Wanted: The Best of Both Worlds

I prefer Jerusalem Garden's falafel, but L'As du Fallafel's pita bread is the best I've ever tasted.

This sentence accurately sums up how I feel about moving back to Michigan after four months in gaie Paris. Let me explain.

When I first got to Paris, I was so overwhelmed by all of the new that I didn't have time to miss home for more than a fraction of a second. However, once the reality of having to live in an entirely foreign city sank in, I wanted home and I wanted it now. What do you mean there's no Whole Foods in Paris? They don't have Almond Cheese or Black Beans in this godforsaken city? What's a girl to eat?

Problem #1: how am I going to last four months until I see home again? However, after two months of feeling completely out of place and one trip to the UK to remind me that the outside world still existed, I finally settled in to my Parisian life.

And boy-oh-boy what an amazing life it is. Le Jardin de Luxembourg is practically my backyard, I can get anywhere I could ever want to go (thank you metro), and fresh baked bread and pastries are only a two minute walk away (and that's if all the crossing lights are red).

This leads us to problem #2: four months is not long enough to live in this spectacular city. To quote Hemingway, "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young (wo)man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a movable feast." Oh, Hemingway.

If an alcoholic womanizer can be moved by Paris, then a girl who cries during Marley and Me is surely going to be changed for a lifetime. But, go home I must. So, problem #3: how do I blend Paris and Michigan into a combination of the best of both worlds?

Well, let's start with what, in a perfect world, would be waiting for me when I get home.

1. Market and bakery within walking distance
2. Everything reachable by (fast) public transportation
3. People to speak French with
4. A petit balcony where I can lay in the sunshine and read
5. Shakespeare and Co.

Then, let's talk about what is actually going to be there.

1. An overpriced market (within walking distance) and Zingerman's bakery (reachable by bus)
2. My car
3. Le Comité Francophone
4. The Diag/The Arb
5. Borders

Okay, so this isn't a perfect world. However, Ann Arbor does have a few things that Paris does not. Thai food, for example, and burritos. I realize compared to confit de canard and moelleux au chocolat that isn't saying a whole lot. Let's be real, though. Living in Paris was never my life. But, oh how sweet it is. Besides, if Hemingway is right, (and let's be honest, this is Hemingway) then Paris will always be with me. I don't have to worry about combining Michigan and Paris into the best of both worlds; I am the best of both worlds. Chouette.

Hey, Hemingway: problem solved.