Rewind

Listening to the music that filled my speakers/life in January '09.

Nostalgia.

There's really such a precise feeling that comes with these songs & the memories attached.

Snow, and beer, and laughter; remix after remix.

In a way I feel like I blinked and moved from San Diego to Paris. But if I rewind and jog the memory tape, so so much happened. Quite a lot for a year, in fact. A few new cities seen, and a whole load of amazing new people met and made to be my friends. And I'm finally finally getting to the point where I feel like I can see real progress being made with my French.

When I moved to Brussels, Jul suggested that I borrow some of his French books. I laughed. That was not going to happen any time soon. But now it's happening! I actually read the morning metro paper these days!

I miss my life in Belgium, but maybe I needed the move to Paris.

It's easy in Belgium to only sort of learn the language. As a bi-lingual city Brussels is used to switching to English, as it's the common denominator between French & Dutch. That's not so much the case in France. If you make the effort to speak French, the people here will normally give you the chance. And they actually seem genuinely happy to help you get the words out.

I loved the kids I worked with there, but in the end, the slow pace gave me too much time to over analyze my life. Here, I feel like I'm a busy bee, and I feel good when I leave work.

I'm constantly meeting new people, and seeing exactly where my friendship tastes lie.

I just feel less stagnant I guess.

Good, good.

It took a car crash to get me here,

but I guess things fall apart so that other things can come together.