A weekend in France and one week left!

I was finally able to visit a very good friend of mine and his parents (aka: my french family!) in France recently and it was a much needed trip! Although it was only 1.5 hours away on the plane, the weather was completely different and amazing there and since they live in Pornichet, along the coast, it was so nice! It was my first real trip to the country and the wine, cheese and baguette stereotypes were definitely real! 🙂

A bit more interesting however, were the conversations I had with my french family about the political tension that is unfortunately going on France to at the moment. We were all talking about Le Pen (one of the two individuals running for President in France) and how she also holds very harsh views on immigration and is very untrustworthy because of her ignorant statements about matters concerning the holocaust.  Although many people support her, it was nice to be surrounded with like-minded individuals with similar perspectives and values. I guess we will find out what happens when the final elections take place!

I cannot believe that tomorrow will be the beginning of my last week at the German Red Cross. As of two weeks ago, I have finally gotten to experience working in each of the seven shelters that belong to the agency and it has been so interesting and fun getting to know each of the shelters and the residents that live their. This coming week will be interesting because my supervisor has allowed me to spend each day wherever I choose and on Thursday (the day that we always have our weekly, day-long team meeting) we will have a “goodbye breakfast” for me which is really sweet! On Friday I will spend the day at a shelter I haven’t been to in months to help out with a party that will be happening this Saturday. The party is being held because this particular shelter will be closing and all of the residents will be relocated to another one in the

Shelter that was a former school

city center. The shelter is the one I posted the picture of and wrote about in this post. The shelter I’ve been at all last week was a former school and I just think it’s cool how creative the city is in finding these places and remodeling them to accommodate all of these individuals and families!

Overall, it feels really good to look back and see all that I’ve been able to learn, see and do and I am beyond grateful! I will write one last post where I self-reflect a little more and talk a little bit about more of how I now look at this experience on the other side. Thank you again for reading and see you one last time after this!

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