. I would wander down the streets, enjoying the sun (just as I enjoyed writing this blog), but feeling ready to go home.
That is not to say that I was ready to leave. Wanting to go home and wanting to leave are completely different things. Wanting to go home for me meant that there were parts of my life at home that I was really starting to miss versus wanting to leave would have meant that I was unhappy with life in Montpellier, which was very much not the case. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be to say good bye to my host family and I always feel a little sad when I wonder if I'll ever see that beautiful city again.
Being ready to come home, in contrast to being ready to leave, just means that I missed the familiarity of home. I would not say that I was tired OF Montpellier, but that simply existing in a foreign culture is exhausting. It is hard being a foreigner and, for someone who has never been a foreigner, it's hard to suddenly become one. But this challenge is what made my time great.
So for my final reflection, I can say that I'm proud of what I did. I did more than survive in a foreign country. I lived. And I hope that I'll never take that for granted.
I don't think I'll blog about the details of my final trip with my parents because it was a family vacation, not a part of my study abroad experience. But there were two things that made it more than just a normal family vacation for me: 1. I was translator. I got to use my French in a very real way and that was really awesome. 2. I was navigator. I'm never navigator, but I navigated a lot of the trip and really proved a lot to myself.
And that's what this experience has been to me: a self assertion that I can do it. I can live in a foreign language, take classes abroad, navigate, live independently, and meet new people while simultaneously maintaining important relationships at home, finding a paid summer internship, and winning two essay prizes. I did it. This isn't bragging. It's self-declaration and I hope that everyone can find this in their lives.
Bisous,
Julia
For pictures from my last trip with Mom and Dad click on the flowers from Monet's Garden:
No comments:
Post a Comment