I do not really have a lot of words that come to mind when I think about it.
I am in the very middle of my exchange, I arrived in France only 5 months ago, and I will be leaving this wonderful country for who know how long in a short 5 months. The time both feels like it has passed really slowly and really quickly. Sometimes I feel like I have lived here for a long time (despite my lack of friends and language skills), but when I look back, I feel like I came here only a month ago.
Looking forward, I am not sure whether these next five months will take as long or as short as the previous five months. (If that makes any sense, lately I have been losing English skills.) Right now, I feel like I do not want to go home in five months. I do miss my family, friends, school and my church, but I do not feel like I want to completely move back. I would like to visit for some time then be on my way, off to another adventure. I want to continue this experience I am having, I want to move in with people I do not know in a country I do not know and learn everything about the culture and language first hand.
Part of me feels like I could form a life here. I would have to try a bit harder in school and such, but I think part of me will always be here and never want to leave. I want to stay yet I want to see everything else the world has to offer. I want to visit a lot of places, but it seems to me like I can not be somewhere without leaving a piece of myself there. I guess I will end up leaving parts of me all over the earth, and all the places of the earth and experiences and people I meet will always have their imprint on me.
Sometimes I feel more homesick than not or just feel really down, but lately I have been pretty great! I had a great time the other weekend when I met French students who will leave for exchange next year and we all had a dance together. This week my class gained two new exchange students from Paraguay and Chile. Today I received a package from some of my greatest friends from school and I have four boxes of Mac n Cheese sitting on my shelf, so you could say my mood is pretty bright!
Seeing the amount of people I have met, the relationships I have created, the places I have seen, and the things I have learned in the first half of this exchange, I can only imagine everything that I will experience during the second half. I have created friendships with people from all over the world, and I know that we will always keep in touch and possibly find ways to visit each other. I am looking forward to my Euro Trip in April when I will be visiting other countries in Europe and, no doubt, meeting more fantastic people!
This exchange is sure to change who I am, the way I think and the perspective I present to different situations, and it probably already has. I'll always be me (the loud, obnoxious, fun-loving, off-key-singing Lydia you all know), but this year will give me insight that I would otherwise have yet to discover. I can not wait to see what is in store for me, yet I can because I do not want this year abroad to end.
Now that is one way to turn "I do not really have a lot of words..." into about six hundred.
Part of me feels like I could form a life here. I would have to try a bit harder in school and such, but I think part of me will always be here and never want to leave. I want to stay yet I want to see everything else the world has to offer. I want to visit a lot of places, but it seems to me like I can not be somewhere without leaving a piece of myself there. I guess I will end up leaving parts of me all over the earth, and all the places of the earth and experiences and people I meet will always have their imprint on me.
Sometimes I feel more homesick than not or just feel really down, but lately I have been pretty great! I had a great time the other weekend when I met French students who will leave for exchange next year and we all had a dance together. This week my class gained two new exchange students from Paraguay and Chile. Today I received a package from some of my greatest friends from school and I have four boxes of Mac n Cheese sitting on my shelf, so you could say my mood is pretty bright!
Seeing the amount of people I have met, the relationships I have created, the places I have seen, and the things I have learned in the first half of this exchange, I can only imagine everything that I will experience during the second half. I have created friendships with people from all over the world, and I know that we will always keep in touch and possibly find ways to visit each other. I am looking forward to my Euro Trip in April when I will be visiting other countries in Europe and, no doubt, meeting more fantastic people!
This exchange is sure to change who I am, the way I think and the perspective I present to different situations, and it probably already has. I'll always be me (the loud, obnoxious, fun-loving, off-key-singing Lydia you all know), but this year will give me insight that I would otherwise have yet to discover. I can not wait to see what is in store for me, yet I can because I do not want this year abroad to end.
Now that is one way to turn "I do not really have a lot of words..." into about six hundred.
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