Living Abroad: Stop & Smell the Concrete

I never thought in my wildest dreams that I’d be soaring atop the Tour Eiffel, or venturing to the heights of the Roma Coliseum.

C’est incroyable et tres magnificent! J’ai la plus chance!

Despite the upward turn of events in my life right now, I must admit, amongst the film industry’s most coveted destinations – Barcelona, Madrid, the French Riviera, Paris, London, Prague; you name it – my life is still just that: my life.

There is no Mission Impossible; Jason Bourne isn’t creeping behind me unknowingly in the streets of Nice. There are children here, who ride the bus to get a l’ecole. There are mothers and fathers who wake up early in the morning, and cook dinner at night. There are students and teachers trying, desperately, to absorb and give it all.

Only, here, the language is different. Here, the passion is a bit more resound and the culture is as customized as each individual person.

But here is still, just… here.

It’s funny, after visiting the globe, you realize that it is, indeed, the world you live in. It is not ‘some magical place or distant planet,’ as my Marketing professor, Helene Cherrier, put it. Helene was right – the world gets a little smaller after you’ve stepped foot on it.

After you’ve booked the flight and checked your bank account and packed your overnight bag and boarded the train and settled in the plane and checked into the hostel and purchased the daily transportation pass and checked your bank account again and rubbed blisters into your feet and walked and eaten and walked and slept and walked some more and seen some more and checked your bank account again and become exhausted, you realize that all you’re doing is living, the same way you’ve always been living.

The scenery is just a little different, so what you see of life seems a little changed.

But the sight is still the same.

Like breathing – or smiling, or laughing – understanding the world comes natural. Just make sure that when the travel bug bites you on the lip, you’re tasting the lifestyle around you, rather than talking about it.