...I hope we had the time of our life.

      For as long as I can remember, I was always encouraged to study abroad. To spend time in another place where I could learn to adapt to a new culture, a new language, and new traditions. Now that I am here taking advantage of this opportunity and everything is coming to an end, I’m not sure if it is quite time to say goodbye just yet. Of course, I think, rather we admit it or not, we are experiencing a severe or mild case of the h-word (homesickness). We are all thinking about next week‘s holiday, one of the most important days in American culture. So we all would like to go home for that day to be with the ones we love.

      Obviously, the honeymoon, happy go lucky season is over. But, we’re still spending more time traveling than we do in a classroom and sadly still only bonding with each other. I’m guilty of this too but we are still looking for that one thing that will make the feeling of homesickness go away. We only want to hang out with ourselves or rather our clicks. We want to eat the same food, pasta. We want to travel everywhere, together. We still act the same wanting only to hang out with the same people. These things all remind us of our home and it was good at the beginning but it is time we try something different. It is like we are married to our American lifestyle and threw away the key. It is natural but in everyone’s reason to study abroad no one mentioned to me to do the same thing we did in America over here in France. Now, I’m not a psychologist just yet but studying these actions and mine too, makes me realize that I’m not sure if we “had the time of our life” or rather “saw what our minds hoped to experience”, which means that this all could be a waste if we don’t expand.

       During one of my earlier blogs, I hoped to break out of my shell, talk to new people, eat new foods, and simply try new things. I think I am still in the process of reaching some of my goals but I can honestly say I have run into some road blocks along the way. It is getting tough. I am realizing that not everyone wanted to break away from home and everything that I didn’t want is happening. Everyone isn’t willing to give this new life a chance so instead we are moving farther and farther apart. I guess it should have been expected, since everyone was so happy at the beginning and it had to come to an end eventually but I didn’t think it would end like this. We have 32 days left. 32 days, a little over a month to fix this issue. I want to leave here feeling accomplished, that I survived. I survived studying abroad in France, where the mindset, goals, and values are almost polar opposites of us Americans. After all when we return to our daily lives back in the states and we look back, I’m sure none of us want to think, I coulda, woulda, shoulda, had the time of my life.