Enjoy The Silence

I can’t really recall whether or not I’ve said this before in a prior blog, but I can’t escape the odd feeling that time is going by so fast, yet so steadily as well. It’s the weirdest feeling because you see the dates passing you by, yet you feel like each day is a unique experience in and of itself, so that leaves you feeling like life is taking its time with you because of how much you get to experience. I’ve come to believe that this is a unique aspect of studying abroad and one that no alumni ever really tells you about because they themselves struggle to understand it, as I am now, due to its complex sociological nature, I suppose. In this blog, I have attached two pictures of two of these “experiences” from this past week. On Tuesday, I got out of my French class, a class which includes a large number of American students from my program’s cohort, so I always love going because I feel at home in that class. The class is from 1:30 to 4:30, so once we get out, the sun is usually setting and that’s when I was able to capture this picture; I’ve actually developed the habit of randomly snapping pictures of Paris when I see a nice image and that’s what this picture is. The second picture is of the Arc de Triomphe on November 11, Armistice Day in France and Veterans Day in the U.S.A. I went with a couple friends and we were able to catch a few glimpses of the parade and ceremony, but after a while, we just decided to grab a bite to eat and we ended up in an American restaurant near the Champs-Elysee. As I said in the beginning, time seems to fly by and take its time; I guess that’s what happens when we come to Paris for a year: our experiences begin to take on a new light and I hope you were able to get a bit of a glimpse of mine in my blog!