I'm excited to go home, to see everyone that I care about again, but I'm sad to leave the people that I've grown to love and care about over here as well. I know that this won't be the last time I'll be seeing my French family, and I hope that I can see again the friends that I've made at my high school. Just today I said goodbye to my class, out in front of the school as the sun shone down on us like it always has and always will. Just the other day I was sitting out in the soccer field with them, teaching them how to make daisy chains and listening to Bob Marley. I felt so at home, or as if I had never left home to begin with. I think that my home isn't a stationary one, it moves with me and settles for a time and right now, it's settled in La Folaine France. I am prepared to uproot and return to my American life, but I don't think I'll be able to do it without shedding a few tears!
I have a few updates though!
I finally tried snails! Les escargots, as they are called in that lovely French language. I ate the decomp-eaters and I enjoyed it (sortof..). My initial reaction was "oh well they aren't that bad at all". The texture was reminiscent of chewy octopus that you'd get from a sushi bar, but just a bit easier to chew. As you bite into them you release a little bit of whatever they had last eaten, so I got the vivid taste of dirt in between the tastes of butter and parsley. Honestly the snail doesn't have a specific taste at all, it just depends on how you cook it. So there, I'm officially a French person now that I have eaten snails.
A weekend ago I went and so the Deportation Beach in Normandy. That was very interesting as there is a huge cemetery there that was given to America as a gift from France so America could bury all of their dead after WW2. There were thousands of graves there, and it was overlooking the beauitful Normandy coast. I knew I was still in France, but technically the earth there is owned by the USA so I felt weirdly at home in this huge cemetery full of the honorable deceased.
Sitting here in my French living room, listening to Perrine playing songs from the Amelie soundtrack on the piano, I feel very melancholy that my joy ride is about to come to an end and soon I must return to the daily grind at McKinleyville High. The good news is, once I'm back home I only have 9 weeks until I graduate highschool. I've had to pick a college while I've been here in France as well, and I'm announcing to the world that I am going to UC Davis and I will be majoring in Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior with intentions of one day becoming a surgeon.
But that's all besides the point, the point is that this exchange has been one of the most rewarding challenges I have ever undertaken in my life. I am so thankful to all of the people who made this possible for me. I feel so much more confident now and I'm so excited to come home and be able to freely talk with everyone again. It's definitely a wild experience, living somewhere and really having to work hard to be able to really connect with anyone. I would do it all over again in a second...
 |
| There is a bridge covered in 'lover's locks' near the Louvre. I liked the idea of a bike lock. |
 |
| This bridge is covered in thousands of locks... it's incredible! |
 |
| Sometimes I feel artistic. |
 |
| Proof that I was in Paris!!! |
