Second Semester

Hi all!

I am finally back and Dijon and have a free minute to talk to you all about the amazing two weeks I spent in London and St. Andrews seeing some of my closest friends.

After 17 hours of traveling yesterday, I’m rested and ready to take on my exams which last until the week of the 17th. However, those hours spent on a train bunched up next to my backpack and sweating in my winter coat because it didn’t fit in my luggage were 100% worth the hassle, seeing as I had a fantastic time on my UK excursion. All in all, I was in London for about a week, yet I still found myself scrambling to get to everything there is to see–it is impossible to see all of London in one vacation, but what I did manage to see blew me away. London is clean, easy to navigate and amazingly beautiful. I am also a huge Harry Potter fan, so I was so happy to see some of the sights mentioned in the books and films (my dignity slowly dwindled standing in line for the platform 9 3/4 picture). I also got the chance to visit my good friend Katrina, who is studying at Oxford this year. In addition to seeing the beautiful city and the dreamy spires of all the individual colleges, her family was kind enough to take me out for a day trip in their rental car to Stratford-upon-Avon and the surrounding English countryside, both of which were beautiful.

After London, I shipped up to Edinburgh to visit St. Andrew’s for a second time–the town and cathedral are still as beautiful as ever and more adventures were to be had with some of my Holy Cross friends who made the voyage over to celebrate New Year’s with us! A few amazing hikes and more than a few amazing meals later, I was sadly shoving my suitcase full of dirty laundry and setting an alarm to head back to France. It was difficult to leave my friends, but the fact that our relationship stays strong despite 3,000 miles, 6 hours in time difference and our different struggles make me very excited to spend senior year celebrating every moment I have left with them.

As for my return to France, my feelings are mixed. Coming off of such a wonderful time with friends, it’s hard to reassume my daily routine, and I wish more than ever that my friends would come to visit and see what my life actually looks like. Yet, at the same time, I am so happy that Dijon really does feel like home; the sound of the tram bells, the taste of a ham and cheese sandwich on a baguette, the constant chatter of hushed French as people walk by (and knowing what people are whispering about)–all these sights, sounds and tastes are familiar to me and, now more than ever, comfortable to me. It really is an amazing feeling to have adopted some of the French culture as my own. Going into my second semester, I am really looking forward to appreciating these small moments of comfort and pleasure in the knowledge that they were not easily gained, but rather that they came as a result of many months of adjustment and trial.

À la prochaine,

Thomas

Hey ben

Hieroglyphs at the British Museum or French in the passé simple, idk

More than a little bit embarrassed

Oxford!

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