Sun and Rain

Greetings!

This past week was the first week of classes… for some of them anyway. I’ve found that there have been other students who have had similar experiences of showing up to class to find no one there and to learn that the class doesn’t start until next week. That’s the way I met a nice French student who I got to bond with over our mutual confusion regarding when our class actually began, so that was good!

Admittedly, this week was rough. It’s hard to acknowledge that I’m having a tough time abroad because, hello, I’m in France, how can I not be happy and enthralled all the time?! But I definitely wasn’t feeling quite like that this week. The stress of classes, homesickness, social confusion, and French had me down, and I’d say a lot of it was due to my own thoughts and worrying. But as I described my week to a friend, he commented that it sounded like I was having a great time and that he thought it was good that I was focusing on the positive. He also advised me to live in the moment, which, though easier said then done, is good advice nonetheless, and vital for an experience like this. So, no, study abroad (for me, anyway) isn’t always sunshine and rainbows (which is a contradiction anyway, you need rain for rainbows), but I’m trying to take it day by day, trust that everything will work out, and see the positive of all that I’m experiencing.

For example! My host family rocks. I live with a mom and a dad (Isabelle and Betrand) and 4 children, Alice, Jeanne, Francois, and Martin. I think Martin, who’s 8, is still trying to figure me out, or at least still thinks I’m weird for living in his house. But the other 3 have become a bit more comfortable around me and dinners have become the reason I know everything here will be okay. I long for the day that we’re closer, but I am so grateful for what 2 weeks has accomplished!

Another example: excursions! I thought I left the chateaus behind in the Loire Valley but noo! We visited Chateau de Haut-Koenigsbourg on Saturday, followed by a stop on the route de vin de Alsace (route of wines!) in Riquewihr, and had a jolly good time sampling wines!

 Chateau de Haut-Koenigsbourg- Renata and I tested the patience of the knights

 (maybe we should have been more cautious though, those tools they had chilling in there with the knights were kinda scary- José even tested them for authenticity)

So here goes another week, hopefully filled with some sunshine (literally, it’s been raining the past few days)!

Love and Peace,

Jessica

PS Though I don’t have pictures of my family yet, this a picture of their car, which my host dad affectionately called a trashcan of a car. And you thought the French had small cars!

This entry was posted on Monday, September 14th, 2015 at 4:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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