Fin

I’m sitting at my kitchen table in the US, eating a very american lunch of chili with tortilla chips, and listening to my siblings plan out their trip visiting me in Morocco in a couple months. The past week has been a flurry of activity and getting myself back into my winter break schedule- bikram yoga, babysitting cousins, eating too many sugar cookies, and taking long walks soaking up the December sun, which has been burning a little extra hot this year. I left France a little over a week ago, but the distinct differences between my life in Paris and my life in small town, everything closed by 9pm Chelmsford has made it seem a world away.

Coming home created a mix of sadness for leaving Paris, happiness to be home for the holidays, and anticipation for my next semester in Morocco. I’ve been trying to focus on being home and on planning my next adventures, but I often find my mind slipping back to Paris and my life there. I am overwhelmingly grateful for the opportunity I had to live in that beautiful city. I personally feel as though I had a successful experience, so I’d like to share some tips for anyone heading abroad for a semester.

The biggest thing: Decide your goals before the start of your semester 

Do you want to practice the language? Make local friends? Explore all of the city’s art museums? Eat your way through Europe? Decide what your goal is and stick to it throughout the semester.

Going into the semester, I knew I wanted to improve my language skills and meet local people. But above all, and I think those two goals are a part of this, I wanted to create a life, however temporary it may be, in Paris. For the rest of the semester, I made sure that what I did helped me reach those goals.

Soo…I suppose what I am writing is really for people who want to create a life and build connections in their city. If that’s not your goal, I don’t think this blog post will help you. That’s not to say that prioritizing travel or eating, or going to all the museums are not worthwhile, it’s just that I can’t provide much advice on those things.

Here we go:

1. Do an internship

Most programs give students the opportunity to participate in an internship. These can either be for credit or not. I did an internship in a French NGO which was for credit. To get credit, I had to work a minimum of 10 hours a week and participate in an internship seminar. Each university has specific requirements, so make sure to check with your adviser before you commit.

The NGO, Enfants & Développement, was an amazing experience in a lot of different ways. Firstly, I worked almost exclusively in French (besides some translating), which really helped me to improve my everyday french and my professional french. Working in an office with French people gave me the opportunity to interact regularly in the language. I also learned tons about NGOs and how they function. Since I want to work in an NGO, it was a perfect fit. It also was a great resume builder.

At first, applying for the internship can seem like a lot of work- writing resumes and cover letters in a foreign language is no easy task. It’s 100% worth it. Do it.

2. Volunteer

I didn’t volunteer, but if I hadn’t done an internship, I definitely would have liked to. A good place to look is local american community centers. For example, I saw a volunteer opportunity to teach french to refugees through the American Cathedral website. It’s a good way to meet local people and to become more involved in the local culture. I’ll be doing a volunteer placement in Morocco, and am eagerly awaiting the day that I find out my placement.

3. Join a club. 

You have interests. Other people have interests. Join a club with other people who share your interests. A great way to find clubs is Meetup, an app (on the iphone). You enter your interests and the app helps you find groups that focus on your interests- like yoga groups, or hiking, or art museums. It’s an easy way to meet people that you can connect to.

In Paris, I joined the Club International des Jeunes à Paris  (The Club for International Young People in Paris). I went to a weekly conversation workshop, an hour in French, and hour in English. We always got drinks afterwards. Not only did I get to practice French , I met a ton of people from all over. A lot of French people join in order to practice their English skills for jobs, so it’s not only foreigners. The club also plans trips, excursions, open mic nights, and tons of other events. In addition, if you meet people, the often plan events like bowling or soirées outside of the club. To join for the year is 15 euros, but its worth every centime.

4. Don’t go out in large American groups. 

Europeans stay away from large American groups like its the plague. Try to limit your group, and its more likely you’ll meet people.

5.  Don’t be discouraged. 

You’re going to feel as though you’re trapped in an American bubble. It will be difficult to meet people. You aren’t going to leave the semester with a throng of French people that are now your besties. That’s ok. Just try to make a couple connections with a few people. The more you get involved in events outside your abroad program, the more likely it will happen.

France is an amazing city, but what is a city without its people? Fall in love with Paris, but also fall in love with Parisians.

Back Home

Sunday, I'm going back home. Back to Massachusetts, my first home. And even though I say I'm going back home, in reality, it's not so simple. 

If there is anything that I have learned about leaving the place where I grew up, first when I left to go to university and then when I left to go to Paris, is that what I consider home cannot be limited to once place. 

3. That's the number of homes I now have. The number of places where I've woken up day after day to live my life. 3 places where I know the smells,  the sounds. 3 places where I've grown roots, made connections with people, with places . Massachusetts, DC, Paris. 

I always thought that a person's home is where they were whole. The place which encompassed their whole life- their family, and friends, and work, their possessions. 

Now, I know that I can never be whole in any of my homes. One place does not encompass my whole life. I've left pieces of me scattered in three different locations. I'll never be able to pick them up and put them back together. 

