After spending an extra week in Paris and being home for one more, I suppose it’s finally time to write this. I’ve been putting this one off, probably in part for the usual laziness but also because it’s hard to come to grips with the fact that it’s over already.

Two months (and some change) ago, I was getting on a plane to Paris. I had no idea what to expect at all – I didn’t even have an internship confirmed at that point. How was I going to get along with my host family? What if Parisians lived up to the stereotype and I spent the summer afraid of making the tiniest mistake for fear of being mocked to no end?

I’m happy to say that my fears did not come to fruition. Honestly, I’m shocked at how smooth the whole thing went, overall. I feel like I’m just a disaster prone person, so I was definitely scared for how I would fare this far from home. With only one missed train to Strasbourg and some other small public transportation issues, I’d say the whole thing went over quite well. 

I want to say some thank you’s, because I was only able to do this program thanks to the kindness and support of the following people. 

First of all, thank you to my advisor who first told me about this program, and thank you to the Global Experiences Office. I had wanted to study abroad since before I came to college, but had no concrete plans for how to do it. My advisor informed me about this program in September of last year, and put me in contact with program manager Steph Spirk. It was such a journey getting here, from first hearing about it, to preliminary meetings, to actually completing the application, to orientations, to now it being over! 

Thank you to the team at EUSA, who immediately made me feel comfortable in our first interviews together, and who planned amazing trips for our first few days in Paris that introduced me to the wonderful friends I would make during my stay here. And thanks to those friends, who I got to explore this beautiful city with. 

A huge thank you to my host mom, Laurence. I would say she was definitely my favorite part of the whole study abroad experience. Whether it was travelling with her or just watching TV after work, she made me feel so at home, and I credit my improvement in French mostly to my conversations with her. My mom and I actually went to visit her during my last week there. It was so cool to introduce my host mom to, well, my mom mom – talk about worlds colliding. I also got to see her grandkids for hopefully not the last time. While eating dinner together, her granddaughter who I spent time with during the Tour de France, switched places with her brother so she could sit next to me. My heart absolutely melted. 

Finally, thank you very much to my scholarship donors from the Nationality Room Intercultural Exchange Program and the James B. Tafel Fund. This program was such an investment in my future, and I am so grateful that you guys read my application and saw potential in me. I know that my experience at my internship will give me such a professional advantage in my future ventures, both work and school. My time at CyQuant taught me to be more autonomous, because my boss was so hands-off. I was able to decide my tasks, manage my time effectively, and learn more about an industry I had no prior experience in, while using my own judgment instead of having a supervisor decide things for me. Getting through a two month internship in a new industry, in a language I’m not fluent in, and in a city almost 4000 miles from home has made me feel so much more confident. If I can thrive in an environment as unfamiliar as that, I’m so excited to see what I can do now that I’m home. 

This year, I’ll be on the board for the French Club. This involves planning general body meetings, as well as holding two conversation hours each week. This was already one of the things I was most excited about for my junior year, and my study abroad experience has made me feel so much better prepared. I will be able to talk more about francophone culture because I have actual experience in it now, and my ability to participate in conversation has gotten so much better. 

I already miss speaking French every day, so I’m trying to find small ways to engage with the language every day, whether it be language learning apps, music, TV, or the books I bought while over there (Les Mis I will finish you, sooner or later). Most of all I miss French cuisine! I’m moving into a new apartment this weekend, and I’m thinking of christening my new kitchen with croissants…or pain au chocolat…chouquettes…bichon au citron…okay I might be getting ambitious but I definitely came away with lots of culinary inspiration, and I miss it too much to not try emulating it here. 

(To explain the title a little bit, “à plus, ma puce” was something I jokingly decided was the French equivalent of “see you later, alligator.” “Puce” literally means flea, but figuratively it means “sweetie.” In this case, Paris is my puce <3 )