Spring is Coming!

Happy First Day of Spring everyone!



The past weekend and this week have been so warm and beautiful! I have worn just a sweater to school every day; today as I walked to the Cordonnier to have my shoes repaired, I only had to wear a sleeveless shirt! In my bedroom, the sun beaming in makes it so hot that I have to close the blinds when I'm home at midday.



The birds are singing, the daffodils are blooming, the sky is blue, couples are coming out everywhere -- Spring is really here!



I realize that this is of course, a false alarm. I would be naive to believe that there will be no more rain and that it will only get better from here. But it is a nice break, and has really seemed to raise everyone's spirits. I hope the weather holds up at least until my family comes to visit!



I've been able to walk a lot this week because it's been so pleasant. Last Sunday, I walked all the way from my apartment to Tuileries, read a book there for a while (without a coat, I will add), then walked to Hotel de Ville in the Marais, to Notre Dame, and to Jardin du Luxembourg, where I read some more. It was so beautiful there -- there were children playing with toy boats in the fountains, people wandering around, and sitting by the little chairs all over the park. I was reading a slightly trashy but completely absorbing British romantic novel as a brain-break from the Baudelaire, Apollinaire, and Rimbaud that I've been absorbing for weeks, and it was the perfect day. Sometimes it is so nice to spend the day alone, and observe your surroundings in a beautiful setting, with some entertaining reading material.



This week was not too eventful, I've just had a lot of school work to do. The next couple of weeks are a bombardment of midterms and papers/projects, but after that, things wind down again, and then comes spring break! I can't believe how quickly the time has flown by. I hardly feel like I have time to just sit and think, I am always moving somewhere, doing something...I sit in my chair at my desk with one leg out like I have to get up right away and be somewhere, I realized. That is a perfect reflection of how I feel all the time. I love it, and am glad to be kept busy, but I have run out of time to reflect, blog, and be aware of how quickly the weeks have flown by! I have already been here 8 weeks, and I only have about 10 weeks left, 2 of which (approximately) will be spent elsewhere (Spring Break). I need to make a list of the things I still need/want to do in Paris before I go, because my mindset has been that I have forever, but I am already halfway done with the program :(.



In terms of my French, I think that I have improved tremendously without really realizing. Taking an intensive grammar class at Sorbonne makes me overthink things a lot of times, and feel like I am not speaking as well as I should be. But then I step back and realize that I can speak with ease, I just frustrate myself by sometimes not being able to express my thoughts with the nuance I would like. Madame said that I do correct myself, however, and so even when I say things incorrectly, she never has to correct me because I automatically do it on my own. I guess that is good. While I feel that by the time I leave here, I will still not be fluent to the degree I would have liked, I will be fluent by general standards. That is very exciting, especially when I think that when I interviewed to come to Paris, I was so nervous and scared to speak in French at all, and had a much harder time.



I am also getting very used to the culture and ways of life here. I've heard that when people come back home after a semester or year abroad, they often feel a type of reverse culture shock. I anticipate that happening to me, because even as I talk to my friends back home on skype or facebook, I find myself being almost surprised, or mystified, by the things they are doing, or the ways they go about their day. It's kind of funny to think that someone can adjust to a new environment so easily!



In the next few weeks, there are some exciting things coming up...my family's coming in two weeks' time, I get to go to Normandy the weekend after next, in ten days is my 21st birthday...with my school program we are going to see a Bach performance, a theater show, and for spring break in April, I am going to Greece! All of these benchmarks in the next weeks make the jump from one day to the next seem so short. It is for that reason that time is flying by, which is exciting but also a little sad. I'm just trying to live each day to the fullest!



I had a kind of epiphony the other day as I walked to school because of a transport strike (an hour and a half walk from the 15th to Bastille...good exercise!). I finally realized that I am here...in Paris, halfway around the world. When will I ever have another opportunity like this? I am not sure, and that kind of overwhelms me. But I am so appreciative to be here! Who knows, maybe I'll become an ex-pat and live here after school!



Only time will tell....



Biz,

Ashley

* I'm having a little trouble adding pictures, so I'll try again in a couple hours :)