It’s now been about almost 4 weeks since I’ve traveled to France for my internship. The entire process has been quite eventful with my hoststay and internship getting canceled within the span of 3 days, and then subsequently having to find a new one. It was very stressful and a little overwhelming but now that my internship is secured and I’m staying with another family, things have finally settled down and I’ve managed to acclimate a little better. With this situation and everything else, one soft skill I’ve managed to improve is my sense of adaptability. I’ve had to switch from one issue to another while trying to figure out the best way to navigate what’s going on. This also ties into problem and conflict resolution. I’ve found a good way to resolve a lot of the problems one is facing is simply to ask, no matter the situation. Being able to get outside input for a problem or to ask for clarification in order to solve it oneself can be incredibly useful. One of the most important hard skills that I’ve been acquiring in France is of course a better grasp of the language itself. At my current and previous internship, I mainly speak in french since not a lot of people that I work with speak very good english. By continuing to speak more and more I’ve ended up increasing how fluidly I’m able to speak. I also love to ask questions if I don’t understand something or if there was anything written that is a bit complicated. This has also improved how well I can translate things of course, as I’ve had to look less and less up for words that I don’t know or difficult grammar. This brings up the idea of communication and how I’ve been finding it easier to talk with everybody. It’s strange that I used to feel anxious even talking with somebody because of how I may have presented myself. Now, I find it as the best way to clarify anything I might have trouble with, or to build connections with the other interns or with my coworkers. With the projects I’ve had to complete for work or have put forth, different computer softwares have also been incredibly useful to me such as canva and different photo editors. I’ve been able to learn a lot about these programs recently in order to present my projects with the best quality I am able to create. I’ve gotten better at using some of the features I previously didn’t even think about such as in text notes or image sourcing. I’ve been able to use these skills to help me be more confident in asking for projects from my supervisors and with the everyday work I’ve had to complete. Working with kids, problem resolution is very important, so trying to find alternatives to different situations has been incredibly useful. In addition, being able to navigate these problems in both French and English is essential to working with everyone, kids and coworkers included, who speak a variety of different languages and who come from many different backgrounds. Being able to negotiate has also been incredibly useful in trying to divide my time at work from regular daycare work to the translation projects I had been wanting to focus on. I’ve been asking for specific projects from my supervisor who was able to provide some things that fit more with what I was looking to do with my time here. It’s more of a personal philosophy but my motto is ‘the answer is always no until you ask’, which is why even taking that first step of asking is so important.. While it’s not entirely academic, these skills have helped me out a lot in everyday life here in Paris, and will likely continue to do so. I feel more comfortable simply even ordering food or going to the supermarket in French which isn’t something I can practice in my French classes very often. It hasn’t been a particularly difficult transition from the United States but it does feel kind of isolating when everyone is speaking a different language that you can only comprehend so well. I’ve been having a lot of fun both exploring France and immersing myself in the Parisian lifestyle, so I’m glad that some of the skills I’m developing here are able to help in more ways than one, be-it academic or personally. I’m so glad that I decided to come here and I’m still looking forward to what’s to come next!