Last night in Paris

So I am finally packed! Wish me luck because either I've gotten weaker in France or my suitcases are heavier than 50 lbs each. I have no clue why... oh wait, it's probably got a lot to do with the 25 lbs of paper in the form of books, homework, tests, and course packets I have to bring back in case IU decides I wasted a semester doing nothing. Then I can whip those babies out and yell, "Au contraire! I did ALL THIS!" Of course, IU will still get the last laugh if I get charged for overweight bags. I really wish I had that little hand scale thing to at least get a ballpark figure for my bags because then maybe I could throw out the souvenirs I bought for people.

So I have really bad news (other than the fact I'm leaving Paris, of course)... IES had a farewell luncheon for us today, and guess who didn't come? MARC!! Our whole poli sci class was looking for him and everyone was terribly disappointed. We asked the dean and she had no idea where he was; apparently he "always" comes to the farewell luncheon. I got a picture with our dean/my grammar professor Jeanne though.

For some reason people thought I was a yearlong student. Even Jeanne, who actually knows me, told me that. She also told me, get ready for it... that I LOOK FRENCH. This means maybe French people think I am French! I have finally achieved my goal. Hope you guys recognize my Frenchy self back home in the States.

After the luncheon some of my friends and I went to the Eiffel Tower to see it one last time... Then I went home and worked on packing again, but instead spent most of that time talking to my lovely mom on the phone!! I can't remember if I've already said so, but my host brother from the last time I was in France is here in Paris, so I met him around 6:15 to get a coffee. It was so hard to say goodbye again! The last time was worse though because I had to say goodbye to my whole host family (aka, his real family). Before we went into the metro I told him I wanted a picture of the two of us, so could he ask someone to take it? You should have seen his face! He's so French... aka, too cool for school, and definitely too cool to ask passerby to take a TOURISTY PICTURE, heaven forbid. "Can't we just take it ourselves? If it's bad THEN we'll ask someone..." So we took it ourselves and at first it was horrible because the flash was off, so you can see the Tour Montparnasse (second tallest building in Paris, I believe.. it also houses the train station Gare Montparnasse, or something like that) which is cool, but our faces were really dark. So we tried it with the flash and our faces were really bright, but no Tour Montparnasse. Fortunately, I was able to fiddle with it on my Microsoft Office Picture Manager, and here is the lovely result of my technological genius!

After coffee we split up and I went to meet my friends for dinner. It was delicious and we tried to keep the mood light by remembering all the fun/funny things we've done, but it was so sad... goodbyes always are.

Strike!

By the way, I forgot to mention that I was considering taking public transportation in the form of the RER B to the airport to save money. Unfortunately, the conductors went on strike as of today, so who knows when they will start working again. This is not the metro; rather, it is a train. Also, apparently there was a bomb threat in a department store in Paris today. Don't worry, I'm pretty sure the situation was resolved and I don't live near any large department stores/don't frequent them either. But I thought I'd let you all know all is well. I'm still packing and I can't tell if it's going well or not, mostly because it will depend on how heavy my suitcases are. Everything is fitting so far, but I don't know how much they weigh. Guess I'd better put the unimportant things on top in case something's got to go...

End of finals

I had my grammar/culture, politics, and history exams today. The first two were fine, but history was... terrible. Thank goodness that's over. Like 90% of my other finals, it was just one question that I wrote five pages on, yet don't think I really said anything of critical importance. My prof made me uncomfortable because I was sitting around trying to brainstorm a thesis while everyone else had already started writing their papers, and he walked around the classroom and was staring at my blank sheet of paper... I was like, Leave me alone! You're interrupting my creative-thinking process!

I had dinner with Mathilde and Slimen tonight and then we watched two episodes of Prison Break, then we sat around and chatted over cups of tea. Those two are so great. They're both really smart, too, and it's handy to ask them questions about French because they really understand the sense of the word I'm asking about. We had canned pineapple slices, and Mathilde was saying how she likes canned pineapples but not real pineapples, and I said, "I like grapes." Then she looked at me and laughed and Slimen said, "What's so funny?" and I was like, "Yeah, what is so funny?" and she said to Slimen, "Well, I was just saying how I like canned pineapples but not real ones and Theresa just randomly decided to say that she likes grapes." And I said, "Mathilde, I thought this was a conversation about fruit... it made sense!" Then we had a big group laugh. And then I kept telling them lame stories like, "Today I had a grammar final. I had to talk about immigration and the French media." Then I would forget that it had no real relevance to the conversation. This is probably not very interesting to you but the moral of the story is that I had a great time doing nothing with the two of them. I said my final goodbye tonight in case I don't see them tomorrow or Thursday morning, and they were both really nice.. they hugged me goodbye and said that they really enjoyed spending time with me and we should keep in touch.

I tried to start packing when I got home around 5 from my finals, and it just seemed too final... I couldn't handle it. I sat back down at my computer and bummed around. Later, when I was more emotionally prepared, I managed to open my suitcase and start putting away clothes. Like most difficult things, it's hardest to get started. I have to bring back all of my schoolwork in case IU wants to contest the validity of my credits when they transfer, and I have no clue how I'm going to manage it. Paper is heavy!

