By the time I landed in the Orly airport at 8 a.m. outside of Paris, France it was 2 a.m. in Grand Haven. Dazed and tired, I tried to find my way to the luggage claim area on 3 hours of sleep. I followed the crowd of people as we all filed through customs and out to the mall. Holding my name above them was my host family.

This summer I had the chance to call Paris, France my home for a month. I would spend the first portion of my trip with a host family and the second half with National Geographic for a student expedition to study photography. I wouldn’t say that traveling is out of my comfort zone, but traveling to a different country by myself isn’t something I’m necessarily used to. But I ended up doing a lot of things that I wasn’t necessarily comfortable with on this trip.

After two weeks with my host family, it was time to say goodbye. I repacked my suitcase, hopped in a cab, and headed to my next home.

When I arrived at the Hostel, the reviews I had read of bed bugs filled my head and seemed to crawl up my arms. I don’t like bugs. But that possibility was a small price to pay for the experience I had. The maids yelled window to window across the courtyard in French as I waited for a leader to arrive. Once we were assigned our roommates we all headed to our rooms. My first instinct was to check the sheets for any signs of life. Luckily the only problems with our room became walking up five flights of stairs and having a key card that worked once every 30 tries. Besides that, room 43 was bed bug free.

Staying in a room with two strangers was also something new and interesting. My head was inches away from this girl I had never met before. As the days past I became close to my roommates Hannah and Bella. Hannah lives in Thailand but spends her summers in Sweden, and Bella was from California. Whether it was talking about going on a juice cleanse or making fun of Hannah’s British accent we found ways to connect with one another.

Each day, after short morning lessons and critiques, our leaders gave us our assignments and goals for the day.

When it came to portraiture, or taking pictures of people, they weren’t going to let us off easy. An ongoing project was to go out of our comfort zones and approach people we found interesting to take their pictures. 75 percent of the time the people I approached either didn’t speak English or just didn’t want to talk to me. When I did meet someone who spoke a similar language as me, trying to find a way to not make it as awkward, I would ask them if I could take their picture. In between pictures I would ask them questions so they felt more comfortable in an uncomfortable situation. After exchanging emails with the person we had taking pictures, we went our separate ways.

I wouldn’t say traveling to a different country by myself is out of my comfort zone. But being home in my own bed much more comfortable than anything else.