So, I hope everyone understands that my lack of blogging is actually a GREAT thing, because I really am just too busy! I don’t even get to my computer every day anymore. I guess that’s all going to change in a few days…
Where did the time go!? What a great finale to a crazy trip. The past few weeks were packed with visitors, last minute touristy things, and tons of exams (blegh!) Yesterday was my final oral exam, which ironically was definitely the best of all of them. After it was over I walked out a little shaky, finally realizing that I’m actually finished.
Let’s start from a few weeks ago! The rest of my mom’s visit was fantastic. We ate at a bunch of really cool restaurants, including Laduree, which is a tea house pretty similar to the famous Angelina’s, except without all the tourists. I had a spectacular pistachio macaroon and a pure chocolate hot chocolate, which was sickeningly good. Literally.
I also got to FINALLY see the Saint Chapelle! It was a rainy day but the chapel was beautiful, as expected. It’s really small, but the walls are almost all completely made of stained glass- each one with a biblical story. The back of the chapel has these huge doors (like 4 horses could walk through at one time) and then a rose window that I could only imagine to be gorgeous with the sun shining through!

Last Saturday the CCA group took a trip to Fontainebleu- definitely one of the coolest spots we’ve seen. It’s a castle that almost all of the kings of France have used- and the tour guide took us through the smaller royal chambers that are only open some of the time. She did such a great job of explaining everything. I had no idea that the furniture used to actually be really brightly colored! It makes sense, but I just didn’t think about the changes in color would make to what the halls actually looked like when they were being used. Some of the furniture was restored and some was left to the originals, so you could actually see the differences. They even used bright purple for the salon! The guide also showed us a door where Napoleon (1?) would privately use to travel to his wife’s room, and vice versa. When he decided to divorce his first wife since she couldn’t bear his children, he actually bricked up the whole door so she couldn’t get back through! What a way to break up with someone.

Anyway, the castle was really cool. In one of the gardens it even had a fountain of peeing dogs… (the French certainly have an interesting sense of humor!) Pretty funny stuff.

OH RIGHT! And… Picasso also went and stayed there for 2 years in the 20s for inspiration… I found a book that actually showed his works compared to some of the sculptures/paintings in the castle itself. Kind of crazy!
So yes. That was a cool last trip with Central… and then last week was full of exams! I had an Art History exam, Film, Phonetics test, and an exam for the Central College class. The final HUGE grammar exam was on Saturday, which was pretty difficult. Like I said, yesterday was the oral exam, and I just got to talk about Victor Hugo’s Demain, des L’aube- a poem that every French student has studied multiple times.
In between all of the studying and exams my friend Caitlin from Drew and a friend of hers came up to visit for their last week! They stayed just outside of Paris with another friend, so I got to see them a few times during the week when I wasn’t locked away in a cafe studying.
We checked out the view from the top of the Galeries Lafayette, which was so cool! The rooftop/high city views here are really great, because it gives you a totally different perspective of the city. Paris feels like it’s huge when you’re trying to get around it, but then when you actually see how squished together everything is it’s really surprising.
So yes, lots of touring and eating baguettes/hummus in the parks and along the Seine. The parks continue to be my favorite part of Paris, so I plan on spending the majority of the next 48 hours in them! I can’t believe it’s time to go home… I’ve been going through intense bouts of excitement and then changing to complete despair in leaving this beautiful city. I don’t think I would ever be able to completely make up my mind about wanting to stay or go- I think that knowing I’m going home in 2 days is making me excited for it, but if I had to stay a few more months I wouldn’t complain.
This was such a journey- going through so much culture shock and getting used to the language, and now having to go home! It’s insane. I’m so glad I did it- I know now if I had to (or just wanted to) move somewhere pretty far away, it’s not impossible! It just takes a little getting used to.
I’m going to put some pictures up and get off of the computer- I don’t want to spend my last hours inside! It’s BEAUTIFUL out today!
(Side note…)I guess it’s pretty fitting that up until yesterday, my login password was salutparis. Salut can mean hello or goodbye, and the password changed just as I was about to leave! Ironic.
And.. signing out, for the last time in Paris. Au revoir!
Rue Poulletier pour la derniere fois…
