One of the planes I’ll be on in the next few days!
I do know when I’ll be back again….CHRISTMAS! Woah.
I’m feeling sort of numb. It was way easier to be excited when it was still a month away and when classes were a distraction. Now, with 2ish days to go and nothing to do but get prepared (and let me tell you, “nothing but” actually means no time for anything but getting prepared), I’m not nervous or bouncing off the walls I’m just not really feeling anything. Of course, this changes by the moment. I just don’t really believe it. It’s simply not possible that an experience I’ve been waiting years for is beginning in less than a week.
For those that don’t know, I have three adventures in one ahead of me. I am going to a dance intensive (dancing 8 hours a day for 6 days a week) in Salzburg, Austria for 5 weeks. This means I’ll be doing ballet and other idioms of dance with other international students whenever I’m not sleeping or eating.
These are my feet sometime in early high school. This picture is to represent my nerves about doing work en pointe at this intensive and my struggles picking which pairs of shoes to pack!
Beginning sometime in August, my parents will meet up with me for 3 weeks to travel around, mostly north of the Alps.
Ensuite, je vais arriver en France! Then, I will arrive in France! This is when my parents return to the states and I begin the portion of my trip that is the study abroad through WOU. Living with a family and taking classes taught in French and immersing myself in the culture I’ve longed to experience. On a side note, if my host family has a cat, I’ll be the happiest American in France. 🙂
Garbonzo Bean – my family’s kitty that I will miss terribly.
As I pause to think and lift my fingers off the key board, I notice my hands are shaking. Is that from the nerves of putting all that in words? Or my half drank cup of coffee? Who knows…
I don’t really know what to expect. All of the research I do and information I get still leaves me just curious. I’m more or less just preparing myself to be flexible, accepting and to be totally overwhelmed. In Austria, there will be students from all over the world and we’ll be living in a school building together. I’m excited to be introduced to so many cultures and not be the only one that feels “out of context”.
The school in Austria that I’ll be living/dancing in for the first 5 weeks of the trip! Check out the mountains!!!
For the traveling portion, I expect to just be a guest in various cities and experience each host culture with an open mind while learning as much as I possibly can!
Finally, France will be the country that I dwell in the longest. I hope to submerge myself in the French way and learn how to blend in as a French student as opposed to a tourist. I can’t wait to better my speaking skills and interact with the locals. From what I have heard, the French will respect the tourists if they respect the culture and at least try to communicate. I see myself able to adapt and take on a new way of life but at the same time, it will be really hard to not compare everything to my home life.
Palace Versailles Garden
I can’t wait for the excursions!
Oh my bags are packed, I’m [not quite] ready to go….. And babe, goodbye is hard, but I sure don’t hate to go. Putting my independence to the test, my motto has to be the oh-so-cliché; c’est la vie!
Bon voyage!!!
Emily
Emily,
I am so excited for you! The feelings that you have now are just the beginning, but I know you have a great start! You understand that you will be overwhelmed and that you can try to prepare for something like that. At a certain point, you just have to do it. I know with your busy schedule this year you can manage many tasks at once and work well even when you’re tired! I am confident in your abilities as you should be too. The combination of traveling that much and dealing with another language, adding that intensive of a dance program will be exhausting, but have greater rewards than you can imagine that will last a lifetime.
I know you will experience “dissonance” frequently. This is the feeling that something is out of place. Build off this feeling by how you react. Like you said, right now you feel “numb”, but when arrive to the different place you are going, your senses will be so heightened that you will have vivid memories for the rest of your life. You will experience this conflict of cultures in your head. Then, you can respond by saying these experiences are: weird, good, bad; you will get the most out of your experience if you pause for a second or many more and ask, “What is the alternate explanation?” Start to really invest in why you have the views that you do and why whatever you are confronting is the way that it is. Like you said, the French people will respect you if you respect them and try to understand their culture.
Sounds like you will have an amazing time and gain so much from this experience! I wish you the best!
Cain
Emily, A lovely, thoughtful post. You have an exciting four months before you–first Austria for dance, then France with your family, and then France on your own as a study abroad student. Angers is a special city from the chateau with its beautiful tapestry collection and amazing garden to the university where the language school is located, to the wonderful site director, Sue Crust, who cares so much about the U.S. students who study there. When I visited the site, I was able to participate in the student excursion to the beaches of Normandy–one of the most moving experiences of my life. I hope that excursion is included for the terms you are an Angers because it gives students such a vivid image of what D-Day was like in WWII. And seeing the American cemetery at Normandy was one of the most poignant experiences of my life. I look forward to your further posts and be sure to post about your time dancing in Austria. I’m eager to hear about that as well. Michele
We are all extremely excited for our excursion to Normandy, it is near the end of July and we will be visiting the beaches as well as the American and German cemeteries. I too hope that they will continue to make this an available excursion for future students, and I know it is a popular request by American students because it is so moving.
-Maggie
Emily,
First of all I am completely jealous that you will be abroad for so long and get to experience two such rich cultures during your travels! I am in Angers now and I must say it is a great city and the director here (Sue Crust) is AWESOME! Living with a host family is such a cool experience and I am excited for you to stay here, all of the people in home stays from my program are having a great time in their houses and learning so much. Dinner is much longer and grander than in the United States (and the home stay food is much better than the cafeteria food). My favorite course is the cheese course!!! When do you arrive in Angers and how long will you be studying here? I am sure you will love it as much as I and my classmates do. Safe travels and enjoy your time abroad!!
-Maggie
Maggie,
I have heard that Sue Crust is great and I’m excited to meet her! That is an interesting piece of info about dinners! I’m very excited to find out who my family is. I’ll be getting to France on September 2nd and I’ll be there untill December 23rd. I’m so glad you are having a wonderful time and I hope the rest goes great!
-Emily
Emily,
I think I had similar feeling as you before I departed the states. Even when I was landing in Buenos Aires I didn’t really feel anything that the other students were feeling. I think maybe I was just nervous to be in another place without my family. I didn’t think that I could ever do anything like this, and my family was not very supportive. So I am happy that you have some support and your family is coming to visit you. I think that will help a lot. I have been in Argentina for a week and I haven’t been able to schedule a time to Skype with anyone. So it’s kind of driving me crazy, going from seeing each other all the time, to not talking for weeks! But I have been busy doing cool stuff, so that’s my excuse. I can’t wait to read your future blogs and see how things are going in the upcoming weeks. Happy Travels!
Melissa
My gosh, I’m excited for you! This isn’t just study abroad, this is literally travelling the world! I completely relate to that “nothing” kind of feeling. It’s weird, isn’t it? I’m just leaving for a month and I can only imagine how intense your feelings may be, but maybe it’s just the body’s way of forcing a “calm before the storm”, if you will. (Though it’s not so much a storm as a torrent of culture shock…) Also, I’m jealous of your post name. I wanted to quote that exact song. 🙂 I hope you have TONS of fun and learn a lot! I look forward to following your posts.
Cheers!
Becky