Je recommence...
Quand j'ai eu 44ans, J'étais née à nouveau à Paris.
In 2001 I was in Germany for five weeks but a 9 hour bus ride to Paris seemed to reset my internal clock. I knew that something was happening for the very first time. Is 'HOMECOMING' too big of a word? Whatever it was, that experiece, tres profond, caused me to make several crazy declarations that would bring me back again. I left four days later with the feeling of having renogtiated my destiny.
In 2002, I was back in Paris fulfilling the first declaration. "I will return for at least a month!" I celebrated my 44th birthday with friends. I had been in the city for 2 days and was anxious to make my mark. Later that night, around 2 in the morning, while walking back to our apartment, I realized that I didn't have my purse. Most people are afraid of losing their wallet. There in the maze of quaint little parisien streets, I had somehow lost my PURSE. We went back to the restaurant..nothing. Our memory of events was nearly nothing. And you guessed it, in that moment I realized I had nothing.
A friend made a very interesting observation. He said, hey Leona, if you have lost everything, and you have to start with nothing, doesn't that mean that you are a nobody beginning again? So Happy Birthday! Now in my applications I note that Paris, France is my place of birth :)
Two months later I was leaving Paris with much to think about. My first month was a fairly forgetable page out of 'Perfect American Vacations', complete with an apartment on Rivoli just a couple blocks from Notre Dame, language classes in the morning, yummy lunches dans la rue , and exploring the city on the best metro system in the world. But the second month was quite different. One apartment, 2 guys (one french and other spanish), my own bedroom but a shared bathroom. Can you picture it? It was a sitcom to say the least. It's also the last time I share an apt with guys!!!!
In 2001 I was in Germany for five weeks but a 9 hour bus ride to Paris seemed to reset my internal clock. I knew that something was happening for the very first time. Is 'HOMECOMING' too big of a word? Whatever it was, that experiece, tres profond, caused me to make several crazy declarations that would bring me back again. I left four days later with the feeling of having renogtiated my destiny.
In 2002, I was back in Paris fulfilling the first declaration. "I will return for at least a month!" I celebrated my 44th birthday with friends. I had been in the city for 2 days and was anxious to make my mark. Later that night, around 2 in the morning, while walking back to our apartment, I realized that I didn't have my purse. Most people are afraid of losing their wallet. There in the maze of quaint little parisien streets, I had somehow lost my PURSE. We went back to the restaurant..nothing. Our memory of events was nearly nothing. And you guessed it, in that moment I realized I had nothing.
A friend made a very interesting observation. He said, hey Leona, if you have lost everything, and you have to start with nothing, doesn't that mean that you are a nobody beginning again? So Happy Birthday! Now in my applications I note that Paris, France is my place of birth :)
Two months later I was leaving Paris with much to think about. My first month was a fairly forgetable page out of 'Perfect American Vacations', complete with an apartment on Rivoli just a couple blocks from Notre Dame, language classes in the morning, yummy lunches dans la rue , and exploring the city on the best metro system in the world. But the second month was quite different. One apartment, 2 guys (one french and other spanish), my own bedroom but a shared bathroom. Can you picture it? It was a sitcom to say the least. It's also the last time I share an apt with guys!!!!
I returned home already scheming and plotting my return. Two years later and countless hours of french chat on Yahoo France (dodging the nude camera peep shows, blocking the others) and sometimes meeting really great people, I am finally getting a chance to fulfill my second and third declaration, I will return and stay for 3 months and find my fluency.
I think I'm ready.
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