Well, I slept my way back to France after a little over a week of reveling in being home and seeing family and friends. It was a much needed little dose of New Mexico and I had SO much fun. I was a little nervous about culture shock and what not, but really it wasn't that bad. I was just so happy to be home. The one main thing I noticed was that, when I was in a public place--the Denver airport, for example--I had no idea what people around me were saying or what language they were speaking...and it was all in english. I didn't have any trouble understanding when people were talking to me, because I really do speak quite a bit of english here, but I couldn't figure it out when it was backup noise, because that I'm not used to. Then there were those moments of not being able to think of english words occasionally, but like I said, I do speak quite a lot of english here, for better or worse. Another thing I noticed was that everything was louder. I don't know if that's necessarily true, but I noticed, again in the Denver airport, that the people were talking louder and there was a sort of a dull noise that was everywhere. I didn't notice it as much other places, but now that I think about it, everything really is a little bit louder. Even when I listened to music at home or in the car, I felt like it needed to be louder (although the reason why I keep my music relatively low here is because I have a roommate about 5 ft away from my room and don't want to blast her with my music...we have to find a balance and it's on a lower level.
Despite these little things, I fell pretty easily back into NM life, enjoying driving (even though I couldn't drive my own car...) and amazing food, and seeing my family and friends and all of those things. And it was really good for me. And it was especially good for me to be able to do the memorial service thing for my grandpa, because I was realizing that I had really put all of my thoughts and emotions to the back of my mind because I just couldn't deal with them at a distance very well. It was good to face it and have the support that I needed, and to be there for my mom and my grandma.
Aside from the unfortunate and trying circumstances of my first couple days home (and the hangover/food poisoning/stomach bug that had m down for a couple days), the trip was a whole was really good. I got to see everyone I wanted to see (except for one who tried but had funding issues and couldn't make it home to see me...I still love you girl!), even my dad a little sister and an old friend who I haven't seen in two years. I may not have gotten to see everyone for as long as I would have liked, but got my fix. And, considering the relative shortness of my trip, I crammed quite a lot in: Valentine's dinner with my friend's mom (cuz I'm just that cool), Ozomatli concert, which was AMAZING and filled with very therapeutic dancing and fun as usual, the zoo with the lil' sis', Santa Fe, multiple trips to Target (I'm a dork, I know, but I love it), shopping for not horrendously expensive jeans, birthday brunch with my favorite carrot cake ever, bday dinner with my grandma, the classic bar-outing that is necessary when you turn 21 with my two best friends, some laying in bed watching movies and feeling relatively crappy, Borders with my fellow book-lover, went to the movies with my mom, lunch outing with my grandma, delicious collective bday dinner with Boe's family, getting official with a new horizontal ID, feeding animals at Wildlife West, shoe shopping with Boe, seeing Marvin after 2 years and playing pool, picking up yummy New Mexico food to bring back to France, and early morning coffee with my favorite asian. And somehow I still had time to finish a really long book, cruise around in my mom's car, eat lots of delicious New Mexico food, talk to people in Cali and Oregon that i don't talk to nearly enough, and all sorts of other little random things. I really don't think I could ask for a better time, even with the little problems that came up. It was a really good thing for me to go home.
In the end, I was actually kind of nervous about coming back to France. I overheard someone else talking about going home for Xmas break and having a really hard time coming back and settling back into life here. I think that, on the one hand, I would have been happy being home for good, because I really do miss home a lot, but it was also kind of a reminder that tree months really isn't all that long and, if I really work at it, there are a lot of amazing things that could be fit into that time. And there are a lot of things I could still stand to do in France and Europe in general. Of course, being back also means I have a lot of school and work ahead of me, which will take up a lot of time, but I am actually kind of looking forward to my classes this semester, even though I think I may be overloading my plate. I'm good at that, though, and all the classes hold some sort of interest for me, so I think I'll make it through.
Here, briefly, are the classes I'm taking:
~Public Policy Analysis - this class will be the most challenging for me because it's full of a lot of theories (particularly economics, which really just doesn't excite me), but my major is Public Policy, so it's stuff i should know...
~Careers in and Sociology of Associations and Humanitarian Work - this is two classes that are intertwined and basically taught together. I'm actually quite excited about this one.
~Political Issues of Globalization - pretty self-explanatory. We are looking at the history of the idea of globalization and the different definitions and critiques of globalization, as well as at specific things that are affected by globalization.
~Portuguese - I'm really having fun learning the language, which is really beautiful. It doesn't come as easily as French did, and I think it's a lot more nuanced, but it's a nice break from all the technical political stuff.
~A Literature class that looks at historical fiction through the works of an author who wrote novels about the holocaust. I'm not a huge fan of lit classes, but it's the only way to get french credit back at U of O (because ALL of the other classes that I take IN FRENCH about FRENCHY subjects for which I read IN FRENCH and write papers IN FRENCH and do presentations IN FRENCH just aren't good enough...). At least, I like historical fiction and I enjoy reading WWII books.
~Capoeira, which I am still loving and is still kicking my butt.
That's pretty much where I'm at right now. Trying to get back into the swing of things, but jet-lagged and tired and I think I'm getting sick...my throat is all scratchy. But I'm taking my emergen-c and drinking lots of water and sleeping as much as I can, and I think I'll survive.
Speaking of getting sleep, despite my 3 hour nap this afternoon, I'm ready for bed, so I'm gonna end this here.
Biz.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment