Day 108: Closing up shop

I haven't wanted to write anything recently because I don't feel that I could do the last four months justice with a quick wrap-up blog post. Classes are finished, grades are in, the majority of my American and non-French foreign friends have all returned home for the winter holidays, and I remain, almost alone, until Monday the 21st. Nantes has been a dream come true. In a way, I'm happy to leave now because I have had the four best months of my life, I have hundreds and thousands of memories that I can look back on and laugh at, smile about, or reflect on, and I have nothing that I regret about my time here, and nothing that I wish I would have done. I (fortunately) also have so much to look forward to when I return to the Northwest and to my family, friends, and school. At the same time, I don't want to leave - I've come to adore France and its people and its language beyond any way in which I thought I loved it before. It's so normal now to hear French and speak French on a daily basis, that really will be what I miss the most when I return to the States. The good news is, I know I have the skills and the ambition to get back to France in the future and enjoy more of my young adult life here. I have met so many wonderful people and have been fortunate enough to see so many incredible and eye-opening places and things. I can't imagine how different I would be had the past four months not happened as they did and had I not been over here to take advantage of the world and so many of its awesome opportunities. My skills in French have improved dramatically, my ambitions in life have been reinforced and reaffirmed, and my world has been opened up to diverse people and opinions and ways of life that put everything I've known into a better and wider perspective. I'm so glad French has become such a big part of my life and I don't think I could begin to list the benefits I've seen from continuing to study the language and the culture and experiencing The World According to France first-hand. I've experienced France, and I'm so grateful for every moment I've had over here. This time will stay with me forever, I know it.

The semester finished up very well. Last Thursday, a big group of us had an "End-of-Semester" Party, which included a delicious dinner at L'Entrecote in downtown Nantes and visits to a couple of our favorite bars in Nantes. My mom and sister sent me a Texas-themed box of party goods, including stick-on mustaches, Mardi Gras beads, and hollowed-out eggs filled with confetti that you crack over people's heads for good luck. Needless to say, everyone had a great time; it was the perfect occasion to get together with all of our foreign-made friends for one last hurrah before everyone headed back to their respective 'real lives'.

I spent last Friday through Monday in Toulouse in South-western France, which was great. It kinda sucked to travel all alone after having done so much traveling with Kris, but the city was beautiful and I'm very glad I decided to treat myself to a weekend trip down there. I had been wanting to see it for some time, and I think I would have felt like I had missed out on something if I hadn't gone. While there, I stayed in my first hostel ever, discovered that Toulouse's vin chaud and Truffade at their Christmas Market are better than the ones in Nantes, my mostly disparaging theories concerning modern art were confirmed yet again, and I discovered that crazy French milk can last for at least a day without being refridgerated after being opened and still be perfectly drinkable, among seeing and doing many other exciting things.

I haven't been doing too many crazy things since I got back to Nantes; I sent a big box full of books and things back to my folks so I could save some weight on my luggage, and I've been meeting up with some of the other people that haven't yet left, but now everyone's off on their own respective winter adventures and I'm just kind of hanging out until I take off for Paris on Monday morning. I sent off a large last round of letters and postcards to my friends and family today, and tomorrow I'm going to go into town and take care of all my final to-do shopping and 'sight-seeing' activities before everything closes on Sunday. I'm excited to be spending my last night in France (last night for a while, at least) in Paris. There was snow on the ground in Nantes this morning, and the forecast for Paris is predicting snow for the day and a half that I'll be there. I'd love to pull into the Monparnasse train station in a flurry of white precipitation and drop my stuff off at the hostel and then head over to the Champs-Elysees and the Eiffel Tower to check out the Christmas lights and take pictures. What a perfect ending to the most wonderful semester that would be, n'est-ce pas?? Keep your fingers crossed for me. :)