In five days’ time, I will step off that airplane and greet the morning in an entirely different part of the world. From that moment through till the end of May, I will be living in France.
Five. Days.
Now that the moment has almost come for me to leave the chilly little corner of Pennsylvania where I’ve lived my whole life, I’ve become a little bit uncomfortable with the idea of going away for that long. The three or four weeks around the holidays were so busy, a flurry of doctor appointments and list-making and goodbye dinners with friends and family. But things have quieted, lately. After the New Year, my parents returned to their day jobs, and my little brother and my friends returned to school. I’ve been left largely to my own devices. I’m supposed to be sorting out arrangements, of course: packing, collecting addresses so I can send postcards, reviewing my conversational French. It’s been a few days since I’ve made any real progress on those tasks, though.
Since the countdown of days fell into the single digits, I’ve become increasingly distractible. Instead of making preparations for the semester abroad, all I want to do is squeeze in as many visits with my loved ones as conceivably possible. Instead of going through my French notes last weekend, I met one of my best friends at a café just before he left for State College, and we talked for hours. Instead of picking out which shoes to bring, last night, I went to see the new Les Mis movie with my parents and grandmother (that’s set in historical France . . . it counts as preparation, right?).
Don’t get me wrong! I have been looking forward to this trip forever, and I know the instant I board the plane, I will be bubbling over with eagerness to get off it again—over there, on French soil! I’ve traveled before (albeit never for so long a sojourn), and there is no doubt in my mind that I’ll be thrilled. Even now, the thoughts of meeting my host family and exploring the city of Aix bring a grin to my face. Ooh, the adventure of it! Give me that Mediterranean air and those old, sun-warmed buildings, and it won’t matter at all if I’ve overlooked an item or two in my coming last-minute packing rush, or forgotten the subtleties I’ve learned about the subjunctive tense in French. Anything I don’t have or know, I can find or figure out (or get by without), I am certain of it. IAU has provided us with plenty of resources, and while I am keenly aware it will be a challenging experience, I quite like a challenge. I’m ready for a change. I’m not all that afraid of what I will encounter in Aix. I’m excited.
But until I board the plane, I’m here, in Pennsylvania, pondering what, from Pennsylvania, mostly looks like a four-month absence from everyone I know. Four months is a long time. Who knows what might change, here in Pennsylvania, in the lives of my friends and family, over four months? I certainly don’t, and right now, that’s what scares me. What if someone passes away? What if someone moves far away from Pennsylvania, so even when I do return in May, we still won’t see each other? What if someone falls in love, or falls out of it, or has a dramatic personal revelation?
Right now, at T minus 5 days from Aix and from adventure, my thoughts are occupied by mourning, in advance, the events I might be missing at home. Perhaps that’s silly. Of course I’ll keep in touch with people here through Facebook and Skype, and provide them with updates right here on this blog. I will see everyone again. Four months of discovery await me! Relative to my semester abroad, it’ll probably be a fairly uneventful semester for everybody back here. And if it isn’t—well, I’m ready to take on my adventure; it’s only fair that they have the chance to take on adventures of their own. So in five days’ time I will say goodbye to them. And bonjour, France.
Five. Days.
Now that the moment has almost come for me to leave the chilly little corner of Pennsylvania where I’ve lived my whole life, I’ve become a little bit uncomfortable with the idea of going away for that long. The three or four weeks around the holidays were so busy, a flurry of doctor appointments and list-making and goodbye dinners with friends and family. But things have quieted, lately. After the New Year, my parents returned to their day jobs, and my little brother and my friends returned to school. I’ve been left largely to my own devices. I’m supposed to be sorting out arrangements, of course: packing, collecting addresses so I can send postcards, reviewing my conversational French. It’s been a few days since I’ve made any real progress on those tasks, though.
Since the countdown of days fell into the single digits, I’ve become increasingly distractible. Instead of making preparations for the semester abroad, all I want to do is squeeze in as many visits with my loved ones as conceivably possible. Instead of going through my French notes last weekend, I met one of my best friends at a café just before he left for State College, and we talked for hours. Instead of picking out which shoes to bring, last night, I went to see the new Les Mis movie with my parents and grandmother (that’s set in historical France . . . it counts as preparation, right?).
Don’t get me wrong! I have been looking forward to this trip forever, and I know the instant I board the plane, I will be bubbling over with eagerness to get off it again—over there, on French soil! I’ve traveled before (albeit never for so long a sojourn), and there is no doubt in my mind that I’ll be thrilled. Even now, the thoughts of meeting my host family and exploring the city of Aix bring a grin to my face. Ooh, the adventure of it! Give me that Mediterranean air and those old, sun-warmed buildings, and it won’t matter at all if I’ve overlooked an item or two in my coming last-minute packing rush, or forgotten the subtleties I’ve learned about the subjunctive tense in French. Anything I don’t have or know, I can find or figure out (or get by without), I am certain of it. IAU has provided us with plenty of resources, and while I am keenly aware it will be a challenging experience, I quite like a challenge. I’m ready for a change. I’m not all that afraid of what I will encounter in Aix. I’m excited.
But until I board the plane, I’m here, in Pennsylvania, pondering what, from Pennsylvania, mostly looks like a four-month absence from everyone I know. Four months is a long time. Who knows what might change, here in Pennsylvania, in the lives of my friends and family, over four months? I certainly don’t, and right now, that’s what scares me. What if someone passes away? What if someone moves far away from Pennsylvania, so even when I do return in May, we still won’t see each other? What if someone falls in love, or falls out of it, or has a dramatic personal revelation?
Right now, at T minus 5 days from Aix and from adventure, my thoughts are occupied by mourning, in advance, the events I might be missing at home. Perhaps that’s silly. Of course I’ll keep in touch with people here through Facebook and Skype, and provide them with updates right here on this blog. I will see everyone again. Four months of discovery await me! Relative to my semester abroad, it’ll probably be a fairly uneventful semester for everybody back here. And if it isn’t—well, I’m ready to take on my adventure; it’s only fair that they have the chance to take on adventures of their own. So in five days’ time I will say goodbye to them. And bonjour, France.