Now that I'm back to my normal life, the 4 months I spent in France feel like a vacation or a dream. And it really was both. I wasn't working, I was taking classes in something I love to learn, making friends with really cool people, spending everyday with my boyfriend. Sometimes it doesn't feel like it was real.
I've been back here almost 2 months and I really miss France. I see all my friends back in France posting pictures and I wish I could be there spending the summer with them and Adam. Summer is my favorite time of year and I'm spending it working like a dog right now. But then again its financing my super awesome life so I shouldn't complain. I do realize and appreciate that not many people get as lucky to live how I do and I never thought I'd even be so lucky.
I miss speaking French and learning French culture. I was improving so much and I'm scared I've lost some of that improvement already. I've gone to a couple Meetup.com french speaking groups. I had dinner with my french nurse friend and her husband but for some odd reason I got shy and didn't speak very much French and I was kicking myself the whole drive home.
I've been picking up an extra shift at the hospital almost every week. Each extra shift worked, in my mind, is a plane ticket or two. Working almost four 12-hour night shifts a week is exhausting and really messes with my internal clock so being awake when the sun is up is very difficult for me these days. I also have very little time to hang out with my friends which, at this time in my life, I'm considering a good thing because I'm not out spending money that needs to be saved.
I also apologize to my friends for not keeping in touch like I thought I would since we're in the same country again. I'm really too tired to do much of anything these days.
But I have enjoyed delivering babies again and being with all my fun and crazy nurse friends. I had really missed the 5 am conversations that happen in a Labor and Delivery nurses station: vulgar and inappropriate but always highly entertaining.
So 3 more weeks left in the US. 2 more left in California to work and then the last week I'm spending in Tampa with my parents. Time went slow at the beginning but now is flying by.
I'm not going straight back to France. I'm flying from the US to Norway to meet up with Adam for a 9 day Norwegian vacation. It will be lots of beautiful scenery and many outdoorsy activities.
I get back to France July 26 and have a few days before one of my college BFFs arrives for our 10 day southern France road trip that will take us from Grenoble to Barcelona with several stops in between. Then in late August while Adam is on a business trip to Ethiopia I'm planning on meeting up with some friends in northern England.
And then I have to find a job! So after all these trips are over with and I start my job search I'll post my next update. Until then I'll be a busy European explorer, I really do love my life!
