Up until 6th grade, my family moved a lot. Ottawa to different parts of Toronto to Chicago. Every time, my mom always said, “home is wherever your family is.” Yep, sounds great but those words didn’t really mean anything to me—I just didn’t want to move away from the cute boy at school.
But those words have been so true here in Paris. After nearly four months, Paris has become home because of the family I have at my homestay and because of the familiar faces I see every day at Vera & Andréa Café (pro-tip, they have amazing soup here during late fall). And most importantly, Paris has become home because of the NU family we built.
As a group of NU students in Paris, we have supported and taken care of each other in ways I have never really seen at NU. At the heart of it is the fact that most of us are experiencing a new country, culture, and lifestyle at the same time. All of us are learning how to order in French and how to find some Mexican food (love French food, but sometimes we need to change it up). We understand each other and we look out for each other. We found comfort in each other during election night and eased the pain of missing family during Thanksgiving.
I guess that’s what I will miss the most. I know the croissants and the crepes are delicious, but I can always have them again. I will probably never share the croissants and banana-nutella crepes with this group of people again.
