You know, I tried several times to sit down and write a post about my experiences in France. Everyone keeps asking me how it was, and I never really know what to tell them. France was good, I guess. I feel kind of spoiled, to be honest. I feel kind of spoiled in the sense that it wasn’t really “the time of my life” and I never really had that whole “I still can’t believe this is real” thing going on for me. France wasn’t Japan, and I guess that might have disappointed me or something. It’s weird because I wasn’t disappointed that Japan wasn’t Shanghai too. Maybe I just couldn’t relate to France or something. Maybe it’s because I was itchy for the last half of my trip. Maybe it’s because I didn’t even really interact with any French people.
I don’t know what it is about the trip that makes me so… like this. I feel very ungrateful, but I can’t help the way I feel. France was good. It was fun, like the Bastille Bal and the Fireworks on Monteparnasse. I took tons of pictures (over 2,000) but then I realized that I took even more in Japan (over 3,000). I told myself I wouldn’t and couldn’t compare the two, because you simply can’t, but I guess one of the things that really bugged me about the trip was how much of a tourist I really felt. You would have thought I had felt more like a tourist in Japan than I did in France, seeing as I was actually living with a host family the entire time whereas Japan, that was not the case. However, going to France and researching all those study abroad programs beforehand while writing my essay on studying abroad really made me realize how lucky I was to have found and luckily stumbled upon EIL, choosing them without really doing much research into what exactly their program was about.
For me, France just couldn’t achieve the same magic that Japan did for me. By the last week, I was so itchy, so ready to come home, so wanting to jet off to China or UCLA instead. I came back for a day, then left for Hawaii with the family, and then suddenly it was like France never happened at all. A distant memory, or something of the sort. Nothing special in particular. I actually don’t have much desire to return to Europe at all, let alone France…
I guess I feel kind of cheated. Like I expected France to be so much more but it just wasn’t. It was just expensive, dirty, and itchy. Very itchy. I didn’t even make many great friends – only two I really want to actually try keeping in touch with. I mean, sure, I met people, but it’s just like my experience overall – fun, but not anything really special in particular.
So I guess that’s my ISA France blog. I actually came here with the intent to write about my experience with UC Riverside Bay Area people today, and how by the end of it, all I really wanted was my UCLA Bruins I met at orientation… I don’t think I’ve ever been this spirited about anything, but I really love UCLA.
08/28/08 Edit: I finally finished uploading all of my pictures from France! Although I do have quite a few albums on Facebook, I held off uploading a lot of my pictures, and uploaded them ALL onto Photobucket instead, so if you’re interested in seeing the uncut version of my photos from France, here it is. 
Photobucket AlbumIt’s all organized by place too. Enjoy! Tell me what you think, if you’d like I know that Photobucket doesn’t entertain comments, but I certainly do, and so does my blog! Actually, the last set of my photo prints that I ordered from Shutterfly came today. I’m excited for the first two. And I’m also excited for my school textbooks, haha.
