Where are you from? What do you do? Aaaahhhh!

Girls!

I’m back in business, back in the city, back at my little café with my mint tea and back to being ‘connected’. What a wonderful few days I spent out in the countryside, tasting Alsacian wines, devouring my Bonne-maman’s cooking and appreciating quiet nights of serene rest and sleep.

My weekend got me thinking a lot about Rose’s concern on ‘home’. I’m sorry to bring you back to your emails from a few days ago, but as soon as I read it, it sparked my interest…I had to answer!

Saturday night, in fact, I was at a house warming party. I decided to make a ‘stop-over’ on my trip back to Paris in a city of Eastern France, to visit a most wonderful friend (Merci C.L!!) who is currently living there. She has moved there for work and created her own ‘nest’ in this new habitat. She kindly took me along to this party, and as at every cocktail, of course, I followed the typical introductory etiquette…What is your name? Where are you from? What do you do? And so on and so forth…

I quickly realized, however, that after 1 person…I could barely answer some of these questions!! Basic, rudimentary, customary introductory bla bla!!

Where are you from? Well, this one simple question resulted in a 5 minute conversation with each and every individual who posed it…resulting in a circle of people gathering around to hear…well….where the hell I’m from!! I could barely answer…So I would start:

“Well…I’m from Paris, well I was born here, but I quickly moved to New York, and grew up there, but then moved to Toronto, so I lost my green card and then I decided to go study in Paris, and around then my family moved back to New York, but I was too old to be sponsored for a green card, so I stayed in Paris until I finished my studies and then met a Spanish boy who lives in New York, so I fiddled my way through J-1 visas, but now my family lives in Miami, and I am not eligible for a J-1 anymore, and my novio can’t yet leave New York, but I can’t legally work there…and he ultimately wants to leave…but not yet…so…well…I guess I’m living between New York, Miami and Paris perhaps soon?”.

Complicated? Yes. Annoying to explain? Yes. Where is my ‘home’? Let me tell you.

Do you girls not agree that home is family, warmth, tradition, memories, love? Home for me is wherever the ones’ I love are. Currently an “SDF” (sans domicil fixe…homeless in a sense…) my home is both where my family is and where el novio fiance is. Home is where I feel ‘a l’aise’, where I feel loved, where I feel safe. Home can be a multitude of places - but in order for these locations to be considered a ‘home’, they must encompass my required characteristics of love, safety and warmth. Qu’en pensez-vous?

As for the “what do you do” question…poufffff…how to answer there!! Haha!! Well…simply…I am, and proud to be…for the moment…an Eternal Intern…and so they laughed and giggled…and luckily passed on to another subject…fioufff saved by E.I!!

And so I am now back in Paris, all my apprehensions behind me, courage and strength ahead, and I do have to say that I feel somewhat sad leaving behind this wonderful city, these absolutely fabulous friends (merci merci merci!!) and my dearest Ophelia! O. you have been the most wonderful host and the greatest friend, and I hope that soon we could potentially be Eternal Interns together in the city of lights!

Being an Eternal Intern is full of professional and geographic uncertainties, full of uncomfortable questions to answer and awkward moments once the questions answered (lol!), but being an Eternal Intern is also a life filled with adventure, ‘l’innatendu’, excitement, and many wonderful and new ‘homes’ in the most unexpected of places!

This Eternal Intern must now run back to her old school…ahh Sciences Po…and discover the beauty of the new career centre…perhaps a new open door?

Flora xoxo

Photo credit:
http://www.ebsqart.com/zine/2005/200502/pics/CocktailParty.jpg