Well, now that I've been back in the states for a while and have finally settled in with new life things here, I wanted to come back to my check list. I'm pretty happy with how much I accomplished, and just wanted to share it with you all in one place.
1. Become fairly fluent in France...CHECK-ISH...I'd say "fairly" is a good description of my fluency. I can understand most conversations in French, and can respond minimally.
2. Find and attend a French church...CHECK-ISH again...I did go to church once (in addition to the finding a church in Cannes deal) but I did not end up going every week.
3. Stay in touch with all of the people I love in Washington...CHECK
4. Legally have a drink with: breakfast, lunch, dinner, at a bar, with Julia, without Julia, bought by a boy, bought by a girl...CHECK (all 8 things)
5. Go skinny dipping...CHECK
6. Go hiking...CHECK
7. Go sailing...NOT REALLY...I didn't make it sailing, but I did go on a river boat tour in Copenhagen. Counts for something, right?
8. Go to a French concert...Unfortunately this never happened. I did listen to many performances by English men at the Hop Store and Irish men in Ireland, but no French singers.
9. Watch a sunset and sunrise...CHECK many times, on the roof of Resideal and from a bench in Flavigny, which was the best sunrise I've seen thus far.
10. Spend a day biking through French country side and writing. NO...I never ended up getting a bike, but did do quite a bit of walking. And even more writing. In a solo train ride from Antibes to Paris and back again I did quite a bit of writing, however. The train ride is 5 hours and provides gorgeous landscape for most of the journey.
11. Spend a day in a small town and learn something from the locals...CHECK this happened in Flavigny for sure, where we met the lovely Sarah Page who invited us into her home. I also visited the small village of Biot to watch some glass-blowing.
12. Walk barefoot through a field in Ireland or France...CHECK in my favorite place that is a re-occuring theme here - Flavigny.
13. Visit a small winery in the country...CHECK I actually got to have dinner with the director of a wine-cooperative in Visan, a small village in the Rhone Valley. Definitely a highlight of the trip.
14. Make a dinner for our French/international friends...CHECK several times. We often had family dinners in Resideal, dinner with our group of international friends, and dinner with the French host mom of two of our friends. I love me some dinner parties. :)
15. Befriend someone on a train...NO, unfortunately. But I did make many friends in different places.
16. Befriend a small restaurant/cafe owner...SORT OF...I made friends with a local artist who had a gallery in Antibes; he reminded me very much of Picasso and my parents kindly bought me a piece of his original work for my birthday. :) I also got to know the owner of the winery in Visan and his wife.
17. Ask someone interesting to a meal... CHECK that is how I got to know my friends from Australia, the DR, Slovokia, and Italy. Just asked them over for dinner. We also had coffee with Isabelle and the director of our program.
18. Eat at an outdoor restaurant... CHECK many times over.
19. Try every food offered to me... CHECK and I'm so glad I did. There were not many things I did not like. Oh, and I tried every wine I was offered as well. ;)
20. Become more knowledgeable about France’s political process... NO...I spent more time on the beach than thinking about politics, though I did ask French people for their opinions on the French election.
21. Volunteer to assist some local group/project/person... CHECK I assisted a French student with his essays and Isabelle with the translation of and marketing for her book.
22. Read a famous piece of French literature or poetry...DIDN'T happen in France, but this is on a list for my lifetime.
23. Write poetry in French...NO...but same situation as #22
24. Complete a short story...CHECK CHECK CHECK...and working on a longer story...or string of stories...time will tell.
25. Do something I don’t think I can do...CHECK many, many things. And I plan to continue doing so.
26. Do three completely spontaneous things...CHECK booking trip to Copenhagen, skinny dipping, several Nice shopping trips, stopping and talking to an artist, and others as well.
28. Dance in the rain... CHECK at the bus stop at school, no less.
29. Find and attend a lindy hop venue... NO, sadly.
30. Lindy bomb a music bar... CHECK, often.
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