The second to the last week of my study abroad in France is coming to an end. In one week I will be on a flight back to Houston after spending 6 weeks in Perpignan surrounded my awesome friends, teachers, and mentors. This week we got the chance to share some of our American culture with kids at a school.
We taught them games like simon says, duck duck goose, and showed them songs in English and dances. It was awesome to see how the kids were all eager to learn about our culture and our language. It made me think that us humans have a natural curiosity and want to learn more about one another. Another epiphany that I had was that the more time I spend abroad the more I consider myself American. Coming from Mexico, I habitually did not consider myself American by roots like I did Mexican.
Now, however, everywhere I go I feel that I am sharing the things I learned in America with the world and I represent the United States like the people who were born there. I’m happy to have this new feeling of identity with the country that I have called home for the last 10 years without feeling detached from my beloved Mexico. Its funny to me how I had to go so far from the US to finally feel part of it. The more time I spend in France, the more close friends I am making and that will make it even harder to leave. I have decided to spend a semester here again one day before graduating. I’m happy here.
