Pre-Departure Two

"Are you nervous?"

As my days in the U.S. continue to dwindle...(ten days now)...this question multiples, and multiples. The question leaves little room for conversation about my upcoming adventure. If I answer honestly (yes, of course! I'm fucking terrified), then their response is, "Oh, don't be worried! You're going to have a great experience! You're not going to want to come back!" Thank you for your reassurance, but it really does nothing to change the way I feel about leaving. And if I answer with humor/insincerety, the response tends to be one of utter disbelief, "Really? You're not nervous at all? Do you speak French?" Why, thank you. If I wasn't nervous before your reaction to my not being nervous, I'm certainly going to have doubts about why you're doubting my lack of anxiety.

I know I'm going to hear this question approximately fifteen more times, or more, before my plane takes off (and maybe I'll even hear it from the elderly man I'm going to sit next to and make conversation with aboard the plane), so leave any witty responses you can think of so I can have a bit of fun with people who decide to ask the standard question about studying abroad.

Pre-Departure One

I was fighting starting this blog before I'm actually IN France, but my pre-departure activities/preperations and feelings/attitude are becoming increasingly important. How I prepare myself is going to have a huge impact on my first week abroad. There are seventeen days left.

My schedule is going to be as follows (as far as I know):
Work until the 26th
Camp from the 27th to the 29th
Packing from the 30th to the 1st
Saying goodbye to Plattsburgh 2nd to the 4th
Boarding a plane on the afternoon of the 5th

The interesting thing is that I'm not nervous about living in France. I'm nervous about how living in France is going to change my life. How it's going to change me specifically. How it's going to stress my relationships with my best friends. How it's going to alter my perspective on people and the French culture. How it's going to be incredibly frustrating and wonderful to improve my French.