It's crazy that it's about that time already. As I sit here writing, we only have 2 weeks left in the program before we are forced to go back to our boring normal lives in the states. When we first arrived here on September 7th, this current week was no where in my mind because I felt that I had all the time in the world. Of course, it is easy to lose track of time when you're having a great time and are lost in the experience. As I wrote in one of my earlier blogs, I don't know how much I have changed so far as a person, but maybe it is not mean to be evident until I get back to the states.
My time here in Aix has been more passive aggressive than anything else. I preferred to let everything come at me for the most part, and take them on as they come with as little resistance as possible. I didn't do that much traveling because I am here to study abroad in Aix and with the hopes of not missing out on what this little town had to offer. Aix itself is quite but has so much energy that it is almost a contradiction. Every day I walk to school, with my 40 minute walk up hill from my house. Yes, the first 20 minutes of the walk is miserable at times because by the time I get to Centre Ville, I'm about to bust out in sweat and heavy breathing. But I no longer worry about that because I have adjust to it as well. When you arrive at the heart of the town, where the beautiful and large fountain is, you can start seeing a big city within a small town mixture. There are cars everywhere zipping past one another with horns blowing. Students both college and high school are rushing to get that coffee or cross the street because they have to get to class.
Going through the city at times can be likened to trying to get through a busy hall way during busy passing periods, like back in the good old high school days. It is really annoying, but within that 10 minutes that you are trying to get through the rush hour on foot, you completely forget about the size of the town. The language all of the sudden becomes part of you as you are saying "Bonjour" occasionally to people you may have met before. At other times, your tongue is stuck on the repeat of "pardon" "excusez moi" or in your mind where you're just like "OMG GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Again, you learn to appreciate these things as time begins to run out on you. So here I am again saying "only 2 weeks left" while I am crowded with work loads. Papers coming up, tests coming up, and everything else that I experience in the states during finals week. The only difference here, is that it is frenchified. Yes, frenchified is a word I made up and I like it. I still have a couple more blogs left in me, but I can't help but divide them up because I realize how sad it is that my time in this beautiful place is coming to a close. I guess all that is left for me to really write about now, are the impacts I have felt from this program and how it shaped my view of this experience.