well, my "studies" are officially finished which means that after my last "final" today .. i am done with "school" for the semester .. the time i spent "studying" which translates to .. i spent every day this week laying in the park! but for not having grades that transfer back .. i put a lot of effort into my classes so I am confident I did well!
however, today during my french written and oral exam, tears literally fell from my eyes. the first tears i've shed in preparation for leaving this dream like world ive been living. one of the questions on my test and the perpetrator for my tears was
quel était le meilleur souvenir de sa semestre? what is your best memory of the semester? besides the fact that i had to choose an answer amongst the millions of amazing times i have had here-- i had to choose one i could effectively write about in french. and as i quickly sorted through the millions of amazing times and experiences i have had here-- there was one overwhelming part of my semester that has really made my time here beyond amazing.
ma famille.
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| Robert et Mireille circa 1957? |
as i sat there trying to put into words-- french words-- how amazingly lucky i am to have had such a great host family-- i was overwhelmed with emotion. it finally felt real. the fact that i am leaving in 2 days, the fact that i had the absolute best family in aix and how my semester would have been completely different without them. in so many ways, they remind me of my real family-- in the way that we tell jokes, use sarcasm--also in the way that my parents bicker and tinker back and forth and how they take an interest in my life, especially my love life (when there is one). from the amazing meals my host mom cooks-- to the deep discussions we have about cross cultural differences, generation gaps and which American actors are the best. From laughing and playing scrabble to tonight where we looked at their old photo albums and wedding pictures .. they took an interest in my daily life, in my travels, learned the names of my friends and even which foods i do and dont like. they can tell when i was upset and generally cared about me. my host dad packed my lunch before i went to the beach or went hiking. my host mom and odile helped me pick out outfits before going out and my host dad called me his
princess of the south. being away from my real family was really tough but having another family here who cared about me like i was their own, meant so much to me. i have lots of friends here who's families could care less what they did and hardly ever spoke to them which made it nice when they wanted to go out at night and not come back til 7am .. but thats not what i wanted my study abroad experience to be about. my french is 100 times better thanks to my family and they really defined my experience here and as excited as i am to return and see my real family, i know its going to be so tough to leave them.
