Sitting in the middle of a jet, adjacent to a good friend and a friendly woman with a fondness for airplane peanuts is how I will forever envision the moment of when I first arrived in an overseas country. Exhilarated yet exhausted, I was in France.

In what seemed like a matter of moments, the rest of my French trip classmates and I were dropped off at Lycée Jean Baptiste-Corot, which I later learned is the largest public secondary school in France. Looking out of the tinted bus window, I almost immediately recognized my French host student, whom I had been in contact with via Facebook. Without saying "au revoir" to my friends, for fear of a painful goodbye, I grabbed my green hibiscus floral suitcase and left with what would be my family for the next nine days.

ALEX MCFALL/Mirada Staff Above: Senior Meghan Cohan sits patiently as her portrait is drawn by a French artist along the Seine River. Right: Senior Scott MacDonald and French Alec Hodgins gaze up at the world-famous Moulin Rouge, located in the northern district of Paris. Top right: Moulin Rouge shines as the crown jewel of the Montmartre district. The establishment recently celebrated its 120-year anniversary. Middle right: Junior Victoria Grajeda and seniors Kara-lyn Langan and Hanna Spano gaze in awe at the incredibly large "Harry Potter" movie poster on the wall of the metro station. The Metro was every student’s means of transportation due to its convenience and affordability. Bottom right: A French jazz band performs in front of a live audience in La Defense Plaza during the annual jazz festival.

I didn’t speak English for the entire nine days that I stayed with my host family. As difficult as it was to speak French constantly, I desperately wanted to improve my French and represent my country in a positive light. After all, why would I speak English when I was in France?

My family was extremely impressed that I didn’t speak a word of English to them, but I missed my native language dreadfully, and even feared at times that I would lose my ability to speak English properly. Speaking a language other than my own was extremely exhausting, because I constantly had to think about how to translate what I wanted to say into French.

However, by the time I had to say goodbye to my family, I could pretty much understand everything they were saying, which I felt was an accomplishment.

Despite language barriers, my host and I were able to share things in common, such as carnivals and rides at Parc Asterix, a French theme park. On the day of the national music festival in France, I went to a small neighborhood carnival with my family and rode on rides. Laughter is universal, so communication wasn’t really an issue there!

I was extremely happy to be enjoying the wonders of a foreign country, but was also a tad homesick, considering I didn’t speak to my family for the entire two weeks I was overseas. There were many times when I was in France that I wished my sister were there with me to experience certain things, simply because I knew she would have enjoyed it, especially since she absolutely loved Paris when she traveled with her French class two summers ago.

When I was with my classmates, we used the convenient Metro system, and the freedom we were granted to travel pretty much anywhere we wanted to go in Paris. Eating a fresh baguette sandwich with pesto for lunch on a shady patch of grass in the Latin Quartier, just outside Notre Dame, my friends and I had a chance to stop and rest from our hectic day. It was times like this that made me wish I could freeze time and remain in Paris forever.

France, although a lovely place to visit, could never feel like home to me. I suppose that in a way, traveling to France not only taught me more about a different culture that I could never fully experience in a classroom, but it also made me appreciate America more so than I ever have. However, I was happy that I was able to view and experience the wonders of Paris, and successfully cross off everything on my "to do" list in France. In fact, I don’t think I would have changed a single thing about my trip to France.

My French host family treated me as if I were truly a part of their family, and I had a wonderful time utilizing the Metro with my fellow classmates and going to all sorts of cool places like Montmartre.

Yet while the simple tasks of everyday life in France were fascinatingly appreciated, I began to miss the typical occurrences of my American life. Who knew it would take a trip to France to transform me into a more patriotic citizen, proud to live in one of the best countries in the world?

The simple things in life are taken for granted, and being without them, especially thousands of miles away overseas, made me appreciate them even more. For instance, returning to the United States just in time for the Fourth of July was a blessing in itself, because I was home just in time to celebrate the day our country gained its independence, along with my family and neighbors.

But what I truly missed was just being able to drive myself in my own car, windows rolled down and radio blasting, and stop off at the grocery store or nearest Starbucks, and be able to purchase something with American money, and be able to speak my native tongue with a fellow American citizen.

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