"Decompressing"

Bonjour tout le monde! I'm am back in the United States of America! It's nice to be home with my family for the holidays. I've already unloaded my suitcases and I'm in the process of shuffling stuff around on my shelves. I'm not sure how to wrap up my entire Paris experience. It was surreal. I survived 4 months in a foreign country and now I'm back, time passed here the same as it passed in Paris. Life is continuing on. I'm sort of in this weird stupor from the contemplation of time. I've suddenly become strangely aware of it, of its speed and its unstoppable continuation. As I'm putting all of the 1,000 photos from the semester into a digital photo album, it's like I'm compartmentalizing all of my experiences but my study abroad was so much more than what I thought was worthy of a photograph from time to time. It has shaped me in ways that I'm sure I haven't even realized yet. I couldn't be happier with my decision to have gone to Paris. I am sooooo grateful for God's protection over me while I was there. I stayed healthy and safe, I survived the all the assignments and made new friends (within SMU, parisians and from other places too). In my last week, I was really at peace with leaving. I didn't feel the need to rush to different monuments or eat certain things which I think is a sign that I paced myself well over the semester. I was present in the moment when I enjoyed each day, each class on-site visit, each walk and adventure. I am content. Paris will always have a special place in my heart and I can't wait for the day when I get to visit again.