2-months in France

COUNTRY: France
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Language and tutoring English
WRITTEN BY: Jessica Argall

Last night, I say in my bedroom, surrounded by mountains of clothes, shoes, pieces of paper, toiletries and various random objects. On the second last night with my first host family, I decided I should pack up my things.

I've been struggling to write this blog entry for a few reasons. One reason is that the three of us have done so many things here, but at the same time, it all just feels like a normal part of life. I also had no idea where to begin - it's always the hardest part! Every time I sat down in front of the computer, I was stumped.

Lastly, after looking at blogs of other GAP students in places like India, Africa and South America, I felt silly writing about our everyday lives in France when these other students were talking about their profound experiences and the incredible things they're doing for other people - it made me feel like all of my cool things were insignificant and my difficulties were all just silly first world problems.



As I sat on the floor of my room, I gathered together everything that I couldn't fit into a category (pants, jumpers, important travel items, souvenirs I've bought, etc.). I was left with a fairly large pile of rubbish. I went through all of it piece by piece. For the most part, the pieces of paper and various objects lying around my room were not just random bits of rubbish - they're my souvenirs. Throughout this trip I've kept tickets, fliers, wrappers - things that seem so insignificant but for me they hold my memories.

I have receipts from the Moulin Rouge and the Champs Élysées, a paper bag from a bakery that sells the Kouign Amman (speciality cake of Brittany), wax paper that once covered a roll of Camembert, Metro maps and tickets, a flier with the history of the church at Mont St Michel, the label of an Orangina bottle... I found so many things I'd forgotten I collected and forgotten I'd done!

When all of these memories come back to you, and you think about what you've seen, where you've been and what you've done, no matter how insignificant it may look to others, you start to have a little more faith in your choice to come on this trip and to do this particular program. Just because I'm not in a third world country, that doesn't mean I'm not doing something important and awesome.