Unlike many of the American assistants, I went home for Christmas. To me, there was not much of a choice to make when it came down to it. I could have travelled, yes, but the thought of not seeing my family for the holiday season that is most special to us was not a pleasant one. And so I braved the chaos of Heathrow airport the day their (barely) 4 inches of snow hit and sat on a grounded airplane for 5 hours-- a time period that exceeds legal limits in the US-- to get home for Christmas. And it was totally worth it. I spent the busiest 2 weeks of my life visiting friends and family all over the east coast, in between trips cramming in as much quality time with my family and Ken as I could. Totally worth it.
Before I left for home in mid-December I had this creeping feeling there just wasn't enough time to do everything I wanted to do at home. How could I squeeze a year's worth of owed visits and quality time into 2 weeks, whats more with Christmas sitting right in the middle of that time period? This sense of running out of time stayed with me throughout my holidays, causing me eventually to extend them, thanks to a convenient snowstorm in Boston and an error on British Airways' website.
Since my rentrée en France, I have still not been able to shake this feeling that time is slipping by me faster than it should be. Before Christmas break everything seemed like an adjustment time. I made excuses to myself: why look for babysitting jobs now, only one month before Christmas? I need to deal with my immigration paperwork right away, I'll go to museums later. As of this month, as one member of my bi-weekly dinner group pointed out a week ago, we are more than halfway through our assistant experience. We all froze in disbelief, our forks hanging in mid-air. How did so much time escape us? But this is the way most extended cultural experiences go; the first part is spent adjusting, the second making up for lost time.
Although it's depressing to think that I am racing toward the inevitable end of this experience faster than a TGV train, there are two distinctly positive things about being on the waning side of my assistantship: firstly, the future (by this I mean post-assistantship) is more tangible. Luckily, I have something to look forward to after this "job" ends, namely a (real) job as an outdoor educator at Chingachgook. I am truly lucky to have this to look forward to-- work I love doing, a wonderful place, and some of the people I love most in the world. This late in my program I'm able to make these plans, and hopefully ones for the post-post future as well.
The second benefit of being in the culturally and lingually confident second-half of my year is that I am thinking more and more of the things I can't afford to miss while I'm in Europe. Painful as it is to know that there are just too many places and not enough time or money to see them all, I've come to terms with this fact and decided that I will make the best of the the resources I do have. Eg: I will not worry about money. I will travel. Alone. With Ken (and hopefully Ellie). With the other assistants. To this end, this past weekend I went on a guided trip to two towns near Toulouse offered by the University of Toulouse; I am going to Paris alone this weekend and staying with a French friend who lives in Montmartre; and I have planned the vacation to end all vacations for my upcoming school break: Rome and Barcelona with Ken, followed by a week in Istanbul with my dinner group. And I still have 2 weeks of April vaca and myriad weekends to plan. No excuses, I will sight-see like a champion.
Voila, c'est parti!
I'll leave you with these pictures: 1) Lauren and me during our weekend trip to Albi... it may have down-poured all day but I would still count it as a success. 2) Me again the same day in a winery-- yep a wine tasting was included in the day's itinerary, and was thoroughly enjoyed by us in our damp state.
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