Conclusion

All good things must come to an end and here we are. I will start off by saying that I am honestly impressed with myself for sticking with this blog. I’m not going to lie, there definitely were a lot of nights where writing this blog was the last thing I wanted to do. Still, 137 blog posts later and I am finished. I want to thank everyone who took time to read my blog, especially the few people who read every single one. I don’t know who all of you are, but the statistics I get from WordPress.com tell me that my readers do in fact exist.

On some of my most popular days, I have had over thirty different people read my blog in a day. On less popular days, this number was closer to two or even one person. Either way, knowing people were reading my blog was a huge motivation to write while I was in France.

Now that I have done my basic acknowledgements, it is time for some reflection. I know that having a life changing experience while studying abroad can be pretty cliché, but I definitely learned a lot about myself these past couple months.

The first place I will start will be with the goals I set for myself in the beginning and again at the halfway mark. I addressed some of these in my halfway point, so I will try to avoid repeating some thoughts.

Let’s see how I did:

Learn French: SUCCESS

I arrived in France literally knowing zero French. I left France being conversational in France. I can have hour long conversations in French with my host family in French and this seems like definite proof to me.

Purchase and use a Sonicare toothbrush: NOPE

As addressed in my halfway post, I don’t think these even exist in France. I continued to have really good dental hygiene in France, so that counts for something.

Don’t puke from drinking: NOPE

Can’t say I was successful in this one. When in you are in Amsterdam with your friends and people keep buying you drinks, it can be tough to keep track of how much you’re drinking. Overall I drank much smaller volumes of alcohol than in Boston while here, so that counts for something.

Go snowboarding in the Alps: SUCCESS

I went skiing four times and learned this was a better alternative than snowboarding. Even though I got a mild concussion my last ski trip, I am definitely hooked on skiing now and want to ski a lot next winter. The Alps are truly an amazing place for skiing.

High GPA: SUCCESS??

I technically haven’t gotten all my grades back yet, but I’ve gotten two A’s so far. The rest should be similar hopefully. This semester was much different than a typical one in Boston. It is surprising how different lectures are here and how little homework there is. Though it should be mentioned that I spend a lot more time actually in class.

Visit Sicily/Italy: SUCCESS

Not only did I go to Sicily, but I went to Italy two other times. Overall I went to: Venice, Milan, Le Cinque Terre, Taormina, and Catania. I also took buses and trains through large parts of the Italian countryside. It was a ton of fun to practice my Italian skills and I ate a ton of really good food.

Continuously lift: SUCCESS

I was really good with this one and committed to my gym membership.

Fall in love with a French woman/get my heart broken by a French woman: NOPE

I didn’t really have any luck with the French ladies and think I will stick to American girls for the time being. I did have a ton of nice conversations with random French girls at bars, so I guess that counts for something. I also got rejected by countless French women, so that probably qualifies for getting my heart broken.

New foreign friends: SUCCESS

This one is mostly from having classes with French and foreign students. I met a ton of really cool people and am sad I that I might not be able to see them ever again.

Visit at least 5 new countries: SUCCESS

France, Sweden, Ireland, Netherlands, England and Switzerland. Pretty good if you ask me.

(New Goals added halfway through)

Solo Trip: SUCCESS

My Sicily trip was done solo. It was a lot of fun and made me learn a lot about planning for trips finding things to do. I reflect a bit about this in a previous post.

Try a bizarre food: SUCCESS

I had great success with this one while in Sicily. I tried eating horse and squid ink pasta. The horse was delicious, but the pasta nero was a bit too intense for me.

Make a spontaneous trip to a new country: SUCCESS

While I didn’t go to a new country, I think my spontaneous trip the US for my Grandma’s funeral should count. This was one of the most stressful travel days of my life and I definitely do not recommend ever booking a flight the day of. I took the train in the wrong direction for a few hours and had to race back to catch one of the few fights to the US that day. And by flight to the US, I mean a flight from Sicily to Rome, Rome to Moscow, then Moscow to JFK.

Beach trip in the south of France with the Boys: NOPE

My friends and I looked into this, but the bus tickets ended up being around ninety euros which isn’t worth it for a day trip. I will definitely have to return to the south of France to go to some of the beaches.

Go hiking around Grenoble: SUCCESS

I guess hiking up the Bastille will have to count for this one. Additionally, I did a ton of hiking in Le Cinque Terre while in Italy, so I definitely fulfilled my hiking cravings.

I feel very content with how I did with all my goals. For the most part, I did everything that I wanted to do. While this isn’t a goal I completed, I have a few final takeaways from my time in France. The most important thing I learned was how valuable alone time can be. Having my own room in France was truly the first time I’ve ever had my own room. As a result, I spent a lot of time just relaxing by myself.

Prior to coming to France, I was very used to having roommates. While I could appreciate having the room to myself once in a while, I definitely felt much more comfortable having people around. If I felt like I was spending too much time alone, I would pressure myself to go hang out with someone. Now I have truly grown to enjoy this occasional time alone. I think it does wonders for staying stress free and this has been the least stressful semester in college so far.

Additionally, travelling solo a few times was a very interesting experience. You are really out on your own and how great your day goes is completely on you. Having my bus ticket home canceled in Geneva was super valuable experience to me while travelling alone. I was understandably very annoyed and ticked off when I learned I had to find a new way to Grenoble and spend a decent amount of money on a new ticket. In this moment, I realized that being angry or in a bad mood wouldn’t help my situation at all. All I could do was take a deep breath and keep on moving forward. This is a lesson I want to apply again in the future when I encounter stressful situations.

I could probably go on about becoming worldlier or learning to embrace new cultures, but that seems a bit too stereotypical to me. I got to go to a ton of new places and try many new things. For that, I am very grateful. While most of my spending money was my own, I want thank my family for financial support while studying abroad.

I definitely feel like I am returning to the US as a much more independent and responsible person. Additionally after twenty-two flights, countless buses and trains, and many destinations, I have scratched my “I’m young and want to travel” itch that most people have. And to be honest, I am pretty damn sick of travelling.

On that note, that’s really all I have to say. I am already looking forward to rereading my blog ten years from now. I am now longer a “Foreign Tourist with No Grasp of the Local Language” , but now an impressive, “Foreign Tourist with an OK Grasp of the Local Language”.

Thanks for reading my blog and following my adventures,

Will