The Debut: Getting to Paris

Bonjour et bievenue si vous n'avez déjà découvert mon blog. (Hello and welcome if you haven't already discovered my blog). Ne vous inquiétez pas ; Je vais blogger en anglais. (Don't worry; I will be blogging in English).

That is, everything you really need to understand will be in English, and though I will occasionally pop out the French (probably more than occasionally, come to think of it), I will always translate it for you. Unless it's so obvious that I don't need to.

In any case: welcome (bienvenue). This blog is to chronicle my year in Paris, my third year of college, an adventure that will begin this Friday, the 3rd, at 8:15, which is when my flight leaves from Denver. I will include as many pictures as I can, but I warn you right off the bat: my camera *sucks*. I'm not just saying that, it does. C'est absolutement ridicule. It also eats batteries. I'll update when I can or when I feel like it -- but please, feel free to send me e-mails with questions, comments, or requests. Also -- send me letters (M'envoyez des lettres -- s'il vous plait. Je vais vous adorer pour tout le temps si vous le faire --- I'll love you forever if you do.) I will happily give you my address if you want to send letters.

IF you want postcards -- I will do my best to accommodate all postcard requests, so if you want one, please e-mail me with your address. (My e-mail is gillian.g.rhodes@gmail.com). I'll even write something awesome and French on it for you.

One last piece of business: If you can, come visit me (Me rendez visite)!!! Seriously. Do it. I cannot guarantee that you can stay with me but I will find you a good, safe, clean, and cheap hostel. I will do all the talking for you. As a friend of mine says, I can speak frog pretty well and will only get better, seeing as I'll be surrounded by it.

So moving on: Qu'est-ce-que je vais faire à Paris pour neuf mois? (What am I doing in Paris for nine months?) There are a few answers to that. Technically, I'll be taking classes, mostly dance, from the city universities. I'll be living with an older single woman who has a grown daughter my age living in New York.

But that's just barely, barely scratching the surface. What I really mean to say is, je vais aller à Paris pour me perdre. I am going to Paris to get lost. I am quitting life for a year to vanish into French culture. I am going to be utterly selfish and do everything for myself, be viciously alive. I want to learn how to cook, shop at the markets, sit at bistros all day and watch the world go by, bike all over the place and have daring encounters with French drivers.

I have a tendency, for whatever reason, to carry things -- people (metaphorically), worry, whatever it may be. For the last several years, I've been doing it a lot, as my family has gone through a huge transition, with a lot of struggle and uncertainty, and, well, without details, I've just been carrying a lot. I also have a tendency to have a plan, an agenda for everything, always. So what I mean by 'quitting life' is that I'm not doing any of that -- I'm being unimaginably selfish in that I'm not carrying anyone or anything. I'm going to be myself. I have a quotable that says, "Risk more than others think is safe, Care more than others think is wise, dream more than others thinks is practical, expect more than others think is possible." Well, I do that all the time, and I'm stopping trying to be extraordinary now. I'll probably end up risking/caring/dreaming/expecting more than everyone thinks I should, because that's who I am, but I'm not working at anything.

At one point I thought I needed to have a violently passionate affair with a French man while I was at it, but I'm not even sure I want that anymore, if only because it's one other person to balance, and I'm starting to think I just want to be there by myself, for myself. Just to see what it's like.

I am going, exactly as I said, to be lost. C'est le seul chose que je peux faire (it's the only thing I can do). The journey begins on Friday, and I'm no longer anxious. I'm letting go of everything -- the past several years, the summer, whatever it may be. I'm letting it go and throwing myself into the arms of La Ville de Lumiere. I can't wait.

À bientôt, mes chers.