I wish I could explain how incredible this past month has been! No amount of photos or blog entries could do it justice. I love it here – in Fribourg, in Switzerland, and in Europe. The people I have met are so great. They stand as proof that friends can be found anywhere - in all shapes and sizes and in the most unexpected places and times. That was one of the things I was most worried about – not meeting people and being alone in Switzerland for a semester. God has provided like no other time in my life though. The people He has placed in my life this semester are incredibly wonderful. I am learning so much from them and having a BLAST! To say the very least, they are very dear to me.
In one of my courses, we talk a good bit about a sense of place in the novels we are reading. Studying abroad has made me think about “place” so much. Nothing will ever come close to home, but it is so cool to see how some place so far away and different from home can have such a homely feel. I have the habit of saying “I’m going home” to wherever I happen to live at the time. In Columbia, going home is to 1416 Ivy Lane. In Oxford, going home is to the apartment 1114. In la Suisse, going home is to Fribourg and to my room at St. Justin.
Hemingway said that one couldn’t write about or truly appreciate a place while you were there. You had to remove yourself from it in order to see it clearly and see just what it means to you. That’s why Hemingway could write about home, the States and Illinois in particular, while living in Paris. When he wanted to appreciate or write about Paris, he had to leave. I never really appreciated home until I left it. I had this whole new appreciation for Columbia and South Carolina when I left for Ole Miss. And now, I have this whole new appreciation for the States and Mississippi too. Home is such a wonderful place.
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