La Semaine Finale

My dear blog followers (aka just my family), how I have neglected you. I apologize profusely for not updating my blog frequently these past couple of weeks. Life has been so hectic getting everything in order for my departure that the blog has gotten put on the back burner. Je suis très désolée!

This was my last week in Paris.

The week flew by even faster than I thought it would. Monday-Thursday were filled with finals and big papers, but I'm finally done with schoolwork. I had to write a paper on a certain dress in a painting and talk all about how it "exuded the spirit of the woman wearing it" for eight pages. Seriously. After completing that, I now consider myself a master of BSing.

This past weekend, I had some friends from U of M in town. They all graduated in May and are traveling around before their "real person jobs" start next month. Unfortunately, I couldn't hang out with them as much as I would've liked because I had so much studying to do, but I usually met up with them in the evenings. On Saturday evening, we climbed the Eiffel Tower because none of us had done it yet. We climbed up 56 stories before calling it quits and taking the elevator the remaining 44 stories. The view from the top was magnificent and we went at a perfect time, just as the sun was setting. We heard some young, college-age Americans, so we struck up conversation with them. Soon enough, we came to realize that not only were they from Michigan, but they were U of M students as well! They were on a weekend trip to Paris from their study abroad location. How cool is that!? Even weirder, one of them graduated a year before I did at Troy High School. Such a small world! My friends from U of M left Paris on Monday and are traveling around a bit. I will meet them in Greece tomorrow morning. After we gallivant in Greece, I'll go to Amsterdam for a few days and spend time with Jess, my next door neighbor from childhood who now lives there. I am so excited for the week to come!

After all of my schoolwork was done, there were still loose ends that needed to be tied up in the city. On Monday night, Diane (10) invited me to come to her school play. Of course, I said yes and of course, it was adorable. It was a series of fairytale skits, many of which I already knew (Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, etc.) That made it much easier for me to understand! The best part of the show was when the 5th graders had to dance with each other at Cinderella's ball. Every single one of them looked like they were about to die of embarrassment having to dance with someone of the opposite sex. Hopefully none of the girls caught any of the boys' nasty cooties. 

There were a few things on  my "to do" list that I'd been putting off, so many of them got accomplished this week. I went to some AWESOME pastry shops as well as to the top of Tour Montparnasse, the skyscraper close to my house. I also bought some last-minute souvenirs for friends and totally cleaned my room, packing everything in my suitcase. I have to come back to Paris on the 24th to fly home the next day, so my host family was kind enough to allow me to leave my large suitcase at their house while I travel to Greece and The Netherlands for the week. 

taken at the top of Tour Montparnasse

For our program, money was allocated to get us in to all of the sites we visited for class throughout the semester. Our professor got us all in for free everywhere because we were students, so the money didn't get used. The university has a "use it or lose it" policy, so our professor decided we'd use it on a nice dinner. We went to Le Grand Pan (the same fantastic restaurant I went to with my family), and we had a large spread of beef, veal, and pork, which were all fantastic. We also had every dessert on the menu, my favorite being the chocolate mousse with fresh raspberry sauce on the bottom. It was a very, very nice dinner with the whole program and a great way to say goodbye to everyone.

Group picture after dinner

It makes me a little sad sitting in my bare room. It's so empty, with no traces of me ever having lived in it. My host family has been one of the best things about this whole experience and I truly hope that they enjoyed my presence as much as I enjoyed theirs. I will greatly miss their lively family atmosphere, Madame's fantastic French cuisine, and Monsieur's hilariously loose grasp on the English language. If I ever return to Paris, I will absolutely give them a call. I really couldn't have asked for a better host family than them.

Affectueusement,

Katie