I Still Love Murica

Today I'm having one of those reflective days that I rarely have but enjoy immensely. 

I want to discuss the things that have happened since I last posted here, but there are just so many.

I got a dog. His name is Astro. I adore him.

I went to homecoming with my best friends.

I ran my last cross country meet. Ever.

I even got my senior photos taken.

Looking back on my summer?

When people ask me about my trip, I say "yeah, it happened." If they ask me about the people, I say "yeah, I like them." I rarely elaborate any more to anyone, but that suits me.

As far as I can tell, the most useful thing I've gained from my study abroad is the ability to detach myself from situations. This is something that comes with growing up, I'm assuming. But I feel like I'm playing a video game and I got the cheat code early.

Dear adolescents,

I highly recommend detaching yourself from parts of "teen life". You don't have to emotionally invest yourself in drama, or homework, or sports. You get to chose to detach yourself from whatever parts of your life you want, and that's magical. Hate a class? Watch it like a tv show. See your friends fighting? Absorb it like a book.

Not to say that this always works. But, when you're detached, it's almost impossible to make a wrong move; you're barely there. As condescending as this sounds, it works. So well.

Survival skills, my friends.

And right now?

I can't wait to escape this awful purgatory between high school and college. 

My inner elitist is rooting for me to attend a too tier university, while my inner hippie is rooting for a gap year followed by four years at a mellow university. We'll see what happens.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this blog, because I've enjoyed writing it.

I'll close with two motos I've adopted recently.

1)"The past without regret, the future without fear, the present with confidence."

2)"Life's a party, behave accordingly."

Thank you, everyone who's supported me. Thank you. Thank you so much. I love you.

In Virginia

Hey, I'm home!

I've been procrastinating the writing of this post because I'm not exactly sure how to do the situation justice.

The flight was 8 hours. 

I landed around 4 pm, at an airport about 4 hours north of my house.

My parents and godmother met me with a sign that read "EAD Welcome home Elizabeth!"

We met then up with my godfather for dinner at Ruby Tuesday, where I ate my body weight in food.

I'm so happy to be here that I can't even put it into words. Here, we have so much food, and a good emphasis on exercise for females (as opposed to just males), and people who you can talk to despite that they're just strangers, and thrift stores bigger than my house, and fast waiters/waitresses, and cute English idioms that I understand, and church, and hugs, and friends that know me, and hot tubs, and cute elderly people, and quality curtains, and teenagers that drive, and air conditioning, and beaches, and comfy blankets, and nice neighbors, and American power outlets, and attached shower heads. I plan to hang a large American flag on my wall. 

I might get a tatto that says "HEY I LOVE AMERICA", but that idea's still tentative.

Being back has been very fun because, not only am I home again, people seem to be excited about the fact that I'm home again. And this is a relatively exciting time of year anyway. 

The first day, I was home I had an enormous pool party. The next day, I went to church and unpacked. Today, my friend took me to get frozen yogurt and then another friend took me to his country club for dinner/tennis/swimming.

I. Love. My. Friends.

I'd almost forgotten that they're like this.

I missed having people around me that think I'm indispensable.

And I live for people who value happiness over self composure. I have a lot of those people here.

But I miss everyone being skinny, and healthy food, and walking everywhere, and beautiful accents, and gorgeous fashions, and impressively groomed men.

Perhaps most of all, I miss the ideal that which college one chooses to go to is not a big deal and that what one does with one's life is one's own business.

In A Hotel Room

Elizabeth! Did you get home safely? Well...

That's right, I'm not home. But why? My flight got canceled.

You heard it here first! *badum tiss*

It's okay, my new flight is soonish. And there was chocolate cake. Wish me luck. Please.

Photos In Bristol

I LOVE BRISTOL.

Bristol is a town about a half an hour away from the house where I'm staying.

Louisa and I took a bus in. She showed me the sights, being the local she is.

I understand that everyone in the world might not be as into graffiti as I am but, as someone who loves graffiti, I thought Bristol was amazing.

Maybe, if you're into art or just knowledgable in a lot of areas, you've heard of Banksy? He's a mysterious, quite famous graffiti artist who comes from Bristol! If you're interested, you should google him because some of his work is really fantastic; he has a pleasant combination of political commentary mixed with quality graffiti that has made him famous. 

We went Banksy hunting and we found two. 

The first Banksy:

The second:

I can't wait to tell my art teacher.

Look closer, that's floating bunnies and pineapples.

A view from a hill

The historical "Christmas staircase"

Bristol was one of those places I've visited where I couldn't stop saying "Yeah, I'd live here."

Plus, we went charity shopping.

Plus, we had really good lunch.

In The Backyard

Today, I said goodbye to Claire. She's lovely and I'm fortunate to know her. She's one of the people I'll see again and again here and there. We'll probably get old and still send each other Christmas cards, which makes me happy.

(Andrew, Louisa, myself, Claire)

"Behave, this picture's going to America."

-Andrew

I leave Bristol on Thursday, but I've just found out that my people will be driving me to London to board my plane. That's so much nicer than taking a train to London alone!

