not a tourist anymore?

When I took a break from my exposé (more on this hellish academic toil later) to check my email, I realized something: I arrived almost exactly a month ago. How did I spend my one month anniversary? From midnight on: being out with friends, catching a cab late, working in the morning (15€ feels pretty nice, and cancels out cab-related guilt), eating pain-au-chocolat, doing extra babysitting at night, and writing my very first exposé. Honestly, it was so very normal that I didn't even think about the date (though I've been anticipating it), which is exactly how I wanted my life here to be at this point.

Do I understand everything here yet? No, but I can do things in French that would've seemed impossible exactly a month ago, when I was walking back to my hotel room dizzily after a glass of wine and a falafel-- give (accurate) directions to native speakers, sympathize with my fellow commuters when an accordion-player sneaks on board the metro, get additional work taking care of kids who don't speak any English, make small talk with drunk security guards, and of course, write and deliver an oral exposé (which is pretty foundational at Sciences Po).

A month! If I had known, I would've eaten something a little bit fancier than my (usual) tomato soup.