Congratulations! You've given us a lot of great work. We look forward to more.
It's amazing what changes and what you feel after the years of being away from your home country. It doesn't feel like home anymore and I just feel like being able to discover and be open to the small joys of the everyday as well as go inwards is helping. It's grounding. There's too much noise, and I can't keep up.
What's happened in Ecuador and the US has now made me feel that anything can happen anywhere at anytime. I loved Ecuador, I had thought of Ecuador, but now I'm glad I'm not in either place. I'll enjoy what I can now. That's all we have is now, whether that now is France, Mexico, Thailand, the UK or the US.
I would love to see more on some of the chapels you've found, some more cultural mishaps, and more on your progress in becoming part of your community in France.
That whole "try to participate" part is so important. As a New Yorker, I idealize "small town culture" because of how connected it seems and how everyone seems to participate in the machine that is the local community. And then I lock myself my house and don't associate with my neighbors or anything that is happening in my neighborhood. I feel like one of the benefits that comes with such a drastic move is the opportunity for a sort of rebirth.
I have a student at the moment who's had a real rough time with high school. He committed some social blunders in 9th grade that he has struggled to shake off in the ensuing years. I've explained to him that one of the benefits of the typical college experience is that it lets you reinvent yourself and shake off any of the routinized baggage that you may carry around.
I'm reminded of that conversation as I think about this chance to reset who you are as a member of your community. Food for thought. Appreciate you, sir.
It's definitely "an opportunity for reset," but one of the really disorienting things is juts how much of your life gets reset.
I've lived in small towns where that has definitely not been the case. And I definitely have days when I would rather not deal with too much of anyone else, small town or now. I also like the kind of anonymity of larger towns in some ways.
But you need to make yourself a part of a place, I think. To even work against some of your own tendencies, at least if you want things to change from how they were before. Changing routines can be really tough, especially when it's the routines that are also the comforting and the homey things, or some of them at least.
I love this line, “But I don’t think it’s better than the U.S.—not across the board. Some things are better, and some things are just better for us here.”
moving to France is right for some people and it’s not right for others and that is OK just like homeschooling, veganism, learning a new language, living in Iowa, or living in New York… It’s right for some people and it’s not right for others and that is totally OK .
The world is not so black-and-white. All of us are better off when we embrace the gray.
I think that's a big part of it. If you don't find what a place will be like for you - or adapt for how you need it to be, I wonder if you might just start living in a kind of stereotype of a place. You have to adjust, you'll occasionally want things from home, some things are better here and some others aren't.
The world is most definitely not black and white & it's always weird to me when people suggest it is or should be. Or that French culture is one way or it isn't. This is messy, varied culture - I think that's what I like about it.
Congratulations! You've given us a lot of great work. We look forward to more.
It's amazing what changes and what you feel after the years of being away from your home country. It doesn't feel like home anymore and I just feel like being able to discover and be open to the small joys of the everyday as well as go inwards is helping. It's grounding. There's too much noise, and I can't keep up.
What's happened in Ecuador and the US has now made me feel that anything can happen anywhere at anytime. I loved Ecuador, I had thought of Ecuador, but now I'm glad I'm not in either place. I'll enjoy what I can now. That's all we have is now, whether that now is France, Mexico, Thailand, the UK or the US.
I would love to see more on some of the chapels you've found, some more cultural mishaps, and more on your progress in becoming part of your community in France.
That whole "try to participate" part is so important. As a New Yorker, I idealize "small town culture" because of how connected it seems and how everyone seems to participate in the machine that is the local community. And then I lock myself my house and don't associate with my neighbors or anything that is happening in my neighborhood. I feel like one of the benefits that comes with such a drastic move is the opportunity for a sort of rebirth.
I have a student at the moment who's had a real rough time with high school. He committed some social blunders in 9th grade that he has struggled to shake off in the ensuing years. I've explained to him that one of the benefits of the typical college experience is that it lets you reinvent yourself and shake off any of the routinized baggage that you may carry around.
I'm reminded of that conversation as I think about this chance to reset who you are as a member of your community. Food for thought. Appreciate you, sir.
It's definitely "an opportunity for reset," but one of the really disorienting things is juts how much of your life gets reset.
I've lived in small towns where that has definitely not been the case. And I definitely have days when I would rather not deal with too much of anyone else, small town or now. I also like the kind of anonymity of larger towns in some ways.
But you need to make yourself a part of a place, I think. To even work against some of your own tendencies, at least if you want things to change from how they were before. Changing routines can be really tough, especially when it's the routines that are also the comforting and the homey things, or some of them at least.
It's a balance we haven't quite gotten to yet?
I love this line, “But I don’t think it’s better than the U.S.—not across the board. Some things are better, and some things are just better for us here.”
moving to France is right for some people and it’s not right for others and that is OK just like homeschooling, veganism, learning a new language, living in Iowa, or living in New York… It’s right for some people and it’s not right for others and that is totally OK .
The world is not so black-and-white. All of us are better off when we embrace the gray.
I think that's a big part of it. If you don't find what a place will be like for you - or adapt for how you need it to be, I wonder if you might just start living in a kind of stereotype of a place. You have to adjust, you'll occasionally want things from home, some things are better here and some others aren't.
The world is most definitely not black and white & it's always weird to me when people suggest it is or should be. Or that French culture is one way or it isn't. This is messy, varied culture - I think that's what I like about it.