Happiness is...

First day of school! First day of school! Today, we started classes, and they don't seem like typical classes I would take at Rutgers. My first class was about French history, but the professor (who's actually French) ended up telling us all about the city and what we should see in each neighborhood. My second class is conversation based about the city and its culture. I'm tempted to switch from that class to French theater, but I think I should challenge myself to get better at speaking. At the beginning of this summer, I wanted to hold myself to this expectation of going outside of my comfort zone, and speaking in a foreign language in front of natives and a class is one giant leap for me. 

After class, a group of us ate lunch at an Italian place. I had delicious pasta with Neapolitan sauce (I think that's what it was called). It tasted fresh, at least the sauce did. When I came home for dinner later, my family also made pasta. It's the second day in a row that I ate the same thing for lunch and dinner! I don't mind at all, of course. My family made angel hair pasta with sauce from a jar. Spaghetti is a staple in my house, with my Grammy's red sauce, so I actually prefer the spaghetti at home than the kind I had tonight. It was a warm reminder of home, and afterwords, we ate fresh cherries and melon! It was the perfect treat :)

The best part of the day came in the late afternoon when my friend and I bought ice cream (not in a cone, but an ice cream bar in a package that we don't have in the US) and walked to the nearby park. The weather was beautiful, and we sat, talked, and people watched for three hours. The sun doesn't completely set until about 10 or 10:30, so we completely lost track of time. Sure, there were one or two people who bothered us, but if you ignore the men, sometimes that sends them the message to get away from you. We said that we need to learn how to say the right phrases in French to defend ourselves from "interested" men. Believe me, that stereotype of guys hitting on girls everywhere in France is partly true. Other than that, it was a lovely afternoon. We were in no hurry to get anywhere and we had no where to be. I really could get used to this lifestyle.

The second best part of the day was discovering some new definitions of happiness. Happiness is...realizing I have a bag of M&Ms in my suitcase that I never unpacked, asking questions to my host family to make an effort to learn the language and culture (Did you know that for breakfast, they drink coffee and tea from a bowl?!), taking things slow, not having a mirror in my room and obsessing over my looks, a smooth metro ride,friends and family at home who are reading this blog, understanding the news in a foreign language, seeing nuns walk down the street, reading encouragements from friends back home, and looking out the window to see the top half of the Eiffel Tower lit up. What are your definitions of happiness?

I PROMISE I'll upload pics soon!

Your prayers definitely helped me get through today. Thank you :)

“Fear is useless, what is needed is trust.”

Love,

Anna