“In your thirst for knowledge, be sure not to drown in all the information”

Anthony J. D;Angelo

The past week checked all the boxes of emotions and created ones that I felt vividly but could not quite articulate. Feelings that range from exhaustion from the accumulation of 20,000 steps in one day, to the excitement I feel for what’s next to come when I get out of bed. I find myself stuck in awe because it seems as though every corner of this city seems to be oozing art. Then I find contentment in the ordinary spaces that are beautiful in their own subtle ways. As I take in the culture of Lyon, I am also swallowing the fact that I have never traveled outside of the states. This all feels as though I am bombarded with information but in the best way possible, an endless stream of knowledge from the unknown that I am constantly processing day in and day out. For the emotions that I feel but cannot explain, I decided to search up if there were any answers to this.
Upon my research I have concluded that these words just don’t exist in the English dictionary, or that no English word can describe inexplicable emotions quite as good as these french words can. Lets take a look at the two words I resonate with so far:

Dépaysement
Similar to the feeling of being “homesick” from not being in the comfort of your home country. However this is more so of feeling like a ‘fish out of water’, being foreign and out of place. As I tried settling in Lyon I could not help but feel as though people could sense that I was just American. To all the encounters that I replay in my head and cringe about because the few french words I knew were nowhere to be found in that moment–thanks brain.

Flâner 
My first couple of days in Lyon I spent aimlessly walking around because for lack of better words, it was like a kid experiencing Disneyland for the first time. With no final destination and just enjoying the ambiance that places has to offer, that is what French people call a “flâner“. Roaming the spaces in St-Jean Place, this is where you can wander off and enjoy getting lost in.