A Week Filled With Goodbyes

Well the weekend of the 16^th to the 19^th I am going to be in Strasbourg so this past week I had to say goodbye to a lot of the people in the program because they were leaving the 19^th or before that.  It was really strange saying goodbye to people because I don’t know if I will ever see them again and we just spent a semester together.  I mean one always says, “yeah well have a reunion and get together,” but when does that ever actually happen?  Nonetheless it was still strange because they were all getting ready to go home and spend the holidays with their family and friends and part of me was jealous and wished that I could go home and spend Christmas and New Years with my family and friends.  But alas, I am here and now that I think about it I am glad that I stayed (not that I could’ve gone home anyways because it is so expensive!) because I will get to go to Strasbourg and my roommate’s house for Christmas. 

Lundi le 12 décembre:

Well today Jaynellen and I were supposed to go to the Rodin Museum and it was a gorgeous day out for it to.  We got there and it is closed on Mondays.  Typical France.  But that is ok because les Invalides where Napoleon is buried (well according to rumors all of him except for one part) is like practically across the street so we walked over and could get in for free with our student ids.  I am so thankful I am a student at the Catho.  It was filled with a lot of big tombs and was interesting.

Les Invalides, where Napoleon and the other Napoleons are buried

Such a large tomb for such a small man

“St. Peter’s-esque” if you ask me but that is just my opinion

After wandering around for a little while we then headed over to Bld. St. Michel so Jaynellen could do some last minute shopping since she is leaving at the beginning of next week for the States.  We also picked up some lunch and then headed over to Shelley’s class, not too exciting but we got to eat some bûche de Noël (which is a typical Christmas dessert here in France).  I then went over to La Vigie with Jaynellen and Carly and we hung out for a bit and then I headed back to my foyer and just did stuff.

Mardi le 13 décembre:

Went to school got a yummy crumble aux pommes with Jaynellen after lunch and then went to my afternoon class.  In the evening we had a little Christmas party at the Central office and our professors were invited and people from our bénévolats and that was a nice time.  We pretty much had an aperitif which includes food and it was all very good.  I had a nice time hanging out with people from the program and talking with the guy from my bénévolat.  Afterwards I went home and studied and worked on homework.  When I got home I got a card from Germaine and that was so sweet of her!  She sent a picture of us at Le Jules Verne in the Eiffel Tower, which was too sweet!

Mercredi le 14 décembre:

Today I had two tests!  Ugh, that wasn’t super fun.  But it is done and now I am done with those classes for the semester.  I went to lunch with Kacey at the CROUs and I ran into the guy that I randomly ate lunch with and he joined us.  He is an interesting character and is very cool.  Anyways, while I was waiting for the bus to go home after school I ran into Dmitri (I have no idea how to spell his name) but he is in my language class and is from the Ukraine and is rather cool.  We talked the whole ride home, I got off before he did.  When I got home I got a package from the Medinas and got a very nice card and scarf.  It was so nice of them to send me something!  Later that evening I went out to fondue with Amanda, Carly, Jaynellen, Kacey, and Meredith.  We had a really nice time.  We shared three different fondues, one was a cheese fondue, another was a cheese and beer fondue and the last was a meat fondue.  I was the lucky “designated” talker for the group even though everyone else was capable of speaking in French.  But that is fine.  We had a nice time and had an interesting little experience.  After we were done with our dinner we wanted a chocolate fondue for dessert and so I asked the waiter and he said he would go check.  He comes back out with this plate that has a chocolate cake thing on it with melted chocolate on it.  That is not what we wanted and so I had to explain in my very frazzled French that we did not order this and he got super upset with me.  I was very frazzled to say the least.  When he gave us the bill he threw it on the table and stormed off.  It was quite the show to say the least.  After that we walked over to Shakespeare and Company which is an English bookstore and were going to check it out but it was closed because the guy who opened it passed away.  That was really sad.  We then headed over to Ile St. Louis to get some Berthillons which was really good and the waiter was super nice.

Amanda, Kacey and Jaynellen at fondue

Carly, Meredith and me at fondue

The Chocolate and Raspberry ice cream that I got, it was so good!

Afterwards when we were leaving we were all saying goodbye and it was just really strange to be saying goodbye to all these girls especially since I feel like we just started hanging out.  But it was really fun and I am glad that I went out with them because we all had a great time.

Jeudi le 15 décembre:

Just another day, I had class and printed stuff off to go to Strasbourg on Friday and the semester is officially over for me!  I technically have classes in January but they had to turn in my grades today because Central wanted them so yeah even though finals are in January if I don’t do wonderfully on them it won’t affect my grades.  Now don’t get me wrong I still want to learn but there won’t be the pressure of getting good grades along with the learning which is how learning should be anyways.