The Book of the Roach (1870)

Stepping off the plane in Paris for a six-week study tour, Candace, the heroine of the story, embarked on a cross-cultural adventure that changed her in ways she could never have imagined. After falling victim to a pickpocket her third day in the city, having a cultural meltdown in a grocery store, and a myriad of other misadventures, Candace realized that the city that she was actually in was not the Paris, City of Lights, that she had built up in her dreams. The book is the chronicle of how she learned to be a stranger in a foreign city and deal with the weight of the culture shock that she experienced. She tells of the moments when homesickness hit the hardest and how she picked herself up and came to know the magic that the real Paris has to offer.