One Month!

31 days ago, Margaret and I schlepped all of our possessions here across an ocean and then across town on foot, then collapsed in bed for 16 hours.  Vivid memories of that day still pop up when I walk around Rueil.

I do not feel like I have been here anywhere close to a month.  It has been a very positive experience so far.  There are certainly negatives.  I've been shocked by how difficult at times it can be for me to relate to people from a different culture, whether it be the French public or the many other nationalities in my program.   But I'm growing.  I definitely miss the comforts of home, but I think that's natural.  Finishing one month means we are under 6 months left, and I didn't write that without a pang of joy at thinking, "Less than 6 months till I can ...... in Denver again!"  Homesickness is a good thing, though, since it means you have a joyful home.

But overall, there have been too many wonderful parts to describe them all.  I thought I'd give my happiest surprise from the first month, the most difficult thing, the thing I'm looking forward to in months to come, and the biggest challenge of the next month.  I'll see if I can get Margaret to do the same when she gets home tonight.

Happiest surprise: How easy it has been to get around/live in Paris, and how helpful people are.  Parisians have such a bad reputation, I was expecting to spend the first month getting spit on and doors slammed in my face.  And the French in my program tell me the only reason I've had good experiences is because they try to be nice to polite tourists.  But whatever, I'll take it.  Use French whenever possible (and always start in French), talk quietly, and be kind and the French will be quite nice, for the most part.


Oh and the food is great.  But that's no surprise.

Most difficult thing: I mentioned dealing with different cultures, as that's a weakness of mine, but I'd like to write about that in more detail.  So I'll say the weather.  It's not actually any colder here than Colorado or the east coast.  But the humidity makes it worse, and the cloudiness really gets to you.  It's almost always gray here, not to mention the fact that the sun didn't even rise till 8:30 or later at first.  Obviously we're getting more hours of daytime now so that helps.  But I'm still excited for spring.

Looking forward to: Traveling to other places.  Not that we've come close to getting sick of Paris.  But there are so many places we want to visit in Europe.  The weather, a heavy course load, and pricey tickets have held us back so far.  It'll come.

Scared of: Getting a haircut.  It's desperately needed.  I don't like getting haircuts in America.  Imagine trying to do it in French.  I'm terrified.

I hope you all have enjoyed the blog so far.  We'll try to keep you informed and post more exciting pictures instead of my rambling thoughts.  And thank you sincerely for all of your thoughts, help, prayers, and communications.