LILY TO GO: Being there.
By Lily Hodges on March 5, 2009
PARIS (Herald de Paris) – Recently I did something I promised myself I wouldn’t do – I used my time living in Paris to travel elsewhere in Europe. This, the young American’s notion of studying abroad, is not an experience of living abroad, or studying for that matter, but really a chance to travel. To travel to a different country every weekend, check out the party scene, then snap some pictures in front of famous places, is actually part of the cultural experience. Don’t get me wrong – traveling is a great thing, but my desire was to try to stay put, and turn this experience into a chance to call Paris home. Besides, I’m comforted in knowing that most Europeans don’t travel Europe anyways, at least not the way a freshly graduated Americans does.
But what does it mean to call a city home? For starters, it is much more than simply keeping an address there. To refer to a historically significant, culturally influential, major international city as “home”, I believe, is to have the luxury to not take advantage of all the guidebook worthy attractions. This may sound backwards, but there is a difference between being a resident and being a tourist.
I spent eighteen years in beautiful San Francisco and never went to Alcatraz. I didn’t visit Coit Tower until a couple months before leaving, and that was only to add it to my cultural capital repertoire. Ask a true New Yorker if they have visited the Empire State Building or toured the Statue of Liberty and the percentage of those who have is usually reserved to mandatory school trips. Living is a simple concept that transcends all cultures. When a rough week has passed, weekends are needed for rest. Those Sunday mornings coveted by tourists when the city is theirs to divide and conquer, are the beloved hours residents use to sleep in.
Perhaps this is simply a reaction to a common question I receive, “How is Paris?!” I never quite know what to say, perhaps, “Paris is fine and she wants to know how you are, as well.” I am pressured to give a fabulous description of afternoons walking beside the Seine, yet left guilty wanting to ignore the question entirely and answer how my life is. Well, my life is fine, thankyouverymuch, and I love Paris … but that’s boring. I pass the Eiffel Tower everyday on the metro – now that’s exciting. The back story, however, is that the Eiffel Tower is usually a horrible reminder that I am three stops away from school and still haven’t completed my French homework.
Perhaps my answer should just be that. I’m quite happy to be out of the United States, ce moment. Now if only I could improve my French so I do not automatically give my identity away.
I sympathize completely ! I also just want to live in Paris but need to learn French well enough before I can feel I fit in. I spend a lot of time being in Paris whilst not belonging there.
No matter how attractive the constant eye candy in Paris is, it succumbed to the tourist.
They came, they saw and they conquered. So if you feel different to them it’s a step in the right direction!
At least you study there so do your homework and time to step up to your goal !
i would love to live in paris.