New Year, New Semester, Who dis?
January 25, 2019
by Ryan Griffin
On January 24th he asked me what day it is. “C’est 24 Janvier”
Wait.. Wait.. Wait.. Let me just stop right there. This daydream of me reinacting this iconic Mean Girls scene with the French equivalent of Aaron Samuels is not what happened today …or yesterday. In fact neither have my idolozations of my first week of classes at French university turned into an opening number of High School Musical come true either. All those hours of practicing Kenny Ortega’s afternoon choreography specials on Disney Channel in 2010 are quite literally going to waste.
C’est dommage!
Anyways yes, here we are third week of living in Paris and more importantly Day Four out of Five for our 1st full week at French Uni!! Whee!! The blog has been a bit out of the loop since we have been attempting to FULLY immerse ourselves in the city and not the internet (haha jokes!), but don’t fret we’ll get all caught up. But first things first *iggy azalea voice* let me intro-du-ce myself….
I’m Ryan Kelsey Griffin! Yep that’s me. Must admit feels a bit odd that giving out my whole government name like that but I normally have to give people the first and middle so they know I am not a boy #UnsisexNameNation so I figured why stop now? Anyways I’m from Atlanta, Georgia born and raised, and go to Bryn Mawr College which is in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I actually really love my school, love my friends, love my teams, and you know just love life! WOW! My positive pants are on pretttyy tight, whew. So at Bryn I swim and play lacrosse so have to admit the sharp increase in bread and cheese and sharp decline of exercise is definitely affecting us all but especially me (and Yuki rip our pre-pubescent smooth skin). The whole “walk everywhere instead of working out mentality” is quite difficult to adjust to. But other than being a slowly evolving into a Pro-activ commercial, I’m enjoying Paris. Some other things I like at home that I am going to try to integrate into abroad life is my love for kids, dancing (wild) both with and without music, design/ creating creative content (not like an influencer but literally for my own laughs), annnd honestly trying new things!!
So Paris is definitely one I’m still “trying” everyday. I have to say I’m trying pretty hard and struggling just as hard. As much as I am a city girl, living in ATL/ Philly/NYC in the summers for internships, I’ve been missing good ole homey suburbs of Bryn lately. Nothing quite as soothing as it’s omnipresent Hogwarts vibes and echoes of passionate feminists cries in the night (#love #my #all #womens’ #college) but am learning to find home in the little things in France. Like the fact our APA semester mix of 2:19 boys to girls #gurlpower, or making a smoothie this morning with with the trailmix I brought on the plane from a month ago. Just mixing it up each day whether that’s getting lost on the metro even with the power of THREE I-PHONES or sitting in the wrong class for 3 hours, just the fact we areputting ourselves out there living with strangers, speaking a different language in a different country and sometimes blending in. I’m proud so proud of us. I mean most of the struggles of getting lost, sitting in the wrong classes, not being able to pronoounce things under pressure are definitely me problems, I just tell myself that my life is a rom-com and I am just in the “com” part just scenes away from the “rom” where I meet my Parisian boyfriend whether in class like Cady and Aaron, or at karaoke party like Troy and Gabriella – we’re all in this together, and I’m gonna bop my way to the top.