Today is Tuesday, and we've just gone thrift shopping or, as the British say, charity shopping. I bought some clothes, which really says something because I'm the pickiest clothes shopper I know. Also, British clothes seem to account for curves as opposed to French clothes that were just not having any of that.

Here, it just sort of rains on and off quite a bit. When they talked about British weather fluctuating a lot, they weren't joking. 

If I remember correctly, America places great value in keeping "room temperature" homes. I'm not sure that's a thing anywhere here. This is very different, but not impossible to get used to. However, wearing layers of long sleeves to sleep here in the summer months is a big change for me, especially considering that in Toulouse I would both wake up and go to sleep sweaty.

It's okay, I'll be in Murica in 55 hours.

In Bath

I feel like I need to begin by clarifying that "Bath" is a city, not just the thing we use/take to become cleaner.

Bath is a good half hour drive from where I'm living in Bristol. It's absolutely beautiful and was somewhat crowded.

This weekend is what they call a "bank holiday" and that's essentially Labor Day in this case. This means that there is a long weekend and touristy towns turn into really touristy towns.

Louisa, my family friend who I'm living with (my mom's bestfriend) took me into town and showed me all the cool things.

This is her yard.

She lives in a quaint town that reminds me quite a bit of what I imagine American suburbs to have looked like in the 60's.

Being that I was not alive in the 60's I can't be sure, but maybe that can give you a vague idea and we're on the same page here.

 

We got to Bath and there we did all sorts of touring.

We saw the cathedral.

We saw the Fashion Museum.

We even dressed up in the fashions.

At the end of the day we went for tea.

This was complete with cakes and jam and sandwiched.

I didn't take a photo, but here's essentially the exact thing we ordered:

It was nice to have a chocolate cupcake in the middle of the day. While it's not an event I plan to make habitual, it was definitely something I was into.

Thank you, Louisa. You're terrific.

In London

Yesterday, I woke up and ate cereal. My host dad then drove me to the closest train station. After being grilled by immigration, I took an escalator to my platform. I boarded the train a few minuites later and, after about 90 minuites, I arrived in London. 

Just like that, I went to an entirely different country. And, with the time change, it took under half an hour.

Here, they speak English. Not only that, but they speak it quite beautifuly.

At the station my friend Claire came and met me with her friend Danielle. They are arguably the most welcoming people I've ever encountered.

With the direction of the two, we took a power tour of London- including but not limited to:

Lunch at a cute cafe

Ritsy neighborhoods

The London Eye

Big Ben

Buckingham Palace

Harrod's (which we got lost in)

Tea time at Liberties

Coffe at south bank

The Love Festival

The V&A Museum

Pickadilly Circus

Everything was so fun and so happy. 

I'm staying until Thursday at the house of Claire's family, my close family friends. It's about 90 minuites from London, in Bristol.

As much as I love living with strangers, it's quite nice to live with someone who knows you.

Also, people here really do drive on the left.

In Actuality, Are You Homesick?

Things I miss a lot:

Lifetime movies

Panera/fro yo

Curtains and comfy blankets

Puns

Smiling strangers

Hugs

High fives

Eavesdropping

Most said questions:

What is that?

What time do we do that?

We're going where?

And you?

How do I pronounce my first name again? (I still can't.)

Why?

Most asked questions:

How are you? Ok

Did you sleep well? Yes

Do you speak French? Yes

Did you understand? Yes

Where did you come from? Virginia, it's to the south

Do you like France? Yes

Do you prefer France or America? Um, it depends

More food? Yes please

Do you want something to drink? No thank you

Do you have a boyfriend? No

How long are you in France? 8 weeks

Can I come live with you? Yes

"Are you homesick?"

No.

In my opinion, homesickness is wishing I were home. I'm not someone who thinks like that.

There are a lot of elements from home that I would like to have currently, yes, but I am not homesick.

"But don't you miss your family?"

I hate saying "I'll miss you" because the reality is just that I'll be happy when I see you again, rather than torn apart when we're separated.

This doesn't mean I don't have feelings, it just means I am realistic. I can love you without missing you.

Am I glad I came?

Yeah, I think so.

In Lille

This morning, we almost literally drove entirely cross country. We started our trip a few hours north of the Mediterranean, from near Cahors, and ended our trip in Lille, right by Belgium.

We drove through Paris and also, low and behold, the city of Orleans; so there is a reason the French Quarter in Louisiana is called New Orleans.

I would like to point out that, despite the fact that it was an 8 hour dive, it was one of the most pleasant road trips I've ever been on.

Why's that? Well, I would argue that it's because the French really have themselves together. But my view of the French is fairly limited because the only French people I've actually interacted with for extended periods of time are host families that have themselves organized to the point where they can host a teenaged stranger comfortably (very organized).

Here, the house is what I would call a massive loft. I think it's absolutely amazing. 

The family has four daughters and they all came over for dinner tonight.

The quote of the day was when the dad was complaining that when the wife and four daughters are all together, he can't get a word in. He was explaining this to me and stopped himself mid sentence and added in that now he'll be having to deal with five daughters because of me.

Wow; is your heart warmed yet?