There's no place like home for the holidays

Here I am, after a little bit of a delay, guys. My apologies. I'm sitting here in my little room with my scarf and slippers, listening to a playlist of Christmas songs on youtube...and I find myself in possession of the weirdest mélange of emotions right now. On the plus side, I'm finished with my exams, and I'll soon be departing to fêter le Noël with my friend Lisa, whom some of you may know came to study for a year of high school in Alabama. She and her family live in the tiny village of Lectoure, about an hour north of Toulouse and located in the Pyrenees region. I'm so happy to be welcomed into her family for the holidays, and to have my mom coming to spend three weeks with me starting the 27th. Moreover, I'm just so glad to be here in general, but...

...at the same time, I'm constantly wavering between happy, sad, nostalgic, missing home, joyful, and so on. I've had to say goodbye possibly for good to more than one friend to whom I feel incredibly close, watched others go home to their own respective families for the holidays, and while listening to Sinatra 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,' I'm getting into one of those moods. It's hard to describe. Anybody who knows me well knows I'm so big into Christmas - connecting with friends and family, cooking, picking out the perfect gifts, the movies, the music...this is such a change from the years past that's it's a little disconcerting. Right now I look around my room and see the mountains of stuff left to me by semester students, no Christmas tree to be seen, and outdoors at the rain that's been falling all day.

But it'll be fine. I mean, look at me now. If I had imagined myself at this point five years ago, I never would have thought I'd be thousands of miles away from home for the holidays, living in France and navigating the amusement park ride that is my life right now. It's such a challenge and, watching the students who have finished their study abroad after one semester, I sometimes wonder if I should have done the same thing. Isn't one semester enough? Am I doing the right thing by staying here for an entire year?

Yes. (once more, with feeling!) YES. Maybe right now I've got a bit of the Christmas blues, but I maintain that I am not done with this place yet. Or it's not done with me. Montpellier really is quite the city. Yesterday one of my friends invited me to her and her copain's apartment in a small town outside the city, where we made crêpes together and sat around for hours. We even played a really silly racing game on Playstation 3. Little things, gestures, like this make me feel like staying here longer will be really worthwhile. It's most definitely not practical, but to be honest I think this is something I really needed. I've been practical and disciplined all my life. A little change is good. It gives you a chance to grow, and maybe even to change.

So, there wasn't really too much point to this post besides feeling sentimental. "I'll Be Home for Christmas" is playing now, so that's probably not helping much. Anyway, to those of you whom I won't get to say this to in person, I'm wishing you all a beautiful, happy Christmas from my little space here in France.

 Until next time!