This week, I interviewed my friend Elsie, who has just spent the past semester studying abroad in Paris. She had an amazing time and a lot of entertaining stories to tell me.

Ever since she’s been back, Elsie can’t stop talking about the Parisian food. She learned that the French have a very different attitude toward food and eating than do Americans—specifically that they eat less than Americans; that they simply eat to survive, not to indulge. Comparing this to my attitude toward food; that I eat when I’m bored, I think that I would benefit from a trip to Paris. During our conversation, Elsie described to me a typical food day in Paris.

Breakfast: cappuccino and a piece of baguette

Lunch: baguette sandwich

Dinner: croissant, salad, wine and cheese

all photos taken by Elsie Chung

Now compare this to a typical food day in the American life of Marissa, such as today:

Breakfast: chocolate strawberry waffle and coffee

Lunch: garlic knots, pineapple, orange, chocolate chip cookies

Dinner: pasta with meat sauce, rice, a giant slice of cheese bread, chocolate milk and ice cream

This isn’t to say that Elsie didn’t try to have a typical American meal every now and then. One day, she saw a sign advertising a restaurant that served GIANT burgers. Naturally, she headed straight to that restaurant to get her hands on that burger. When she arrived, she was presented with two choices: regular GIANT burger, or larger GIANT burger. Since she was already ordering a giant burger, shoe chose the regular. When her order was up, Elsie was so excited to have a GIANT burger full of beefy goodness. She opened the box however, and there was a tiny burger. To someone who had been expecting a GIANT burger, it seemed like a slider. She finished the burger in two bites and never returned.

When she wasn’t out hunting burgers or in class, Elsie was travelling through Europe. All in all, she visited six countries other than France. Her favorite city was Rome, mostly because it was warm and had cheap, delicious food. Her assessment of the other Italian city she visited was less than stellar, however. Elsie did not like Milan because it was dark and grey; “an uglier version of Paris” although everyone there was very well dressed (including Elsie).

One of the most stressful parts of her visit came when she was visiting Amsterdam. She had planned to spend a day there and then return to Paris. However, by the time she got there it was the end of her week long break and she was tired from the other cities she had visited. After travelling around the city in a fatigued haze, she realized that she had to hurry to catch the bus to Paris or she would miss it. She rushed through Amsterdam to the bus stop and barely made it on time. When the conductor looked at her ticket however, he informed her that they were for the next day. Elsie ended up spending the night in Amsterdam and next day, better rested, found that it is a very charming city full of friendly people.

Obviously, one of the things that Elsie was most excited about were her classes. A French and Political Science double major, she took her political science classes in French. A typical Bryn Mawrtyr, she found that the extra challenge of taking classes in her non-native language made them more fun and engaging.  One of the most interesting classes that she took was a class about the Holocaust. The class was actually taught in a building in Paris that had been occupied by the Nazis. This made the topic more present than it was when she studied it in America. She found that the topic was more personal to the European students because what they were learning about had actually happened in their backyards. This meant that the topic was treated differently and made it a very interesting experience.

In Elsie’s own words, her semester abroad made her “realize that there are so many interesting people in this world and [she] really enjoyed meeting all of them because everyone has such great stories to tell”.

This winter break I stayed in Connecticut. My sister did not. She visited California, but had forgotten to bring warm weather clothes home from school so she stole all of mine. I’m not bitter at all.

Christmas was fun; I got Despicable Me 2, a minion shirt, a minion stuffed animal and a minion tree ornament. My family knows me too well, and luckily they don’t judge me for being overly obsessed with a children’s movie.

While in Connecticut, I got the opportunity to volunteer at a preschool in my town. I spent six hours a day keeping 15 germ factories from throwing sand and drawing on tables. On the other hand, they were the most adorable kids I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, despite the fact that I am a little nervous around kids.

Most of the rest of my break consisted of decompressing after a long semester and catching up on sleep.  I visited Mawrtyrs and we complained about how we weren’t on campus and wished we were. I visited friends from high school and we caught each other up on stories from our semester and made sugar cookies.

The thing that is great about winter vacation is that it is supposed to be restful; I feel like I’m supposed to relax and spend time with my family and friends and don’t feel pressured to be doing resume-changing activities. It was a great time to get caught up on Netflix, watch the Golden Globes and fall in love with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and resent the fact that Bryn Mawr got more snow than my hometown did. The last point was actually a good thing; it is much easier to run in the bitter cold and wind than through the snow. It’s like running on the beach because your feet slide backward with every forward step, but much colder. Luckily for me, I had snow-free streets and a stationary bike from the 80’s in my basement, so my track season is safe.

Although break was restful, I’m now back on campus and excited for a new semester, especially with Hell Week right around the corner.