Paris // Lyon // Nice // Le-Puy-en-Velay
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REFLECTION time. (For non-Disney folks................................ I hope you still get the post title reference) Anyway, I wanted to take this time to reflect on my experiences and myself. For my last day in France, I spent it basically all at the airport. It was kind of thrilling again to navigate by myself. I obviously loved being with people for the past 2 weeks, but the time I had with just myself was also very valuable. At the airport, I was able to think a lot about my trip and also connect to unreliable wifi (#screenager). To be honest, I've been reflecting every day on the whole trip because so much has happened. I really like introspection! Get ready for a ride through my mind... in chronological order. PARIS was a good time. The airport was cool I guess. Pretty French. If you have been following the blog from day 1, you will know that I went to Paris by myself for 4 days. I was initially quite anxious and nervous as I had never traveled alone and/or to a foreign country before. I didn't know any French and tried to educate myself with basic phrases via YouTube and Reddit. But honestly, it was fine. It was really fine. Navigating Paris was pleasant. The metro system was great and I strutted somewhat confidently around the streets with my handy Navigo pass that gave me unlimited uses for the week. I am a big planner and organizer, so I was sure to download an offline map of Paris as well as French on Google Translate. My biggest fear going to France was the language barrier. I wasn't hesitant about getting around or getting pick-pocketed or traveling solo as a woman or any of that. I was most afraid of going to a coffee shop and not being able to order a frickin cappuccino and croissant due to incomprehension. How crazy is that? I have always been insecure about second languages growing up. I was never linguistically sound and always felt uncomfortable in my Spanish class or at my Korean church where I was forced (I don't mean forced in a bad way, I just literally had to) to speak something other than English. I always regretted not learning enough Korean to speak properly to my grandparents or the elders at my church. I think there's so much to gain from conversations with others because everyone brings something different. It sucks and is so frustrating that one cannot express themselves to another because they don't have the literal words. All people want to do is understand and be understood, right? For this reason, I honestly never understood how people traveled to foreign countries without speaking any of their languages. I imagined myself in their shoes and feared my linguistic incompetency. I don't feel that way anymore. It was fine. It was honestly so fine. I typically began my conversations with a "Bonjour, parlez vous anglais?" and people were very receptive. Most people knew English, or at least enough to communicate. There were very very few times I had to pull out my phone. People could also kind of tell I was a foreigner, so most were quite understanding. And besides, sometimes verbal language isn't needed. Gestures and facial expressions were just as useful. As my mom says, the beautiful thing about humans is their ability to adapt. Throughout my trip, I learned a lot of French phrases that I would use in English, my favorite and most commonly used being "c'est bon," meaning "it's good." I'll talk more about that later. When I first dipped from the airport, Paris kinda felt like New York City with all French speakers. There weren't daunting high rises or skyscrapers, but Paris still had the rushiness and grit(?) of New York City. Again, I will probably compare Paris to NYC because NYC is the most American city city place I've been to. Anyway, despite Paris being the most French city city, I felt like the people there weren't as time crunched as New Yorkers. As in, despite Parisians being on-the-go, they simply weren't as fast-paced as New Yorkers. And I find that even more strange because many non-Parisians I met reasoned that their distaste for Paris was because of its rushiness and (metaphorical) coldness. That made me think, wow, if people think Paris is very cold and city-like, imagine what they'd think of NYC. Oh, and Paris also had a ton of churches. An amazing amount. I noticed that people in Paris took advantage of the outdoors more. Perhaps this was because of the beautiful weather; maybe because of the availability of open natural spaces. Regardless, there were way more people outside just lounging and enjoying company and wine. People seemed to sit and enjoy the moment more? Who knows. Overall, Paris was a great city to travel in. There were tons of interesting sights to see as well as foods to eat. I had a lot of great moments looking over the city or sitting in gardens or walking through the streets. I am thankful for traveling because it made me rely on myself more and it gave me the freedom to move without restriction. I'm also proud of myself for preparing very well! I loooooove itineraries. Bonus: My favorite part of this leg of the trip was Versailles! Which is funny because it's not technically Paris, but was part of my Paris leg. Really beautiful. A closeish not really second was the Jardin du Luxembourg. LYON was dope. Thanks Gaspard and family. After being in Paris on my own, it became lonely. When I met up with Ty, I was extremely relieved to see a familiar face. I was even more relieved to speak English with a native English speaker. Anyway, perhaps I live under a gigantic boulder, but I never heard of Lyon before going on this trip. When I met Gaspard's parents, they told me about the history of the city and some other cool facts. They also raised the point that Ty and I should speak slower and clearer with them in English. I know they weren't chastising but simply informing, but that conversation made me much more aware of how I was speaking. For the rest of the trip, I made it a point to speak clearly, slowly, and a bit more basically to my French