the final countdown

So, in exactly 7 days and 0 hours, my flight will be touching down in Paris, France, for the second time in two years.  Am I excited or nervous?  Likely a bit of both.

I do remember feeling the exact same way right before the first trip - my good friend (and housemate at the time), Jeni, had to convince me that everything would turn out great and that the trip would do me good.  Of course I knew that; but as usual, I let my fear of uncertainty dominate my emotions.

In 2006, my three-month trip to Paris was part of a college study abroad program (no, I wasn't in college 2 years ago), meaning that I had to hang out with a bunch of 20-year-olds who were fleeing from their parents to the embrace of unlimited drinking, clubbing, and smoking.  I'm not joking, it really was like that - one student was sent back home for "disappearing" for an entire weekend.  As expected, I fell in love with Paris and completely enjoyed my time there (maybe I've blocked out the bad memories).  In between studying French and art history, I managed to fall in love (salut, petit) and form a great friendship with a most intriguing Frenchman named Didier who speaks English with a very good British accent.  Yes, I'm jealous.  I dream of the day that I would speak French with a Parisian accent and English with a British accent.  Don't wake me up.

In the past two years, I've managed to fall out of love (that was a good thing, really - we are very good friends now), establish a new interest in filmmaking by spending two months in Manhattan while making movies.  Now I've finished the first draft of my feature screenplay, which is based on my experiences in Paris.  Kind of amazing, now I reflect on it.  Of course, I've got lots of work left to do (probably 99 drafts left to go), but it will be a fun process nevertheless.

At the same time, in the past month, I've started working on the script for a TV series.  This is a collaboration with a friend originally from Taiwan who is now in the Big Apple seeking her own adventure.  Obviously, I've got to focus on my own movie while in Paris, as that is one of the primary reasons for returning to Paris, but between these two projects and taking 24 hours of French classes a week, I guess I'll be pretty busy.

So I've got my brand new MacBook Pro ready and fired up, got my new Olympus SLR all charged (I promise to take more than "artsy" photos of Paris, niao-bah & j-bah), and will start warming up those little gray cells to start two great months of creative adventure, of which I'm sure all you folks in America and Taiwan are tremendously jealous.  Haha.

But these are merely plans.  As good as plans often can be, the best parts of my trips have been the unexpected gifts.  Like my last trip, I am hoping to meet lots of local Frenchies to improve mon français.  I don't know whom I'll meet, but I am certain I'll return in June with more ideas for a completely different movie.

Bon, j'écris un peu en français. J'éspère apprendre plein de choses durant mon séjour, mais surtout j'attends avec impatience de rencontrer de nouveaux amis. Je vais écrire de plus en plus en français, c'est promis.

Ciao, salut, à bientôt, bye,

Alex