Last days abroad/First days home

I only had 3 days in Aix between arriving from Italy and taking the train up to Paris, and they were pretty “packed” (no pun intended...) I had to pack up my whole room, which proved quite difficult as I’d been planning on Josh taking a lot of my stuff home for me in his bags. Luckily I was able to leave some stuff behind for the two girls that are going to come from SFU next year so that was helpful. But I still had a ton of (very heavy) luggage. (Oh, Sarah and I also spent a day taking a trip out to one last ‘village provençal’ as well as some lavender fields, which were amazing!!!) But, early in the morning on June 28th, the time had come to leave Aix for good. Sarah, being the lovely friend that she is, woke up early to accompany me to the bus station (and even with 2 of us, the walk there with all my stuff was absolutely brutal, but we did it) where I caught the shuttle to the train station.

A 3 hour train ride later I was in Paris, where I had arranged to meet up with a girl from my program at SFU (who had been studying in Paris this year) whose name is also Alex. Together we struggled with all my stuff on the metro (which included going up and down stairs SEVERAL times – I seriously should have taken a video of me trying to lug my 26 kilo suitcase UP a flight of stairs of a parisien metro station) but eventually, we finally made it to my little one star hotel. After dropping off my massive amounts of luggage, Alex and I grabbed some Chinese food from a cool little restaurant she knew of. Then we went to Starbucks (sadly, this is one of the things I really like about Paris, the fact that they have Starbucks) and grabbed frappes, then spent the next couple hours sipping/chatting/dipping our feet in the fountains in front of the Louvre (us, and hundreds of other people.) Totally chill but also kind of epic at the same time. After that I had to help Alex move her bags from her apartment, which is just outside of Paris, to her friend’s place right in the city. So we took care of that and hung out at her friend’s place for a bit which was nice (was my last chance to have a conversation with a French person!) We grabbed a quick bite to eat then I wanted to head back to my hotel as I was planning to go to Versailles early the next morning.

So I headed out to Versailles the following day as planned. It’s super easy and inexpensive to get there (less than 6 euro round trip.) Now the process of getting tickets was a bit complicated – the lines weren’t clearly marked and there was basically no one to ask. Not to mention I should have gotten in for next to nothing since I am technically a resident of France (there is a special price for European residents) BUT, since I didn’t have my passport/residence permit, I had to pay the full amount AND wait longer in line. GRRRR. Anyways, I didn’t find the Chateau itself all that impressive (although the hall of mirrors was cool) but the gardens… wow. This was one of my favorite things I’ve seen all year. I was also lucky enough to be there at a time when all the fountains where on which made it even more beautiful. And the gardens are HUGE! I had no idea how big they’d be but it would probably take you days to see all of it. My favorite part of the gardens was Marie Antoinette’s “hamlet”, a special private little area area she had designed for herself. It was such a magical looking little place, like something out of a fairy tale: there were adorable little buildings, as well as bridges and ponds. She apparently used it to “escape” from the castle from time to time, and I can imagine this must have been the perfect spot. It was just so special and very serene. I also walked around the “grotto” area, which is apparently where she was when found out people were storming the castle (start of the French Revolution.) Marie Antoinette was the only queen to have had any influence on the design of Versailles, and what an influence she ended up having! Anyways the gardens were just incredible, you’d have to see it to understand just how spectacular they are. So after a long day at Versailles (in some incredibly hot weather I might add), I headed back to the hotel to do my last bit of packing up and to get some sleep before my early flight the next day. Sure enough, before I knew it, I found myself in a taxi on my way to the airport, boarding an Air Canada plane with a huge smile on my face and feeling ready to leave, knowing that in a matter of hours I’d be HOME, for real. Many movies and bad airplane meals later, I was greeted by my family at YVR. It felt surreal, but so good, to be seeing them for the first time in practically 6 months.

Now that I’m back at home it kinda feels as if I never left. We had family over on Canada Day. I’ve already gotten together with some old friends. I’ve even started working at the same coffee/ice cream place I worked at last summer. I guess when all this familiarity hits you all at once, it’s hard to believe you left it for almost a year. So far, when asked the ever-pertinent question “Are you happy to be home?” I respond with a definite “yes.” I know I made the most of my time abroad, I have no regrets about my year and I think the time had come to return home. I mean, all good things have to come to an end, don’t they? However, I think I’m still in the “honeymoon” phase of being home (by that I mean enjoying things like sleeping in a double bed, driving a car, having a house stocked with food, having a couch/TV) and I’m sure once that wears off, I’ll be wishing I was back in Europe... but for now I'm glad to be home.

On another note, I'm finding that after moving to France and traveling to other countries, the world honestly seems so much smaller now when I think about it (I apologize for how cheesy that sentence must sound – but it’s true!) Before I left, a 10 hour flight to get from Vancouver to Paris seemed like an eternity. Now, when you think of the fact you can get from one side of world to the other in half a day, give or take a few hours, it really doesn’t seem that far. I guess it’s also because the more traveling I did and the more of the world I saw, the less I felt like I’d seen. Maybe that sounds stupid, but what I mean is, the more I traveled, the more I realized there was to see. I have an account on the “hostelworld” website, which is where I normally go to book the hostels I stay in when I travel. They have an application that lets you highlight each country you’ve been to, so other users can see where you’ve been. When I look at my highlighted map, I’m shocked to see how much of the world is left un-highlighted (and I haven’t even seen each country I’ve visited in its entirety!) I suppose in that sense, the world actually seems larger rather than smaller – I guess it’s a mix of both.

OK so, in attempt to conclude this mish-mash of thoughts: this year was absolutely amazing and I’m incredibly glad I made the decision to go on exchange. It was of course challenging at times but anything that didn’t kill me (literally or figuratively) just made me stronger (and definitely much, MUCH more patient.) I got to know myself much better than I would have had I not gone on this exchange and I realized I’m capable of more than I give myself credit for. I went to some incredible places and met some fantastic people, several of whom I hope will be lifelong friends. I was also incredibly glad to have had the opportunity to improve my French by being completely immersed in it. Although I can be extremely hard on myself when it comes to French, I really feel like I improved my language skills over the year, especially when it comes to speaking. This year also made me realize how much more traveling I would like to do in my life (I have already started planning where I want to go after I graduate!)

That brings my blog to a close. Thanks to anyone/everyone who followed my blog and/or facebook photos, it was always nice to know people were interested in what I was up to. AU REVOIR, la fin.