Distance

Well, we're about due for a post here, aren't we? The problem is I haven't done anything that merits a whole post. So...what I'm doing in general, then?

I've just gotten over three days of miserable homesickness. On the bright side I managed to avoid shutting myself in my room and curling up like a porcupine, which was what I've really wanted to do for the last 72 hours. Instead I went to a party, I joined the French version of Girl Scouts (no, really, I did.), and I made an extra effort to talk to people at school yesterday. And it worked. My homesickness is vanquished, until Thanksgiving anyway.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I'm making pumpkin pie for my family. I would have done turkey and cranberry sauce too, but you can't get cranberries here. Period. (Note to future AFSers: Bring cranberries.) It obviously won't be the same here, but I think there's some potential for a nice Intercultural Experience. That's IF my pie turns out okay. I have no idea what I'm doing.

Which brings me to my next point: Being in France has made me appreciate what I have in America. There's a lot that I love here, too, but I'm realizing how much I love living in America/with my particular family/with my particular friends. So I'm taking advantage of as much as I can while I'm here because I'll miss it when I'm gone and I only have a year, but I also know I'm going to appreciate my American life more when I get back. Which means, mostly, that Mom, you're going to teach me to cook. But I also like saying the Pledge of Allegiance every day, playing sports after school, making my friends laugh, reading the New York Times, talking to my little brother at night while I brush my teeth, quoting the Talking Heads to my dad.

I'll be able to come up with a similar list for my life here once my year is over, but I don't have the distance right now, and, to be hopelessly cliché, You don't know what you've got until it's gone. That being said, I do have a lot right now and I know it, but what will stick with me the most remains to be seen.