Feeling Breathless

It's very strange but only in the past few weeks have I realized that I'm actually going abroad. I knew in a much broader sense that I would be studying in a foreign country but in the past few weeks I have

• Bought my plane ticket
• Scheduled a meeting at the French Consulate in Boston
• Begun translating my Birth Certificate (which, really, France, really?)
• Gone to a meeting where we talked about the logistics of getting from Charles de Gaulle Airport to the Dijon train station
• Purchased my International Student Identity Card

These were all steps I knew I would have to take, but the gravity of them has really made me realize that I will physically be in France at the end of January. I know this might sound silly; how would I not, after all, know I was going? It's not so much that I didn't know but the far off vision of going to France is now less than a month away and the reality of it leaves me breathless. Not only will I be going to France, I will be living there, speaking French, interacting with a people that aren't so different from me but who are simultaneously very different.

We were talking in a meeting about Dijon about how differently the French hold themselves. There are 38 million people living in a space that is roughly the size of Texas and quarters are much tighter. It's not cramped per say, but where I tend to talk with my hands, the French (apparently) seem much more self contained. I found this fact quite interesting. I know that I'll be experiencing quite the culture shock but the realities of these little details ground the idea of me going abroad. It's absolutely terrifying but still exhilarating. 

I have also begun to receive recommendations for what I should do when I am in France. They are welcome of course but at a certain point as the list grows (and grows and grows), I feel less inclined to visit these places because I'm told to. I want to visit amazing places and I value the opinions of people who have gone there before, but at the same time I want to experience France on my own terms. I want to go some place because I feel this inexplicable pull to go there. I don't want a list that will be ticked off as the months go by. I truly want to experience French culture and I hope that a less structured stay in Dijon will allow me to experience the country, its language, its history and its people best.

Title wise: I would love to watch À bout de souffle for a second time but in the country of its origin.