Jozlin Tanner - Blog post 1

 The first week in Nice was full of new experiences and growing pains. From using apple maps to get everywhere, struggling to communicate with our host family for anything or locals when trying to order food or purchase something from the store, figuring out the trams (and consequently getting lost when using the tram or walking due to confusion from not speaking or understanding French fluently or well), overcoming the learning curve with the homework, and getting over a previous sickness I’d brought with me from the U.S. along with jet lag while living in someone else's home, the trip and experience felt very overwhelming and almost like I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

For a while I felt as though I was being ungrateful for the privileges I was being given on this trip which left me feeling extremely guilty for having those negative emotions. Due to those emotions I reached out to my mom who, as most mothers do, reassured me that everything would be ok and that I could do anything I put my mind to. She encouraged me to look for the positives every day and allow myself to feel, and let go of, the negative emotions that I was bound to have. Taking her advice, I began to write down the aspects of each day that I enjoyed, wrote about my negative emotions to ensure that I was releasing them, and finally I would list the aspects of what I was looking forward to for the next day. 

As the days went on, classes picked up, and I continued to follow my moms advice, I found that I’d not only made friends, but was becoming more comfortable and confident within my surroundings, was speaking the language more without as much hesitation or embarrassment, and was no longer waking up homesick wanting to go home. Rather, I was excited to see what the new day had to offer and was wondering what new information I would get to learn that day. Settling in happened gradually in such a natural way that when I finally recognized the change I’d been here for a long enough time to have walked from where I was staying to school to a cafe for lunch and back home without having to open my maps up once. 

So many different things were learned in the first week. As a history buff learning about Nice and it’s surrounding areas and culture has been absolutely fascinating, but as someone who has always had a fascination with the ocean, the marine biology classes and excursions really helped me to settle in as I could focus all of my nervous energy and anxious feelings into what we were learning.