At 18, I moved away. And I missed my home. I thought of the sound of cars rushing down the street at night , of the crickets chirping outside my window, of the night time news that my father watched as I fell asleep.  I thought of the smell of freshly mown grass, of pine, of the outside before it began to snow, of spices that filled the house while my mother cooked. I wasn't whole where I was, a whole part of me was in a different place. 

And then I returned home. And I thought everything would be the same as it was. But I'd lie in bed with the sound of my father watching television and the smell of the dinner my mother had just cooked and I'd think of DC. Of the sound of helicopters over my head,  the pulse of the metro reverberating throughout the city, the dusty smell of my dorm. Things weren't the same. I built another home miles away, and the two could never be reconciled, could never become one. 

And this week I'll go back to my first home and I'll lie in bed and think of Paris in addition to DC. I'll think of the smell of cigarettes that was impossible to avoid, the smell of autumn and leaves, even the smell of urine- in the metro, along the Seine, in every alley. I'll think of the sound of children playing in park 12 stories below my window, the sound of my host mother's telephone which so often woke me up, and of sirens constantly ringing throughout the city.   

And I'll know that Paris was my home, even if it was only for a little while, and even if I was never whole there. 

Thoughts on this week's terrorist attack*

*Note:  I wrote this post the day following the terrorist attacks that killed over 100 people in Paris. I posted it on my other blog, and am now deciding to post it on this one. Anything that I've added /edited will be in bold. 

Firstly, I’d like to start off this post by thanking everyone who checked in with me to see if I was alright! It was heartwarming to see the amount of people concerned for my safety. Everyone, you rock.

As you all know by now, overnight a series of coordinated terrorist attacks struck Paris, leaving over 100 dead and many more wounded, including almost 100 critically wounded. Just recently, ISIS took responsibility for the attack.

I luckily was nowhere near the attack. That evening,  I headed home to eat some food, finish an assignment due by midnight, and sleep. I didn’t even know about the attacks until my roommate and I started receiving messages from friends and family back home in the US checking to see if we were all right.

Because I really was not involved and unaware of what was going on, in addition to the fact that I am here in France as a visitor (even if I am an extended one), I feel very much as though I am an onlooker in this situation.

Like any person, I’m experiencing a range of emotions, including anger, frustration, confusion, sadness, etc. However, something that always comforts me in times of tragedy is to see the support of people around the world.

So, even when tragedy strikes, it’s still possible to see that humans, for the most part, are good. Here’s how we know,

#porteouverte was trending on Twitter last night. This “open door” hashtag allowed people who needed a place to stay because they could not return to their homes, hotels, wherever, to direct message people who were willing to let people stay at their place for the night  and find shelter.

The Facebook check in  (that has been used before during other events, it’s not new) was a really cool idea, allowing everyone to alert their friends if they were safe. In addition, you could alert other people’s friends if you knew that they were not in a safe situation.

The images of monuments and places around the world lit up in bleu-blanc-rougein solidarity with France. It’s a wonderful way to show support for the victims.

The witness accounts of people going out of their way to help the injured proves that selfishness is not our modus operandi.

After terrible events, I will always hear people talking about how morally bankrupt our world is. But, I never see that. There has always been bad people who do terrible things. But the outpouring of love, support, and help during tragic times shows me that the world remains, on the contrary,  a morally rich place.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t have my own share of frustrations or things that I am worried about as a result of this attack.

I am worried/concerned for the victims and their families. My thoughts go out to all the victims of these attacks.

I am worried that these attacks will cause a period of extreme Islamophobia, as typically happens after a large terrorist attack. So let’s all remember that there billions of Muslims around the world who are just as sickened by these actions as the rest of us.

I am worried that the extremist, right wing, racist, Islamophobic,anti-immigrant political party will gain a lot of seats in the upcoming elections in France during the month of December. This political party is not the answer to France’s problems.

*These regional elections just occurred. France has two rounds of election.  The far right partly dominated the first round of the elections in France. Happily, they were defeated in the second round and hold the majority in no regions in the country. 

I am worried for the refugees. I am afraid that they may become the scapegoats of this situation.

*During the days following the attack, the French president François Hollande reaffirmed that France would remain committed to accepting refugees. 

And finally, I’m frustrated that the media failed us this week.

Did you know that in Beirut, Lebanon, ISIS carried out a terrorist attack a day before the attacks in Paris which also resulted in massive casualties? Maybe not. Or that a bunch of people were killed by a terrorist attack at a funeral in Baghdad?

While the Paris attacks have been getting wall-to-wall coverage, these attacks were barely mentioned. No Facebook check in was put in place for the victims of these attacks. I’ve haven’t seen anyone making the Lebanese flag or the Iraqi flag the backdrop to their profile.

So why is it only an outrage when ISIS kills Westerners? Why don’t world leaders tell us that the attacks in Beirut and Baghdad are also attacks against humanity?

We must stop looking at this problem as a conflict between Western Nations and the Middle East. ISIS is killing Middle Easterners too. Middle Easterners want an end to this terrorism too.

I stand with Paris, and with Beirut, and with Baghdad.