I ended up getting into Paris much later yesterday than originally planned, so my weekend has mostly consisted of sleeping, eating, unpacking, ironing, and a few walks around my new temporary neighborhood.
I am staying at an AirBnB apartment in the 15th arrondissement until mid-January, when Michael and I get to go apartment hunting, House Hunters International style! So far, I'm loving the neighborhood I'm currently in, and it's only a short metro/bus ride across the Seine to my new job (which starts Monday OMG I'm not ready). Tonight, I took a cold walk down the block to a swanky shopping mall that just re-opened this past October after ten years of planning and construction - the Beaugrenelle. It is indeed a beautifully designed mall with lots of shops and people milling about (and a Chipotle for God's sake). I generally have a love-hate relationship with shopping malls at this time of year. They are way too packed with people rushing around to finish shopping for the holidays, and yet they are redeemed by their over-the-top Christmas decorations, blaring holiday music, and general festive ambiance. I'm a sucker for all things Christmas. However, to my horror and dismay, I discovered that the Beaugrenelle has shirked its Christmas duties. While they have tastefully-placed a few twinkly lights and red baubles around the mall, they have completely forgotten to haul in a huge fake Christmas tree, and/or stage a Santa photo-op in their main atrium. I actually walked up to the railing holding my breath for an amazing display of holiday cheer only to find escalators, shoppers, and the ground floor. No tree. No Santa. Santa I can live without - it's just chaos and screaming kids most of the time - but no tree?!? Sigh. I guess I'm not in an American mall anymore. Maybe less is more, but I wanted my damn tree.
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It turns out, the international airport in Copenhagen is huge. So big, in fact, that when your flight in one terminal lands five minutes before your connecting flight boards in another terminal, you're not going to make it. Passport control, duty free, and about a half mile of shopping all stand in your way. I discovered all of this when I missed my connector to Paris this morning by a few minutes. I also discovered that SAS is rocking one of the best lounges I have ever been in, which almost makes missing my flight ok. Behold. Danish design is alive and well.
It really is impossible to describe what it feels like to leave home. When I left California for Washington, DC nine years ago, it was to spend a few years at graduate school and then figure out what came next. I never intended to stay, but life happened, and I did.
So here I am almost a decade later, thirty thousand feet above the Atlantic ocean and keenly aware that I am now leaving the home that I created in DC with no plan to go back. That is not to say that I won’t; it’s just a recognition this time that it is an actual move (with a husband and all our possessions) for a job that does not necessarily end after four semesters. I landed in DC as an unbelievably naïve and excited young woman of 22. What did I know about life? I believed that there was no such thing as goodbye, and that so much of life was ahead of me that I would always have time to re-visit any place I wanted, and re-acquaint myself with of the all friends I had made along the way. And although my twenties are now behind me, and I have been beaten down a bit by the harsh realities of the world, part of me still clings to the naïve belief that I will get to see all of the faces again of those who I have met and loved over the past nine years while living in this city, and now hold as dear as family. This suspension of disbelief allowed me to say “see you soon” to so many wonderful friends (never goodbye) over the past several weeks. I truly hope to see you all very soon. We are transient people in a cosmopolitan world – let’s make this happen, friends! I for one will do my part to keep this site up to date so that we are not strangers the next time we meet; whether it is in six months, or six years. But as with every goodbye, just around the corner is a new beginning. And with this new chapter of my life, I have so much hope and excitement for what will come in the next few years that Michael and I will spend living and loving in Paris. Au revoir, DC... for now. |
AuthorBecause why not get married and move to Paris to really kick off your thirties? Archives
December 2016
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