WELCOME TO
M Y L I F E
photo by Gillian Smit
Hey everyone! So much, and I mean so much has happened since I last posted. And as you can see from the title, things got worse, and then they got much better.
For one thing, I got sick. Like, really sick. At home, I hardly ever get sick, and when I do, it’s just a little head cold that’s annoying but doesn’t prevent me from going to class. Last Saturday, my throat hurt so much that I was going to the sink to spit so I wouldn’t have to swallow. I had the chills and my whole body ached, so even though I spent almost the whole day in bed, I could never get comfortable. I couldn’t focus on anything, and I kept going from shivering to having to take my sweatshirt off because I was so hot, even though our bedroom is always cold. I didn’t eat anything until seven o’clock, when I heated up some rice for dinner. My roommate was an absolute saint and went to the pharmacy to get medicine for me and told our host mom I was sick at breakfast because I couldn’t even make it down the stairs at that point. The worst part about all this was that I had to cancel on my friend I was supposed to meet up with on Sunday. She lives in Normandy, and she had already booked her train ticket to Paris and everything was all set up. I felt so bad, but I knew there was no way I could spend the next day out in Paris when I could barely get out of bed the day before. That coupled with trying to explain how sick I was to my host mom in French and her not really understanding made me feel not only physically awful, but emotionally awful pretty much all weekend. Luckily, by Monday I was feeling well enough to go to class so I didn’t end up having to miss any school. I was still sick all week, but I was able to function even though I didn’t quite feel 100%.
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Tomorrow, it will have been a week since I landed in Paris--crazy! This week has been full of activities, meeting new people, and exploring Paris. Everyday has been a roller coaster of emotions, some good and some bad, but overall, I’m glad that I am here.
On Monday, we had the day to get settled in with our host families. I met my roommate for the first time at the airport, and we bonded quickly on the shuttle ride with talking about what movies we had watched on the plane (we had both watched Mamma Mia 2 :)) and what music we liked. I also got really carsick, but luckily we were the first ones to be dropped off. We are living in a large three story house in Malakoff, a suburb just below Paris (like literally, right across the street) with a retired woman. There is another student who lives in the studio apartment attached to the house, but we don’t see too much of her. Our host mom doesn’t speak any English, so we have to communicate in only French. It’s nice to have a roommate--someone to help translate phrases, figure out the metro, and just go through the experience with. We both agreed on the first day that we probably would have been in tears or completely shut down had the other person not been there. Well … it’s finally here. I have been planning my study abroad since freshman year--I went into college knowing it was something I wanted to do, and now it’s really happening, starting bright and early tomorrow morning (my plane leaves from Sacramento at 8 AM!!). Even though I spent so much time preparing for it last semester--making numerous accounts for preliminary visa registration, running around the school getting signatures, meeting with advisors in person and over the phone, applying for scholarships, and going to San Francisco to apply for the visa--it still doesn’t quite seem real.
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AuthorHey guys, it's May! I hope you'll join me as I document my semester abroad. Archives
May 2020
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