It's been a rollercoaster of emotions, saying goodbye to the great European adventure. No more pints in Chatalet. No more English lessons. No train rides to Arts et Metiers. I can't lick the Eiffel Tower anymore (something I made a habit of doing. Yes, I am weird), only a picture of it.
A month into my new Edmontonian life, and I greatly miss Europe still.
I miss Conflans Sainte Honorine, the town next to Paris that I lived in. I miss living at Lycée Jules Ferry, and spending my Saturday mornings in the staff room of the school, sipping on coffee and chatting with the English teachers. Living in such a small town was nice because you had so many personal yet not-so-personal relationships. I had a kebab guy, a clementine guy, a baguette lady, a couple of grocery ladies, a haircutting lady, a coffee guy (who, coincidentally, has a sister who once worked in Edmonton), a beer guy, and a croissant lady. I couldn't tell you their names, and they couldn't tell you mine, but they knew…
"Je viens de Canada. Edmonton, c'est trois heures nord du Calgary"
"J'étudie journalisme."
"Maintenant en Conflans je suis l'assistant de l'anglais au lycée Jules Ferry, et aussi j'ai une stage de journalisme en Paris sur rue Beaubourg."
"Canada c'est froid, mais le pay c'est comme un grand pub ou tous les gens sont amis. La culture est trés ouvert, et les gens parlent beaucoup avec les étrangers."
I miss that small talk that comes with a small town. Almost always whenever I stepped out of my apartment I'd run into a student. I miss that too. I loved teaching there, and my students were awesome in every single way.
Before I initially left Canada, I knew that when I came back, I'd have a family to go to and have dinner with and tease about their junior high dances and the sweaty palms that come with that. What I didn't anticipate was that I'd have a family in the Paris region that I would leave behind. We all met by chance, but boy were those moments special.
The night the six of us met for the first time, we hung out for 12 hours, meeting at around 3pm at les Jardins Luxembourg on a Saturday night, through a Facebook event for English assistants in the Paris area. That night saw us venture to the Louvre, Place de la Concorde, and the Bastille area. We grabbed pints along the way, including our first one at The Cork and Cavern, a nice Irish pub along the Canal St Martin, an area and pub we would soon frequent.
We fell asleep in a Paris metro station in the wee hours of the morning. By the time we all caught our first trains around 5:30am, the seeds that grow great families had firmly been planted. Make no mistake, we were far more than just friends. That was Saturday, October 5, 2013, 12 days after I first arrived in Paris.
It's one of a thousand amazing stories I can tell you about those lovely souls. We were joined by a handful of other adventurous, lovely souls along the way. The moments we had were priceless. They will always hold special places in my heart.
The nice part about living abroad (and in Montreal last summer, for that matter) was that you never really knew how your day was going to unfold. You just got up, showered, ate breakfast, dressed sharply, and hopped on the train. There was always some sort of magic in store.
Along the way, I found an amazing journalism internship in the heart of Paris. For five months, I was a journalist in Paris, working on the same street as city hall, with an outstanding set of teammates and mentors.
To all those people who have uttered the words, "Boy Salim you've changed from your time overseas," you can distinctly thank everyone above. They made me a much more complete, kind, grounded human being.
The difference now is that, for the first time in a year (and potentially the last time ever), I am living
To those on the fence, I cannot emphasize it enough: move, and move quickly and with confidence, to another part of the world. Bruce Springsteen said it best, "Baby we were born to run."
Right now, my mind is occupied with other things…I must decide where to go to university. If I return to Montreal and Concordia University (which I was accepted into), I would be looking at an extra year of school, plus significant student debt. It would mean I'd graduate at age 25; a Masters degree or law school or another year in Paris would be much more challenging to obtain that way. However if I stay in Edmonton, though the opportunity may be less, I'd be able to save money and be debt free, as well as have that extra year for school or another extended work experience.
Unfortunately, dollars and yen and euro tend to rule the world to a certain extent.
I sometimes regret the gusto with which I approach life, given it often leads to complicated decisions. At the same time, as I sit here at home in Edmonton, I have begun to wonder if I truly did Leave It All Out There while in Europe. Those types of thoughts are inevitable after such an amazing experience.
While I am not certain with my career choice for the future, I know that I enjoy studying journalism the most of all disciplines. I also know that I want a CV that will compete, challenge, and win positions in London, New York, and, yes, Paris. At this moment, I ache for another few months in Île de France.
It's been the most challenging month of my life in many ways. I've been a different brand of Salim; one who is sometimes thinking about the amazing times overseas when he should be focusing in the now. What I would give for my tongue to touch the Eiffel Tower one more time.
It is truly mind boggling how quickly that time went by.
I suppose that the above was just a long winded way of saying…pint at the Great Canadian Pub, 21:00 ce soir, mes amis??
À bientôt,
