Sara’s abroad in Paris, France, until Dec. 13.

At the beginning of the program in Paris our director Bruno told us that we’d experience a mood curve during our stay in France. We’d be really really excited at the beginning (true), and then in November our moods would slowly start to dip when everything started to get dark, dreary and wet as Paris winter crept up on us. Added with all the excess work we’d have, because it’s inevitable that we’d procrastinate, he warned us to be prepared for November to be a little less glamorous than the rest of our time here. He finally ended by reassuring us that in our last days our mood would spike up again as we started realizing that study abroad was about to be over.

I can honestly say, though, that while the work has been piling up –- at ridiculous speeds since we haven’t had much of anything to do for about two months –- the downturn has yet to hit, at least for me. While I’m supposed to be burying my head in my work, this has been what I’ve been doing to avoid the November blues…

For starters, my boyfriend visited from London last weekend. I know I shouldn’t complain because most of the people on our program haven’t seen their significant others in going on three months now, but long distance can be difficult and seeing each other for weekends once a month or once every two months can be a little trying over a seven month period. It was a great weekend though. For someone as American as my boyfriend, I’ll admit I was a little worried about showing him around Paris. But we found a compromise –- sight-seeing was made up of part Eiffel Tower, part mini-Statue of Liberty. And I must have made at least a decent tour guide, because he actually enjoyed Paris. I will say, the November blues did start to seep in when he left. But I think the prospect of not having to deal with the distance will make returning stateside a little bit easier.

And this past Thursday, while I should have been working on writing some sort of thesis or outline for my final research paper, I got distracted once again. By the Glow in the Dark tour. For anyone, seeing Kanye West should be an amazing experience. But for someone from Chicago but far away from home, there really is nothing quite like singing (screaming) along to “And if you don’t know by now, I’m talking about Chi-town”. Seeing a rap concert in Paris is an experience in itself, actually. It’s not exactly a group you would expect to be so obsessed with “hip-hop” culture, but they definitely are. The highlight of the night was definitely when Kanye finished the show and then came back for an encore with “American Boy”. There was no Estelle (we were hoping she’d make a guest appearance), but I’ve never seen people go so crazy at a concert … except maybe for the Spice Girls. And tomorrow morning my mom and my aunt are invading Paris. I don’t really know what expect, but I know I’m in for an interesting week and lots of good, good food.

So, the moral of the story is: there really are no blues in Paris. It can rain for days at a time, which it often does. The asshole bartender can refuse to serve you and give you French attitude every day, which often happens if you live where I do. But no matter what, it’s still Paris, and the only thing that is a little depressing is that there are only three weeks left.

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