A Year In France

Exactly a year ago today, at the crack of dawn, my brother drove me and my overweight luggage to the airport. I kissed my mom goodbye and my brother gave me a bone-cracking hug; I would meet them in Paris two weeks after, but the way they carried on it was like I wouldn't see them again.

H welcomed me at Charles de Gaulle with a bunch of flowers and a video camera trained on my face. After a day to recuperate from my long flight with a stopover in hellishly hot Doha, we were off to the southern coast of France for a week of sailing. Just a few days before I had been lazing about at the office, staring at the whitewashed ceiling, relishing thoughts of freedom. Then BOOM there I was, on a Tuesday, staring up at a cloudless night sky, counting shooting stars and being rocked to sleep by the soothing ebb of the tides.

A lot has happened year after. I left my family, my friends and my career for a gamble at love. It was a romantic dream, not fully mine (I was a big proponent of staying in Manila), but I have embraced the logic of moving to Paris just the same. Far from being the idyllic life many imagine, it has been challenging and often frustrating, humbling but humorous, and I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

I had a big learning curve to overcome and nothing in my life had prepared me for France. What could be more exasperating than a dinner table full of laughing people and not having a clue as to what was so funny? And by the time you figure it out and formulated what to say, the conversation has flitted to something more entertaining. There were no classes for miming at college, but after a year here, I think I've mastered the art.

It was hard to transition from my Manileña mindset to a Parisienne's. For a few months I kept forgetting that I can't go to shops on a Sunday, I can't pick up a bite at midnight, I can't go to museums on a Monday, I can cross the street without fearing for my life, not all dogs are out to get me, and breakfast is not complete without pain (bread)... little details that I still forget sometimes.

Well now, in calendar time at least, I have come full circle. Today, to mark my anniversary in France, we are taking a road trip. My mother in law has generously (without coercion of any manner --- that I know of) lent us her car for a week so we can roll along Provence on our way to see my cousin in Milan (who tried to bring me my winter clothes from Manila last year but failed miserably), a long-protracted and overdue plan in the making. I've only seen Provence in winter and I'd love to see lavender fields in bloom. Ooooh! I can't wait!

Adventure! Adventure! Adventure!