la fin

I’m really glad that I can say that my study abroad experience is not yet over! But at this halfway point, it’s definitely valuable to take a critical step back, and to think about the past three months, and of the months ahead. First of all, I am so glad that I went through with this. I literally couldn’t be happier. Okay, you can always be happier, but living in Paris is proving to be one of the best decisions of my life. The most rewarding aspect of the experience, I would say, is the way that this trip has challenged me. It has forced me to be more flexible, more adventurous, and more independent. It has also made me less shy, and more responsible.
au revoir les enfants
Ultimately, these are the things I will take away from my trip. At the same time, I find rewards all around me, every day. Somehow, despite living here for over three months, I am still able to get pleasure out of simple acts of discovery and moments of serendipity. I honestly can’t say that I’ve faced any major problems. Homesickness was not an issue, and I have a group of very good friends, who have really helped to make this experience so enjoyable.
More than anything, I hope that years from now I’ll remember the state I’m in emotionally and psychologically, as a condition of contentment that is possible, and which I will probably be working to recapture for the rest of my life. I feel that my happiness is literally a product of my locale, and can’t imagine that I can possibly feel the same way when I’ve moved back to New York. Somehow, I know my anxieties and neuroses will return, and life will quickly become a lot more complicated…that’s how it works in New York City.

I hope, though, I’ll keep my thirst for adventure and my exploratory instinct. I want to spend more time walking around the city, engaging in it more actively, and going to more museums. I hope that, after having lived abroad, I will be more open to noticing the unique and curious aspects of New York, and maybe I can even construct within myself a new attitude towards it, which takes into account some of its better qualities. There are things, absolutely, that New York possesses and the Paris does not, and I think that, when I return home, my project will be to find those things out.

I don’t really want to be too harsh on NYU Paris, because I think that they are a remarkably successful program. At the same time, I wish that I was more excited and stimulated by my classes there. Very little is asked of the students, and I find it a little frustrating to be so checked out of school. They have a range of classes, but most of these are centered around history and art…I really object to the fact that only one English class is offered, both terms, and as such I have no English options for next term! I think they should at least offer one more alternative. Also, I found that the administration there was not especially flexible, and that some of them seemed to approach the students with a degree of mistrust that I found a little reprehensible!