Fin

I have had a busy few days. On Friday, my friend Mike from Cranbrook (who now goes to Princeton) was in town, and so we went shopping.

We spent the afternoon in Dolce so he could buy a new coat. We were waited on hand and foot, and I didn't even have to buy anything. While Mike was getting measured, we were given glass after glass of champagne.

Saturday, my friend Lauren came back to Paris from Grenoble because she flew to the USA from Paris on Sunday. We went shopping in the Latin Quarter, went to dinner at my favorite place (where you cook the meat on the little grill at the table) and saw King Kong (in English). The movie was L-O-N-G and disturbing in parts (lots of bugs and death), but it definitely deserves to be a blockbuster. Just don't get me started on the fact that Naomi Watt's character didn't speak more than 10 words and had a pathetic, vulnerable face on the whole film.

Sunday, I got a call from my Parisian friend Lora who invited me to her family's home in the country for the night. I took the suburban train there, it was ravaged with graffiti:


I actually got a good night's sleep since the bed wasn't broken and I got to see what it is like to live in a normal French house. Her family didn't understand my French, which is discouraging since I thought that I made a lot of progress this semester.

Speaking of progress, I leave Paris on Wednesday and return my internet modem tomorrow so this will be my last entry. I'm not looking forward to my long days of travelling: a taxi from my apartment to a bus near the Arc de Triomph, the bus to Charles de Gaulle airport, an Air France flight from Paris to JFK. In New York, I have to claim my luggage, lug it across the airport to the American Airlines terminal (practically a city away), and then a flight to St. Louis. Then I'm flying to Florida until December 30.

I've listened to a lot of James Blunt and David Gray on my ipod (pronounced E-Pod here since i in French sounds like the English e). I did a lot of things by myself and actually enjoyed them (museums, tours, hell I even took myself to Amsterdam...but one thing I don't think I'll ever enjoy is eating a meal by myself in public, meals should be shared with friends and family and that is why I only did it once or twice). I adopted the European usage of the scarf (I now have a pashmina from Prague, a Burberry from the U.K., and a 4-euro French fleece scarf from H&M). I grew to love French bags (I'm now the proud owner of Longchamp and Herve Chapellier).

I badly need a haircut and I have no money in my checking account, but I have been to 6 countries (France, Scotland, Czech Republic, England, Belgium, The Netherlands) and many areas of France (Paris, Giverny, Versailles, Cannes, Aix-en-Provence, Mont Saint Michel, Champagne, Loire Valley). I've seen and done more since August than any other time in my life. I don't know when the next time will be that I'll have the time and money to come back, but the next time I do, I'd really like to spend time seeing Spain, Italy, and Germany.

My time overseas was worth it, although it has reaffirmed my gratitude for being American. I have even found myself supporting people and policies that I wouldn't normally support just because they're uniquely American. While France has been great, it really is important that I get back to the US. I need to get my school, personal, and career goals on track (this past semester felt like everything was on hold as I attempted to stay on two feet in a foreign country).

Coming to France didn't make me French, if anything, it made me more American.

Au revoir, Paris: