Mission: 25% Accomplished

The last week has been extremely intense and, simultaneously, incredibly uplifting for me.  Now that we've been here for 32 whole days (!!!), my fellow students and I have reached the point where things feel normal.  There are good days and bed days, arguments and deep connections.  Everything has fallen into the everyday juxtaposition that we barely even notice back home.  I think it's because of the physical differences in our surroundings that we expect the entire semester to feel like it did at the beginning--intimidating and exciting and removed from the rest of the world.  Therefore, when I have a headache or am just feeling down, it takes me by surprise.  

Of course there are plenty of times when I'm feeling great (this afternoon, for instance, several girls and I headed out to IKEA on the other end of Nantes and had a fantastic time just wandering around and taking silly photos).  I am currently planning a ridiculously fun and surprisingly cheap vacation with one of my friends, and tomorrow the entire student group is heading to see Mont Saint Michel.  I walk along the rivière whenever possible, and it still fills me with a sense of peace and joy that I rarely find back in the states.  Maybe it's the cobblestones or the bridges, or the fact that I am now confident enough to wander along the bank by myself, but it has become something that I find myself looking forward to.

My connection to the location aside, I really am finding myself in a great place right now.  My friends are making the transformation from friends of convenience to friends who have each other's back and also have a bit of shared history.  I have met some truly amazing people here, and I can't help thinking that our incredibly short time together is cementing us together in much the same way that camp does.  We have no time to waste and no excuse to close ourselves off, and because of that I am having incredible conversations and experiences with people I truly enjoy.

I have been feeling particularly intellectual lately, and this week I have been journaling both in poetry and prose about consciousness and language and connection.  I had the chance to join some friends for Buddhist meditation in the music room one afternoon, which complimented my philosophical musings nicely.  This afternoon several of us headed to a café to discuss literature, poetry, music, films, and philosophy.  It is amazingly refreshing to have an intellectual conversation in English after so many forced French conversations.  I am starting to crave philosophy and intellect in a way I never have before, and my hands are constantly itching to write down words that keep pouring into my brain.  My mindset is changing, and I hope it is a shift that will stay with me even when these people have tapered off into my past.

I recently started a second blog on this same account for my writing, which can be found by clicking on my profile information by my photo and selecting the other blog title.  I must warn you, however, that I began by uploading some of my old writing from high school which is charged with angst and is extremely different from the things I am producing now.  I also put up some of my writing from my Philosophy and Feminism course last semester, which exhibits snippets of my very liberal political beliefs.  Read at your own risk and, if you have the urge, tell me what you think.  I would love to hear your thoughts on what few examples of my writing I have managed to dredge up from half way across the world.

I need to get some sleep or I'll fall over at the monument tomorrow.

Kiss on each cheek!