Back in the Bay!

Hey all,

So, I just hit the one-week mark. I've officially been back on American soil for seven days!

I'm keeping busy reading some Dickens, cleaning out the garage, and tentatively getting a grad school application together. All this, of course, subject to long hours of time wasted on the computer.

So far, the best part has been seeing friends and family; catching up on the Earth-shaking events that have gone untold for the past nine months has been a leisurely, reflective experience. After all, put in perspective, the most dramatic events that have crossed my path have often become minor, though significant, in retrospect. But it's been sharing these experiences and re-hashing things past that has kept me close, and even brought me closer to friends and family, old and new.

A friend asked if I missed France: a totally legitimate question! And for the moment, my disappointingly simple answer is "no"! I'm happy to be back in California (granted, it's only been a week), and I'll be back in France soon enough. What I do miss, and which I have truly appreciated over the past nine months, is operating in French: making small talk in French, sharing simple interactions, and having in-depth discussions in French are all things I'm missing out on right now. A good compromise has been listening to French radio, and I'm currently trying to get in touch with some native French speakers that would like to practice their English.

It's also been interesting seeing my life in France clumsily integrate itself with my lifestyle here. Riding a bike, eating yogurt (mmm plain yogurt!), taking walks, and reading in the park are all things I've been able to do just as well here as in France.

This post is seeming painfully boring (I'm talking about yogurt for goodness sake), so I'm going to cut it short and fill y'all in when I've got something more interesting to say.