Host family so far

Mathilde and Slimen with their Christmas tree Lionel and Catherine... this is what's left of the huge dessert array that Catherine prepared for her coworkers before she left

Finals

I had two finals today in theater and literature... and they were both terrible. I had about a three hour break in between which was equally terrible because all everyone in the entire IES center did was complain about how crappy finals are and how much they hate IES for giving us finals one day before we leave. Which I agree with, but it just stressed me out even more. My theater final was two questions; we were supposed to choose one and answer it for 30% of our total grade. The one I picked was "Is theater a visual art?" I said yes, it was, and I really hope that's what my professor thinks too because even though I tried to back it up with things we read, here in France professors don't give you credit for opinion questions if you don't have the same opinion as them. There aren't really opinion questions... just real questions disguised as opinion questions, so there is indeed a right answer. It only took me about an hour though, which wasn't too bad.

Literature was more like three hours though... it was easier in the aspect that I think I was more on target, but it was a ton of writing and was really boring. I've got three more exams tomorrow before I'm done. Wednesday we have a farewell lunch. Somehow I'm supposed to find time to pack and be ready to go by Thursday morning. I really don't like how our finals run directly into our last few days here... it's a bad system. Trying to cope with the stress of so many finals in such a short time, packing, getting ready to leave, trying to see everyone before we split up, saying goodbye to my host family.. it's a lot to deal with.

Tonight Catherine and Lionel called to see how I was doing and wish me a safe return, which I thought was really nice. She said to make sure I keep their address/correspondance information and keep them updated.

After dinner Aurélie and Alex turned on some music while they were working on homework or something in the dining room, and I went downstairs to ask Aurélie how to turn on the heater in my room because I was cold. So she came upstairs and did it for me, then she walked out into the hallway and motioned for me to follow her quietly. So we snuck down the stairs and we could hear Alex singing along with the music, and sure enough, he was singing and dancing in the dining room in front of the mirror while gesturing with this white scarf he was wearing. It was... hilarious, to say the least. I was in the middle of writing this post actually and just a second ago he popped his head in to say, "You can forget about what you saw downstairs, you know." And I laughed and said, "No, I'm in the process of telling all my friends about it, actually!" Poor Alex, little does he know I was not kidding.

Anyway, back to the study grind... wish me luck!

History

Here, just as I promised... the picture of my history class.

Last day of classes

So today was my last day of actual classes until I have finals next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I'm really happy classes are over because I'm sick of them, but I'm not looking forward to taking finals. How can they expect me to study during my LAST WEEKEND IN PARIS? (Don't worry, Mom and Dad, obviously I'm going to study... I'm just going to complain about it a lot.)

Tonight we had our last ever potluck at Megan's apartment. This is probably the fourth or fifth one we've had and I absolutely love it... they get bigger and better each time. It's so nice to just bring a dish over and chow down while chatting with my friends. Tomorrow is my friend Rachel's 22nd birthday... she's actually older than me! This is probably because she's a senior in college, but regardless, I'm so used to being the oldest in a group that I am enjoying having another old person around.

I'm so excited to get home for Christmas to see everyone, especially my family, but I am not ready to leave Paris and the life I have here. I can't actually think or talk about it too much because it really makes me sad, and I don't want anything to spoil the remainder of my time here. No sense in moping when I'm still here! I'll save that for when I get home and have to go back to school...

So I'm quite determined to get pictures of my more eccentric professors, and most importantly, Marc. The plan was all set in my mind on Wednesday to ask him for a picture after class, but then he left early because we had to fill out evaluations! Zut! Foiled! Anyway, don't you worry, dear reader... I WILL make it happen. He's already said he'll be at the farewell party, so I have every intention of asking him for a picture. This might even work out better, actually, because he was NOT wearing black on Wednesday. I know, I know, it was a really big deal. There was a hilarious moment when a kid in class asked, "So, what do you think of Sarkozy? Is he doing a lot as far as international relations because I keep seeing newspapers calling him 'dynamic'?" And Marc looked thoughtful for a minute, then stood up and started bouncing on the balls of his feet (with his stylishly European semi-boots) and shadowboxing and said, "Look at me! I'm dynamic! But am I really doing anything important?" But then he stopped and said that he was probably not the best person to ask that question to seeing as how Sarkozy is quite conservative and Marc is admittedly "super leftist." He also said it's most likely too soon to tell. Either way it was a total riot to see Marc in his super chic turtleneck and designer jeans doing anything remotely athletic.

I did manage to snag a class picture of my literature class with Sophie. She was a really good sport about it and I don't care if I looked like an idiot... it's not the first time and certainly won't be the last.

I also asked my history professor for a class picture and he was all about it. He was like, "That's so nice! What a great idea! Can you email it to me? It would be such a great little memory." He looks oddly like Michael Cera (for those of you who've seen Arrested Development or Juno), but he got his hair cut this week and the resemblance is less strong, though still present. I haven't uploaded the picture yet, but as soon as I do I'll post it here.