Keep in touch with people back home

As you all may know I am extremely close with my family and friends back home and I still am! I find myself talking to them almost everyday so I keep them updated about what's going on. By talking to them often I also know how everything is back home. It's more than possible to talk to your loved ones almost as much as you do back home and for FREE! Watch the video below to learn the many ways you can talk to your loved ones while you're studying abroad.

Websites/Apps mentioned:

• Live Profile
• Skype
• Tinychat
• Twitter
• Twicca Twitter app for Android

More apps:

• Voxer
• WhatsApp
• Email
• Instagram

Meet my brother

Before coming to Paris I wanted to film this video with my brother but we ran out of time so he promised me that he would film it when he came to Paris. So here's the video! My brother doesn't like being in front of a camera hence his stiffness but hey I managed to get him to do this.

 

Hope you enjoy the video, we're off to do two of our favorite things today: eat and go to a concert.

Seeing Paris as a tourist

Chilling next to a Picasso painting.

During my 4th month living here I've found myself doing the tourist thing once again thanks to my brother being in town. Its weird how one becomes used to various sites such as the Arc de Triomphe and can simply walk right past them without thinking anything about it, but what I've realized is that its good to marvel at these historic sites like tourists every once in a while. And as for my brother he's enjoying seeing Paris as a resident and going to non-tourist trap restaurants.

Happy 18th birthday to my baby brother!

See you in December!

Welcome to Paris

Well I've already been here for two days but this is the first time that I've found time to sit in front of my laptop to give you all an update on how I've been doing. I know I promised a vlog at the airport but there was barely any waiting time in between flights that the only things I did were go Facebook and tweet. My parents, my best friend/roommate Beatriz, and I arrived to Paris at 11:35am on August 16th.

Breakfast in Tijuana

This morning my mom and I went to have breakfast in Tijuana with my grandma, two of my aunts, and a couple cousins- it was mi "desayuno de despedida" or my goodbye breakfast.

"See you in 10 months"

I'm going to be completely frank with you, as much as I get mad or annoyed with my family sometimes- I seriously couldn't have asked for a better family.Yesterday was my godfather's son's birthday party and I was expecting the adults to be telling me that I'm going to miss my parents over and over like always but surprisingly I got none of that. I decided to sleep over just to be able to spend some time with my goddaughter because I know how much she enjoys my company. I know people will miss me here but she'll definitely be one of the ones that will miss me the most since she's still a kid. We spent the night just laughing like dorks and watching the Disney Channel despite the fact that I have no idea about their new programming. Today my family and my godfather's family went to dinner and to the movies to watch Cowboys and Aliens and after the movies I experienced my first round of my "see you laters." No, I did not start crying since I'm good at keeping my emotions to myself but saying "see you in 10 months" (the title of today's post) was a little tough. The drive back home consisted of my dad telling me how the rest of my family is reacting to me leaving. As I've mentioned before, Mexican families have a tough letting someone my age go, in fact no one in my family (and my family is huge) has left to go study elsewhere- no one. I almost started crying in the car, especially after telling my parents that my godfather gave me a financial gift. I do get overwhelmed with emotions when people do nice things for me since I don't ask for anything. I'm just happy that I have my loved ones support during this, anything more than that well I feel like I don't deserve but I'm still extremely thankful for.

I'm just very happy to be leaving to Paris but even more about the fact that I have a lot of amazing and extremely caring people in my life. I'm incredibly thankful that I was taught the importance of family from a young age and in my opinion that's the most beautiful thing that the Mexican culture has to offer. I've been telling everyone that they don't have to worry about losing touch with me since I'm on the computer a lot and I will make sure to keep in touch with my love ones- now I just hope I can make everyone proud.

My "see you laters" will resume sometime this upcoming week in Tijuana with my mom's side of the family.

"Nos vas a extrañar cuando estes en Paris"

"You'll see that you're going to miss us in Paris." This is probably one of the phrases that I've heard the most ever since I got accepted into the study abroad program back in April. Every Mexican adult from my parents to their friends has told me this. Of course, I'm going to miss them- I've lived with them for 21 years so it would be unnatural for me not miss them but I also think that I'm at that point in my life where I'm ready to live outside of their house. Paris is not a permanent thing, but it will be a little taste of what it's like to be an independent person.