I present to you all now my final, farewell beaver tale
before I leave France, and come on back home.
From today (May 15), I have exactly 67 days left. Sounds kind of long,
but I promise it’s not. There’s still so much I want to do, so much I want to
see, so much I have left to experience. That saying, I have seen and done a lot of
wonderful things since I’ve been here, and I’m happy with myself for it. For
example, at the beginning of April I left for my bus trip with 40 other
exchange kids, and we toured France, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic,
Switzerland, and Italy in 11 days. It
was beautiful everywhere we went (European cities truly are beautiful, but the mountains
we saw truly took my breath away), and it’s always a pleasure to be with other
exchange students. Each country we were
in was like experiencing another mini-exchange, with all the great parts
condensed into a couple of days. We got to see and experience the different
European cultures, and it was an interesting reminder of how hard it can be
when you are surrounded by locals, all speaking a language you can’t understand
a word of. Thankfully, all exchange students have highly developed miming
skills, so communicating sans-voix wasn’t a huge problem.
I still have a lot of plans to live out before I leave this
place. So far, I’ve seen the Eastern part of Europe, and I’ve been to the
north, but the west coast and the southern part have alluded me so far. Plans
have been set in motion to change that though; I don’t want to leave here without
seeing all that I can. At least, I’ll take advantage of all the opportunities
that I’ve been given, both by Rotary and also by the people who welcomed me
into their lives, and cared for me as though I’d been a part of them forever.
I know it will be hard saying goodbye to everyone and
everything when the end does come. I know I’ll miss the food, the French bisous,
the casual way of life here. I’ll miss my friends, who have become my family;
I’ll miss my families, who have become so much more than that. But, the paradox
of exchanges, I’m also dying to be back on home soil, back to the country where
I was raised, where my real family lives, a country where I know people have
been sending me there love and their thoughts and their support all the way across
the ocean. I love the sprawling French vinyards; I miss the rivers that wind
through my Canadian home. I’m still
charmed by the French language; I want to hear my national anthem sung in my
home country. How can I say goodbye to
the life I’ve made here, with the natives and all the other strangers to this
land? How can I wait to see my family and friends again any longer? Such is the
complicated life of an exchange kid. I
want to be home again, but home is where the heart is, and mine is now all over
the world. I leave a part of me with all the people who have become so close to
me, this land that I love, everything I’ve seen and felt.
In French, there
are 2 words for goodbye, ‘au revoir’ and ‘adieu’. The first translates
literally as ‘til the next time I see you’, we say that for people we shall see
again. The other means ‘to god’. We’ll meet again in heaven, but not in this
life. So, I say to you all now, this is not adieu. I’ll be back to France, I’ll
keep in touch with my friends all over the world, I won’t forget any of this,
and I won’t waste the experiences, the growth I’ve experienced here.
France, au revoir. I’ll keep you in my heart.
Victoria
