Une fille nomadique: 5 "French" minutes

Yesterday I had the first of (potentially) numerous freak-outs. I'd been feeling a bit on the edge/stressed, but I didn't really think much of it... after all, that seems to just be a typical characteristic of my life. Yesterday, though, I realized what it is that's been seriously bugging me. There's a fact that I'd come to terms with: the French define "efficient" quite differently than I do. That's not the problem. Yes, it can be annoying that my paperwork take 10x longer to be completed than it would back home, but it's France. If I'm living within a society, I have to deal with the way they go about doing things. The problem is that I've become so much less efficient. I've always been the kind of person that could be easily categorized as an "overachiever". When I do something, I want it to be done in a way that makes me proud to have my name associated with it... For some reason (and maybe it's because I was on "vacation mode" for at least a month, for the first time in at least a year) everything is taking me so much longer to do. I forget to do little things (like to send emails or to call people back) all of the time. It has started to really bother me.

On top of this, I'm doing many things for the "first time". That is, I'm doing many of my normal activities for the first time in a new place, under new circumstances, using new resources, etc. Therefore, it's only natural that everything takes a bit longer. But, when everything takes a few hours longer than usual, and I'm deterred from getting the 85 other things I have to do, done it can get annoying reallllly quickly.

I guess this bring back my "Because I'm American" theme? I think it's more of a "because I'm from the Northeast and need to have everything done yesterday" theme. It's okay if I take a bit more time to do one thing, but if everything get's backed up like a pile-up on the Jersey Turnpike, it's not okay. Cue: yoga. Today is may day off. So, all I have to do is prepare a PowerPoint presentation, make it for my Hot Chocolate date on time, and go to dinner at one of my teacher's, and make sure that I take the nap I desperately need and watch my American guilty-pleasure of a T.V. show (shout-out to Gossip Girl xoxo). For anyone who doesn't know me, this is a "day off" for me.

Friends and family back home, I'm sorry that I've been slacking at everything having to do with you. In fact, I haven't been... I've been searching for Xmas break flights like a madwoman, so you haven't been forgotten! I'm just still getting used to trying to balance my "lives" (see previous post). Also, I apologize for the lack of editing my blog posts... I really get too tired and side-tracked (and for those of you who know me, 5 minutes is never enough for me to edit anything I've written!). I promise I'll get better at this. I just please ask that you bear with me, and also try to help me find a compromise to find time to talk... the whole 6-hour time difference gets really rough! Love you all and miss you! I hope all of you back State-side are enjoying your pumpkin-picking, caramel apples, mulled wine, and Halloween preparation.

xoxo