Almost the best (almost the last): December Blog 2

This is it. It is my last time posting before I head home. It’s so crazy. We’ve been prepped about reverse culture shock (well everyone else was, my literature class had a make-up session so we missed it), we’ve turned in all our final projects and final papers and finished our final presentations, and now we’re all so ready to be done! All the shopping is done (or as done as it is going to be while I’m in France), and everything is on its way to being packed and ready to go. Now we just wait until it’s the date and time of our individual flights and get going back home. As much fun as I had, and as much as I learned over the semester, I am SO ready to relax and be at home where I can speak English and let my guard down. By let my guard down I mean feel free to smile whenever I want and not have to be prepared to listen to or speak French all the time. Despite just having seen my parents I am very excited to see them again. I am also very excited to see my boyfriend again. It’s felt like an eternity. Facetime can only do so much. Cyber cuddles are not yet a thing, so I’m ready to be home!

The last big non-academic event of my semester was traveling to Florence, Italy with my best friend who has been studying in Spain. It was a blast. We always have a great time together. Despite having seen each other last weekend, it was far too long since we had hung out. Though I would say the trip was overall very good, there were of course some tiny but very annoying occurrences. It was pouring the majority of our time there, my phone company freaked and I had no service whatsoever (and we were counting on me to be able to provide maps), and I forgot to take my anxiety meds so I freaked out a little. I once again survived an ungodly early flight home (6 o’clock am departure this time, so it was so much worse). Also, very unfortunately, I had my first experience with in flight airsickness. That was absolutely awful. It was literally on the tarmac in Paris. I was so close. I think the weird cold pain au chocolate they served plus turbulence and no sleep was a disastrous combination that lead to me getting sick. It was well contained and I didn’t lose my cool on the plane and I felt okay on the train and metro rides back to my apartment. So, despite everything all turned out well in the end and I managed to sleep it all off. I’ve also managed to get in some studying before next week’s finals blindside me. Note to self for the future, plan out traveling throughout the semester more rather than cram all of my trips into the very end. It just ends in stress. But despite the stress they were all great trips. Time to catch a plane in few days and take some tests! Allons-y!