transitions

dear friends,

i am writing to you from stanford via new orleans, louisiana, dublin, ireland and san francisco, california (aka all the places i've been in the last two weeks). i was in new orleans on an alternative spring break program run through hillel at stanford, the progressive jewish alliance and the jewish funds for justice. and now that i'm back at school, i have tried really hard to come up with some kind of cohesive way to describe how i'm feeling at the moment, but the only word that seems appropriate is transition.

it was hard enough to come back to the states. i eased myself into that one quite well though, i think. i met my mom in ireland, which, as we know, is an english-speaking country but still in europe. that did not stop me from saying "merci" to the passport-control man in dublin and pretty much every waiter i've met since then. it was so nice to see my mom and have those few days with her alone. i think she secretly knew (as mothers always somehow do) that once i got back to california, i would be hit with a flurry of emails and interviews and other necessary things, so that downtime was very much appreciated. the weekend was lovely - it was st. patrick's day so there were a lot of festivities in which to partake :)

i am going to dedicate a post or two to my week in new orleans, so for now, i'll let you in on my california life since i've gotten back a few days ago. getting back to campus has been bittersweet. it has been a long few weeks and i think my exhaustion (both mental and physical) is weighing me down a bit. there are parts i like more than others - i'm slowly moving into my new room, meeting up with friends who i haven't seen all year, and watching the sunset over hoover tower while enjoying an elephant vanilla chai :) there is something, though, that i can't really pinpoint and has been getting me thinking lately. maybe it's the sense that i am somehow less independent now that i'm back on campus, or it might be the fact that i now actually have to respond to all the e-mails i had been able to just delete whilst abroad. it might be that discomfort that comes with having made a choice (for me, the choice was to stay in paris or return to stanford) and never really knowing whether that choice was right. i've been thinking a lot about paths and journeys lately, and i will sign off with a thought upon which i've been meditating...

i came back to school and found a letter from one of the wisest people i know and in it, she wrote "a path is correct for you if it is the one on which you make your way in truth" - here's to all of us living in truth with ourselves and those around us.

à bientôt

Dear Friends,

I've decided to take a break from packing up my room to share some of my reflections with you as I prepare to leave Paris tomorrow. This quarter has gone by so much faster than I could have imagined that it is quite literally incomprehensible that I have now finished my six months abroad, and that in two weeks I will be starting Spring quarter at Stanford.

My broader reflections will be posted soon enough, but I will say that I feel so incredible grateful to have been able to study here for the past three months and to have had all the experiences that I've been able to share with you, plus some extras on the side :) There are so many things that I will miss about Paris - the fact that I can't help smiling every time I see the Eiffel Tower, the food, speaking French, the art, the music, and the pace of life here. There are so many more things that I need some time to process, but for now I will give you a brief run-down of my day thus far in order to give you a hint of what I'm leaving behind:

Paris today was brilliantly sunny and around 75 degrees (farenheit), so when I woke up this morning, it was to some beautiful Parisian sunlight. After finishing my paper about Marc Chagall, I started packing and then headed out for the day. On my way to the Center, I stopped for a special breakfast - my favorite viennoisserie - pain au chocolat et amandes, which is essentially a chocolate croissant and an almond croissant mixed together. My metros were all on time and fully functioning today (the first time that's happened in about a week) and I got off a few stops early to take a walk to school. I printed out my papers, filled out my final evaluations, said au revoir to my professors and to those students who I won't see again before I leave. One of my favorite walks in Paris is from the Center to Odéon because I get to pass the Luxembourg Gardens, St. Sulpice Church, and many cute (although totally out of my price-range) stores. Today, for the first time that I've seen since I've arrived, the fountains at St. Sulpice were functioning and there were tons of people picnicking in the plaza. I made my way to my favorite fall-back cafe and had lunch with a glass of chilled rosé and people watched on the Blvd. St. Germain. After lunch, I took the bus to the American library to return my books and stopped in to read an actual, physical New York Times before heading home. Tonight will be my final dinner with my host family and a celebratory gathering with my friends.

I know that I will return to Paris sooner rather than later, but for now, I am glad that my final day here is one that encompassed so many things that I have loved about my stay here and that I have so much more to look forward to upon my return.

It just never gets old. View from the American Library.

winding down

Mes chers amis,

It's hard to believe that in a little over a week I will be back in San Francisco! On one hand, I am so excited to be heading back to you, my friends and family, to Stanford, and to California. It's funny, I guess, because while I think about returning to my "normal" life - something I haven't experienced in the last nine months - I can't really imagine it in the same way anymore. It seems as though my baseline for normal has shifted in some way, but I don't know how yet. On the other hand, I did not expect to have such a connection to Paris, and that has made it really hard to start winding down and getting ready to leave.

The past weeks have been busy, which is why this post is uncharacteristically late. In between finals, presentations, exams, tutorials, and dance classes, I've managed to have some fun as well :) There have been quite a few birthday celebrations, random escapades to different parts of the city, museum-hunting, coffee and pastry excursions, and, of course, a lot of wine and cheese.

On Friday, my Art History class went on an all-day field trip to Rouen, a town in Haute-Normandie (Upper Normandy), which is famous for a few things: the Cathedral, where Monet painted a series of 30 paintings of the facade; it is the location where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431; and, its dairy products - HELLA butter, yo. I had a lovely day, despite the fact that we had to be at the train station at 7:45 and I live about 40 minutes from the station. We had a guided visit of the town, which was very picturesque and quaint, wandered through the streets, and saw houses from the 15th century on the way to lunch. No big deal. Afterwards, we had a painting workshop, located in a studio just in front of the Cathedral, and we got a lesson in impressionist painting! Enjoyable, even though it was rather structured for an impressionist workshop. My masterpiece was accidentially forgotten in a cafe in Rouen, and it's probably better off that way. Let's just say painting is not my forte. Other than Rouen, the weekend was full of studying, friends, and walking. But mostly studying.

More after finals! Bisous!

Part of the Cathedral

Getting my Monet on!

Jeanne d'Arc statue in the St. Jeanne d'Arc church