Studying abroad took my emotions everywhere from arrival to well into returning to the US. The day I left for France I was a mixture of excitement and nervous, more excited than anything else that I was finally going to live in Paris. I had never traveled by myself before and was freaking out that I would miss my flight or lose my luggage or something - of course none of that actually did happen it was all nerves. After the long flights and finally arriving in France, everything seemed surreal, it took a couple days for me to realize that I was actually living in Paris and it was real. Inital adjustment to the French culture was easy for me since I wanted to experience it all and was so excited to try out something new.
Leaving was a completely different situation. One of my roommates and I were the first to leave out of our close knit group of friends and we all did cry and reminisce about everything that had happened over those 4 months. It was really weird leaving, as sad as I was that I was leaving, I was also overflowing with happiness that I got to go abroad.
I'm sure you've all heard about reverse culture shock and I defiantly had a bad case of it. When I got back to the US, I missed my new friends, and I missed everything about Paris and living on my own. Sure I was happy to be home and be with all my friends I missed but, rreadjusting back to your own culture and what you are used was the weirdest, most confusing thing for me. Luckily, one of my best friends had studied abroad and many of my friends studied abroad at the same time as me so it was very comforting to have people to talk to and understand what you go through cause it is really hard to explain!
Thankfully technology like skype helps a lot! I still skype or talk on the phone all the time with my friends I meet while living in France and we already had one reunion in Las Vegas!
Thats all for now,
Kelsey
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