Audrey Telfer, Sciences Po Exchange, Fall 2014
I am now firmly in the second half of the semester at Sciences Po. We just had our autumn break and now I have several term papers and final exams awaiting me in the next month and a half. All of the sudden, I’m terrified I won’t be able to fit in all the things I want to/need to do before I return to the States. My time here has become infinitely more precious; I wonder if I have squandered my first few months here.
Letting this initial panic settle, I realize the source of these fears arises from the fact that I don’t want to leave Paris. This was especially clear for me when I returned to Paris from Italy this weekend. After a hectic week of traveling (changing cities every other day and cramming as much site seeing as possible into each day), returning to Paris was like going home.
At the airport, while waiting for a bus to take me to the heart of Paris, I had a brief interaction with an elderly French woman that made me feel French. The woman had tried to ask the couple in front of me where Terminal One was. The couple was American and didn’t speak any French so tried to politely express their lack of comprehension. It was late and there really wasn’t any one else around, the woman looked very nervous and confused, so I stepped up and asked if I could help her. Someone was picking her up in front of Terminal One but she didn’t really know where that was. Having walked the entire airport the previous time I was there, trying to find my own terminal, I had a decent map of the airport in my head. I pointed her in the right direction. She was very grateful. The American couple next to me stared at me baffled because I had previously spoken to them in perfect American English and now I was conversing with someone in French. I finally feel fully integrated into the Parisian culture.