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I’m back in Oklahoma! Upon touching down in the Oklahoma City airport, I looked out the plane window to see fireworks shooting off in the distance. They were probably for college graduation, but I will say they were celebrating my arrival. I’ve so far been scrambling to get my life in order with health insurance, cell phone, banking, etc. and trying to not worry too much after the future. Tomorrow I will be driving down to Dallas for one of my best friend’s weddings and after that will spend some time in Bartlesville, my hometown. I’ve gotten to see a few friends already and have been staying with my brother. I’ll be continuing with my Europe posts soon and will take pictures in Dallas for a post on that. I really need to change the title of this blog! Or should I start a new one and leave this as a record of France?
I’m back from Rome and the past two days in Valence have gone by too quickly. I’ve stuffed all of my things into a suitcase and three bags, hoping to stay under the weight limit. I’ve said goodbye to many people and tonight people will say goodbye to me. I’m mixed, half excited to go back to my home country where I can understand everything that is said to me and see my friends and family. Then again, I will miss France and the life I made here. But if I stayed, it wouldn’t be the same. Already it seems empty without the other assistants around. I’m still anxious about the rest of the year. I know what I will be doing up until the end of June, but after that it’s fuzzy. I could live anywhere and plan to pick a big city somewhere in the States, but I haven’t decided where. Yet the anxiety is softened by some anticipation of making new friends and discovering more of the world. Sometimes I worry that I will never be able to stay in one place, although maybe I’ll find a perfect place to stay when I get older.
I have absolutely no regrets about coming to France with this program. I’ve met people who I hope will be friends for my whole life and have gotten more confident in my ability to adapt and endure. I’m looking forward to visiting the friends I’ve made around the world and hope a few of them will find their way to the States.
I’ll try to complete blogging about Europe once I’m back in the States. I’m going to Paris early tomorrow morning and will meet a few people there before flying to Oklahoma City on Saturday. Then you can expect to see some posts about Dallas and my new job in the Oklahoma “mountains.”
If you want to see some photos of Rome, I’ve uploaded them to flickr. I hope you all have enjoyed my France blogging and will keep following my adventures!
Where does the time go? I think I’m going to still be catching up on blogging about France when I am back in the States. I returned from a wonderful weekend in Paris with my friend Helen last night and am leaving for six days in Rome tomorrow. Things that probably won’t get their own blog posts include my visit to Grenoble with Kat and Liza to see the crazy David Altmejd exhibit at Le Magasin. It was an amazing room full of what I can best describe as giant mirror transformer werewolves. There was also the Fête du Printemps in Valence, that featured an odd Texas/Oklahoma area complete with “authentic” outlaws and Indians as well as horse tricks and awful lassoing. Pictures here, here, and here. The festival also had one of the creepiest things I’ve ever seen in France: a performance of vegetable people, like Giuseppe Arcimboldo paintings come to life. I also went to Voiron with Kat and Leslie to visit Jaime to mark her last day in French with a climb up the hill behind her home. We didn’t factor in the fact that it had been raining, so not only was it an incredibly steep hike over slick leaves, there were also huge disgusting slugs EVERYWHERE. But the trek up slug mountain was worth it for the gorgeous view of the Alps and Rhone-Alpes.
As you can tell, it’s been a busy time and I feel like everyday I have to say goodbye to someone. I know that we’ll stay in touch, but I honestly don’t know when I’ll get a chance to see my friends again. I guess I feel lucky to have met so many wonderful people in such a short period of time. It’s only been since September that I stepped off the plane, a stranger to everyone in a city I had never seen.
Lyon in the fog.
On my parents’ last day in France, we took the train to Lyon, the second-largest city in France. The weather was a little foggy, but we had a nice walk around the city and a delicious lunch on one of the boulevards. I believe I had a can of my favorite soft drink in France: Schweppes Agrumes.
Someone had painted landscapes on the steps leading up to the Basilica.
I had no idea that the day after Easter was a holiday in France, so unfortunately a lot of things were closed. We took the stairs (I’m always going up steps in France) up to the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière and passed a lot of miniature landscapes that someone had painted on the walls.
Flowers at the statue's feet.
After admiring the view and seeing the inside of the Basilica, we saw the nearby Roman theatre and then took the path down the hill to the old town. Flowers had been placed at the feet of this statue of Mary, probably on Easter.
Weird rabbit swastika-thing on the Cathédrale Saint-Jean.
Unlike the rest of the city, the old town was bustling. I guess because it’s one of the most popular parts of town, and also because it was the only area open. We went into the Cathédrale Saint-Jean where we saw my new favorite thing in Lyon: the Horloge Astronomique. At certain hours of the day, it has 19 different automatons that move. Although one woman hilariously freaked out when it didn’t work right at 3 pm (according to her watch), it was not at all disappointing and bordered on spectacular. This video is the best I can find, but doesn’t really do it justice. It’s one of the oldest astronomical clocks in the world and was created in 1383. And the music it plays might end up in your nightmares.
Coffee in Lyon.
Afterward we had coffee and strolled around the streets and passages of the old town before sitting for a while by the river and then catching a train back to Valence. The next day I saw my parents off on the train to Paris and it felt a little odd to still be in Valence.
