Change for the better

Salut!

So I just updated you on my voyage and hopefully you enjoyed that little window into my travels! If not, I have a little life reflection ready for you, so here we go:)

I already recounted my story of coming back from the United States and going to Paris and feeling homesick and anxious and feeling better later when I back home in Strasbourg. It’s been about a month since then. In some ways it feels short but in others, it feels like a lifetime ago that I was in the US or that I came back here! Since January 1st, I have struggled through picking classes, which hopefully has been settled with a nice occasion of being chastised by a professor for not understanding her class. Now that it’s over, I feel a lot better about the classes I am in! I am learning a lot about art and paintings, wine from Alsace, and very little about the jobs in the church (aka subjects of my classes). But that’s okay, time will tell how it all goes. My host family has been really good, I’ve been helping Jeanne with her English homework, Martin and I chat about traveling and pronunciation of French words, and everyone else is doing well, too! I got a babysitting job basically from God, as it fell into my lap so bizarrely but has been working out really well. Also, I became a cheftaine, or leader, for a Girl Scout troop! Kinda crazy and long sortie days, but it makes me more passionate for the scouts than ever before, and I can’t wait to continue in the US! I have a sortie with the girls and the other leaders today and will sport the entire uniform, complete with the beret!

In other news, I made pancakes for my host family (Erin and I made a test batch before and we approved) and everyone loved them! It was a taste of home I didn’t know I missed and was so happy to share that with everyone. Additionally, I have been attending my host mom’s organization Alliance VITA for their weekly series Universitie de la Vie (University of Life) and went to see the film Joy with Alice and Jeanne and had a wonderful time!

One of my beloved French teachers here told me Tuesday that I was visibly happier this semester than last. She said that I participate more, that I am more energetic and brighter and that she’s happy that I stayed the second semester. It means so much that she noticed that and told me, as it gave me a chance to think about my semester thus far and evaluate how I’m feeling. I acknowledged that I really am happy here. It’s a crazy thing to go through a hard transition and start to see the fruits of that struggle months later. I am understanding a lot more French, have established friendships and ties to this city, making the most of my traveling experiences, and learning a ton about life, relationships, and me. I still crave more time for reflection, need more time for faith, and still desire to love France and this crazy experience more, the joy and love of life (bon vivants!) is definitely there and visible. And so I hope God will grant me even more blessings here and a real love for France and this experience. He is to thank for this joy and beauty in this experience, in addition to all the people, like my professor, who make this experience for me!

I can smell dinner, so I’m hoping that means it’ll be in my stomach soon, so I’ll talk to you later!

Love and Peace,

Jessica

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 31st, 2016 at 10:00 am 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.

Comments are closed.