I received a reminder from Google calendar today in my inbox: Viv leaves France today :(
The 10th of February, today, was meant to be the day I was supposed to leave France, after a year of living in Paris as an exchange student.

Some of the reasons I had to leave earlier - in December - were:

1. My Visa was going to expire before Feb, and I would have had to reapply and repay.
2. Ditto Travel insurance.
3. My accommodation leave date was approaching. Possibly could have stayed at a friend's place for two months, but then also,
4. I would have had to find a new job to finance for the rent.
5. But then again, I was pretty keen to return home for a real SUMMER Kiwi Christmas.
6. Not so keen, the Summer School at uni I had recently -at the time- found out I had to do, in order to finish my studies earlier.

Now, my friends in the Northern hemisphere find it weird that I had missed winter altogether, and am having my second Summer of the year (carried over from Dec 2011). But, it's not really that uncommon for a travelling Southern hemisphere-living person.

Think about it.

To get anywhere from Aotearoa, it takes long flight hours. Most of the places are in the Northern hemisphere, as in: inverted seasons. So, when I flied into Paris in Jan 2011, I had to swap my Kiwi summer for the Parisian winter; I had two winters in 2010/11. So of course in coming back to NZ, I am having two summers 2011/12, to make up for the warm weather months I missed out on last year.

Makes sense, now?!