Last day in France

I can’t believe that it is my last day in France!  I can hardly quantify how much I’ve learned and experienced these last four months.  Living and participating in a new culture has opened my eyes to new perspectives, that I’m only a part of a larger world of similar and different systems of doing things and looking at life.  It has also taught me that these systems are not so different, and none of them are “right” or “wrong”, just different ways of experiencing life. 

Listening to Smash Mouth’s “All Star” while I write this, a lyric spoke out a truth that I have learned here in France: “What’s wrong with taking the backstreets?  You’ll never know if you don’t go.”  A lot of the best experiences can only be had after exploring off of the beaten path.  This was especially true in Montpellier’s Old Quarter and in Paris’s Montmartre. 

I have made some great friends over the semester and shared many memorable experiences with them.  I regret leaving them all, but earnestly hope to meet up with them again in the not-so-distant future.  My host family has genuinely become like another family.  I couldn’t have asked to live with a more welcoming, more helpful group of people who I have come to appreciate as the de Boutray family. 

I am almost completely packed; there just remains some last-minute things to throw into my suitcase, which is a full kilogram and some under the allowed weight, which is a magical feeling.  My plane leaves at 6:30 in the morning, and I should be stateside a little bit after 4:00 in the afternoon local time.  So here’s to travel!  See you all soon.