France has been my dream, ever since I started studying French in middle school. I can now read the great French novelists without too much difficulty--Balzac, Zola, Camus, and so much more. How far I've come since the days of singing songs about how to say "hello." Promptly after my high school graduation, I was allowed to go on a trip to Greece and Italy, the experience of a lifetime when all was said and done. However, I would have traded that if it had meant seeing France, this country I have come to love almost as much as my own.
Of course, I am fully prepared that maybe not every Frenchman will be a dashing young man with a brilliant, romantic spirit, but there is the France I have loved through its literature, and I understand that the new France could quite potentially be something different. However, it is a country that I have always admired for its sense of identity above all. Coming from America, we're all such a hodge-podge of different things, and sometimes it's hard to pull one definitive identity from that. Hopefully, I'll get to see the inspiring pride in the French people for myself, while learning their language even better than I know it now.
Last, but certainly not least, I wouldn't be anywhere close to here without the support of family and friends. Everyone has been nothing but supportive despite the occasional jealous grumbling. From helping with the plane ticket, to just affirming that this was a feasible option, my family has been wonderful about all of this. Also, I send my eternal gratitude to our director of the study abroad program at my university. He has answered worried phone calls, calmed me down about the paperwork that was yet to arrive, and most of all, done a wonderful job getting me pumped up about this experience.
Last time I went to Europe, I went and saw Rome, Athens, Florence, Pompeii, and Pisa, all in about a week and a half. This time promises to be an entirely different experience. I will be living in the town of Caen, which is located in Basse-Normandie. With a population slightly over a hundred thousand, you could hardly call it a metropolitan center, but this is exactly what I want. Friends of mine who have been to big cities during their study abroad always mention the English that is present, the slang, things that would make it more difficult for me to really learn the language. Of course I'll visit Paris. I'm building a list of places to go that includes Le Théâtre de la Huchette, Père Lachaise, the Pantheon, and the usual sites. As a French lit buff, I would love to see the graves of Colette, Balzac, and Zola, as well as the other famous people who keep residence in Père Lachaise.
However, first I have to get there, and I am so excited just for that. I will try and keep you updated as much as possible, and I look forward to sharing my adventures with you!
