As an athlete, trying to push past the pain on a run, running across a field, or up and down a court is a challenge I am willing to and love to take on. I never realized the fact that I can push my body past its limits is truly a gift. This past week, my runs have taken a level down. When I start the run, I immediately feel my right side of my stomach. It doesn’t hurt, but I know it doesn’t feel quite normal so I know I should not push myself as I normally would. It’s been so frustrating to not be able to do the workouts I want to. I am still thankful for the fact that I can run and now my head has been feeling much clearer and sharper, however, now I am frustrated by my inability to challenge my fitness.
On a happier note, there are two things the past couple weeks that I’ve been meaning to talk about. The first is a dinner I set up with classmates from the international school. I am quite proud of myself organizing this dinner really signifies how much I have changed. In high school, I would’ve loved to have had a dinner with these cool people I’ve met in class to learn more about them but would’ve been too passive and shy to set it up. Here, however, I did and it worked out perfectly! There were students from Moldova, Kazakhstan, Japan, and the US. Our only way to communicate was in French (with very different accents!). It was really interesting to try and understand each other, learn from each other, and just see where our conversations stumbled upon. At one point the Japanese student asked a question that had clearly been on her mind – “Why does Elizabeth have two names – Beth and Liz?” To me and the two other Americans the concept was clear but it is super interesting to how small things in American culture foreigners don’t know. I’m sure it is the exact same vice versa! It felt great to get to know my peers outside of class plus we got to eat some delicious crepes.
This past week, I was doing my homework in the house when my host mom’s granddaughter came over to visit. She’s only 5 and is absolutely adorable. We started talking about her school and how much she liked it. She ran into the other room and took out the book they’ve been working with. She’s been learning how to pronounce different letters of the alphabet. Her pronunciation was impeccable. Sometimes I lose the perspective that everyone who is raised in France has been working on the sounds since they were little kids, so the fact that I can’t make the sounds perfectly is completely understandable! It was also wonderful because I did get to help her with some of the words in the poems they were reading, such as “pays” which means “country”. I know more than I think I do! She also began to sing some French songs to me which just about melted my heart. I love kids!
This weekend, we are going to visit Autrans where we were supposed to go skiing, but because there is no snow we will be visiting a fromagerie (cheese store) instead. I’m set on finding a way to ski before I leave and am working on recruiting some of my friends from class since I would like to do it after finals and most of the people from my program leave earlier than me. This weekend is going to include a lot of paper writing but I am pumped to eat some delicious, fresh cheese. I am also so so so excited for Aunt Ann and Nora to visit me on Sunday!!!!!! Can’t wait!!!!
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