What they do tell you (what I should have listened to)
Pack Lightly.
Advice that I kept hearing thrown around was “take the essentials-
then cut that in half.” My afro-liscious hair do' wouldn't let me take less than 2 toiletry bags. Obviously the 2 weeks of pre-packing and 1 week of actual packing didn't make enough of a dent. My 'half-ing' was still large enough to occupy
47 pounds worth of luggage. Needless to say, my definition of
essentials will have to change drastically when I leave.
Practice your French.
I pride myself in being the first to
raise my hand to answer any question in French class. Yeah, I’m that kid. So to
receive a 68% on my 'proficiency quiz’ through API was more than disappointing. Though I have spent the
last weeks finding pen pals to e-mail, nothing beats
a good ol’ face-to-face conversation. Unfortunately, Texas is about as full of
Frenchies as Amanda Bynes is full of sanity. I did have to opportunity to talk with 2 native French speakers 2 weeks prior to departure. However, I couldn't help but feel subpar when summer let my vocabulary slip through my fingers. Reviewing my notecards and flagging
pages in my grammar book wouldn’t have hurt.
What they didn’t tell me (what I had to learn quickly)
Things will still be there when you get back.
To prepare for
my departure abroad, I spent an obscene
amount of money on 2 things.
1.
Whataburger
2.
Toiletries and small things within which to keep the toiletries
I don’t even know how this
fast-food demon creeped its greasy ass back into my life considering that I was
a strict vegan (for all of 3 weeks) up until recently. I tried to justify my
retreat back to late night bingeing by saying that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy
them for a month, therefore I had to savor hat I could à la moment. Non. When you’re going to the biggest gourmet food
capitals of the world, this is no excuse.
While
playing the nervous departure waiting game, I developed a nervous habit of buying things. Just things. Things that I
didn’t need. Things that added frivolous weight to my bag. Things that have no
business being 1.99/ounce. Damn you Target for making so many cute teeny tiny
things. A word to the wise; no one needs 4 bags of toiletries. No one. Contrary to
popular belief, France is not a 3rd world country. They have all of
the things you need to make yourself presentable in the morning at 1.5 X the price. Just deal until you get off the plane.
Another thing I exploited was time.
Time with people I love. Granted, this is because many of my friends have
graduated and are leaving to do bigger and better things in places other than
Denton. With most of my good friends scattering across America (okay, more like Texas), I’ve tried to allocate adequate time to each one. The side of me that usually turns down invitations happily got in all of the conversation/ hang-out time I could. At the end I was tired and a bit off course, but loved nonetheless. “I can’t help it that I’m popular”.
Truth is…These things/people
will be there when you get back- even if that means they will be at a
distance (Though my sweet, sweet honey butter biscuits will still be only a mile away- Mmm). I get it, 6 weeks is a long time. It's enough to change your life but
certainly not enough to withdraw completely from it. You will be okay if you don't see someone's actual face in front of you. You will be okay if you brought too much shit with you- you can throw it away (and more importantly, buy ALL of it back in the spirit of American consumerism).You will be okay if your french is more than rusty. It's all a part of the process.
The next step on my
journey will be allocating time between the ‘real world’ back home and this topsey turvey,
smoke lined, well-dressed French world. No complaints. If
only I could master the time difference.
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