Bonjour, mes amis!

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Hello my friends!

Here I am, in the City of Light! It is considered the fashion capital of the world, epicenter to cultural intellectualism and artistry, and home to the most sophisticated standard of high living and propriety. I am in Paris, the grandiose capital of France. And I am here for the next few winter months on a mission to discover an entirely new society of being.

The last time I was here was fifteen years ago, when I was a little girl. I don’t remember much other than the Eiffel Tower and that surprise drop in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. I have heard from so many people that Paris is one incredible city with no other like it, and I will spend the next ten weeks trying to uncover the essence of this global capital.

My said mission is to study politics and French, but I am here more so to understand a civilization that that stretched the globe and influence nearly every corner of it. French colonies extended from Africa, to modern day Canada, Tahiti, the Middle East, and Vietnam. Different cultures from across the world are united by the same language and similar colonized experiences. France is the heart of it all, and I want to see how the so called “motherland” finds herself in this post industrial, post colonial and globalized world order- and how the immigrant population, composed of these disintegrated colonies, go about living here as French citizens.

From exploring the streets of Paris, to making new friends, to traveling to the French countryside, this study abroad experience sponsored by my university back in Chicago should leave an imprint of discovery and change stamped into my personality and mind. With this being my fourth or fifth time packing my life in a bag and moving to a new location within the past three years, I am ready to once again adapt to my new environment, and hopefully leave more “French” than I was before. There are so many good things that a traveler can adapt from this society- and the best way to absorb this change is to live the way natives do- shopping at grocery stores, cooking, taking transit and interacting with people, and utilizing the language.

Who knows when I will retire from this “three months at a time in a new place” business, but I can tell you for certain right now, that moment is not soon.

Follow me through this new adventure.

Yasmeen

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