folk. Not to patronize anyone, but so they could understand my message better. As you can probably tell, I find language, mutual understanding, and communication very important. Anyway, I really enjoyed Lyon. And by enjoy, I mean more so than Paris. Literally 1 day in Lyon filled me up more than 4 days in Paris (sorry Paris). Obviously Paris was wonderful and beautiful and amazing in its on way, but it wasn't exactly my vibe? I guess it wasn't anything new, as I mentioned above that it reminded me of NYC. IT WAS STILL GREAT THOUGH, I don't mean to discredit the city. I just really enjoyed the charm of Lyon. It was very quintessential France to me - narrow cobblestone roads, beautiful landscapes, quaint stores and bakeries. The history of the town made the experience even more enriching and I enjoyed looking down on the city from high elevations. I enjoyed the two rivers crossing through it and I also liked that it was smaller than Paris. I only spent a day in Lyon, so there is only so much I can say. However, it was definitely my favorite destination in my trip. NICE was nice (*audience boos*). But yah seriously, it was nice. Nice was very "West Coast," as described by my friends. It definitely had a beachy town vibe. The ocean waters were exceptionally blue and clear. Nice was home to some of my favorite sights. I enjoyed looking deep into the extending horizon. It was kinda crazy to know that beyond my vision were even more infinite waters. Seeing the sun set was also beautiful. Anyway, I think the best part of Nice was living with my friends. During classes, we were all spit into different houses with different hosts. But in Nice, we got to sleep next to each other, eat together, and travel as a unit. I feel like I bonded the most with my friends in Nice. I actually really enjoyed washing the dishes and cutting up cheese and meat and grocery shopping and handling receipts because it was all for other people. I usually dislike cooking and the kitchen, but I liked being there if it meant I was doing something for another. Being in our AirBNB actually kinda made me excited for when I would have my own place in the future. It's nice to call a place your own. Really freeing. Everything was peachy. I had a lot of fun that weekend. It was a good break. I realized how exhausted I was while in Nice. LE PUY-EN-VELAY was just... Oh, Le Puy. Ah yes, the city of my education. Heehee. Le Puy was the go-to town closest to ESEPAC. I would describe my experience as more of an exchange than a study abroad, mainly because we weren't taking a specific course. We were kind of just there, learning and doing our own thing in a squad. The Americans. It was still cool though. I liked seeing the differences between ESEPAC and my school. ESEPAC was very small and specialized. Every student was treated like an adult. Machines and equipment were spread in the main building. Many coffee and smoke breaks were taken. The classes were very project-based. The schedule was 8:30AM to 5PM everyday more or less. Most ESEPAC students rented a flat or house nearby and drove to school on the weekdays and to their homes on the weekends. ESEPAC was pretty isolated. The students were a bit older than us and didn't necessarily come from packaging backgrounds (as in, some students studied biology, design, other engineerings, etc. before coming to ESEPAC). Everyone had experience working in a company. I liked that this program was more of an exchange. For 2 weeks ish, I literally lived in a French student's home, eating their foods and waking with them. I was very curious and liked talking about their lives, culture, etc. I really enjoyed learning common French phrases with them because it created a tiny connection between us. I liked reusing the phrases with other French students and I enjoyed it when they acknowledged my attempt. Like I said, I really value communication. I think I was so eager to learn French for 2 reasons. The first one is that I felt privileged being from America and thus speaking English. Honestly, everyone else in the world is pining to learn English. No matter where I travel, I will always be able to communicate one way or another. In a way, I felt bad that I couldn't flex any French? That I couldn't exercise anything I had learned (which is why I want to go to a Spanish-speaking country). I literally couldn't even try to communicate in French because I just didn't know it. My second reason is that the environment and context I was in was much more conducive to language learning than a classroom. I took Spanish in high school and most recently took Korean last semester. I learned a great deal from those classes, but never felt the same enthusiasm I felt compared to France. Because I was surrounded by kind and helpful French students and because I wanted to connect with them so badly, learning French was fun. I wasn't going to be graded on my performance or anything. I think they enjoyed my attempt and constant translation questions. SO... WHAT NOW? Weeee!
Good question. Some feelings before I dip... I loved this trip and I am so glad I went. It was a very unique experience and I don't think I'll ever feel the same feelings I felt during it. I definitely want to travel the world more and feel confident in doing so. I miss the people I learned with and the people I met. I also like French names a lot. This concludes it! I had a fun time with the blog and I really loved updating it. It became my baby, for sure. I'm actually traveling to Seattle and San Francisco with my family quite soon and plan to make a new page here for my travels! I find a lot of value in documenting my experiences and reflecting on them. For the last time... au revoir!
2 Comments
Justin
6/12/2019 06:08:16 pm
au revoir : )
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Minhee
6/13/2019 08:12:09 am
💜
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New blog, who dis?Hello! My name is Minhee and I am a packaging student. I am documenting my travels at these places: ArchivesCategories
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