Au Revoir

It is over. The study abroad has officially come to an end, and I have officially been home for 2 whole days. I said my final goodbyes to my beautiful city of Paris on Tuesday, spent a night in London, and came home Wednesday. Never in my life has time flown by so quickly than it did this semester. 

It was weird to leave. Part of me was so excited to come home. I missed so many things about America and home. But at the same time, that last day was when I really saw Paris for how completely beautiful it was, and I realized just how much I had loved being there, which made it really bittersweet to go. 

I decided to go on this study abroad on a whim. It was a really last minute decision to apply, and even then it was just to see if I would even get in. I had no idea if I really wanted to go, how I would pay for it, or what the point of it was, I just did it. I am so incredibly glad I did. 

There's that saying, that says that "everything happens for a reason". I usually hate that saying because at the time, you have no idea why something is happening. My favorite thing about life though, is that you ALWAYS see the reason eventually. There was a huge reason why I needed to go to Paris, and it wasn't to get better at French, see amazing sights, learn more about the culture, or eat lots of really good cheese. I had to go to Paris to find myself. Who knew it would take leaving everyone I was comfortable with and going across the world? Maybe it was all about going out of my comfort zone so far that I had to sink or swim, or maybe I just needed a change of pace. Regardless or what it was, this experience has completely changed my life. 

What did I learn while I was there, you're wondering? Let me tell you. (In list form, of course.) 

I learned:

-my worth in the eyes of God

-what my talents are

-what my weaknesses are

-how to make and keep friends

-how to tell real friends from the fake ones

-be happy despite your circumstances

-moving on takes time

-to find joy in the little things

-my love language (haha thanks Mallory!)

-art doesn't get better, it only changes

-to appreciate art in general 

-how to live without a cell phone

-laughter is literally the best medicine

-fake snow makes me cry

and last, and most importantly, I learned how to love myself, despite all my flaws. The good things and the bad things are what make me who I am, and that has to be good enough. 

I just am so completely happy. Even when things go wrong, and even though my life isn't perfect, I found an optimism and confidence that left me a long time ago. After leaving behind so many things that were weighing me down, I finally feel like myself again.  And I have God and Paris to thank for that. 

 Donc, merci beaucoup, et au revoir Paris. Tu me manques. 

My Three Monthiversary with Paris

Okay, so I'm supposed to be packing right now to GO HOME but I need to blog about November, my third month here, and then when I'm bored as ever on the plane, I'll write about the experience en generale.

This month was crazy. To start, I got to go to London for 2 whole days. I cannot even tell you how excited I was. I have been dreaming about going to London since I don't even remember when, probably since I watching Winning London, one of the best Mary-Kate and Ashley movies of all time. I met up with my friend Jamie from Scotland, who I met on the plane here, and hung out with him, Kaitlin, Caitie, Mallory, Lucy, and Olivia. It was SO MUCH FUN. We saw sooo many things, I got to go on the London Eye, I was graciously given a place to sleep by my dear friend Nicole, I heard wonderful accents everywhere I went, and I got to see fashion designer Disney princess displays. It was just seriously a magical weekend. Me and Kaitlin took the overnight bus there and back, which was an experience in itself. You have to get off the bus for awhile to go on a giant ferry across the English Channel, which is cool, but definitely breaks up your sleeping time at a very weird part. Basically, we got no sleep on this trip. We were delusional and I even ended up getting sick, but it was worth it because we got more time actually there, and it was super cheap. I would recommend it, but just don't expect to sleep haha. The first day was just full of traveling around, seeing Big Ben, Westminster Abbey (the outside), Buckingham Palace (sadly no royalty sighting), Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, and then me and Jamie went on the Eye. That night, me and Olivia and Jamie just walked around South Kensington and tried to find Simon Cowell. That area is like super nice and there were all these fancy cars, and apparently Simon lives around there. It was obviously my goal to find him and sing for him and have him make me a star so I could meet One Direction. Unfortunately, we didn't find him. Probably due to the fact that he was in America to film X-Factor. Oh well. The next day, we went to Harrods, which is where the fancy Disney stuff was, and so many expensive things. The place is huge and I felt under-dressed just walking around there haha. Jamie had to leave after that, and me and Olivia went around to some other places like the Sherlock Holmes gift shop, and King's Cross station where I got to pretend like I was going to Hogwarts...DREAM COME TRUE. If only Ron Weasley had been there...

November obviously means Thanksgiving, and even though we were in Paris, we still got to celebrate. We all brought food to our director's apartment, had a wonderful meal, played card games, napped, and just hung out together. It was a lot of fun, and I'm so glad we got to still have a little bit of home tradition while abroad. Our little illusion was quickly shattered though when we had to go to art history that night, but it was in the Musee D'Orsay, so how can I complain? You can read more about Thanksgiving, and what I am grateful for in this post.

This weekend was actually really amazing. Friday, we went to DISNEYLAND! Most amazing day ever. I honestly forgot for a little bit that I was still in France. It's smaller there, but so similar, and the rides are practically the same. It was so fun because Star Tours was the old version still, which I haven't seen in forever since they changed it, but C3PO was speaking French. Tower of Terror was exactly the same, but the story was in French too. The guy on that ride totally scared us in line, which was so funny. We ate at Earl of Sandwich, this really good place that Cori recommended, rode every ride we wanted to, SAW FAKE SNOW which made me cry, and everyone was just getting along so well and it was just so happy. But seriously, tears were actually running down my face during the snow part. There was just Christmas stuff everywhere, and music, and it's Disneyland, and then the snow came and it was all so perfect that I just started laughing and crying at the same time. It was a little emotional. haha. The next day, we celebrated my wonderful roomie Caitie's birthday at this really good fondue place, and everyone was getting along so well again. We played this fun game called "if you drop your food in the fondue you have to kiss the person on your left" and Alicia had to kiss Mallory's cheek about 47 times. She was struggling. Then yesterday after church, I had the opportunity to go to a baptism. It was so amazing. It was such a spiritual experience to be able to see these people (who were both older than the normal age of 8) who had found something so wonderful. One of the girls was so excited that she got to the church super early just to make sure she was ready! I love that even though our cultures our different, the church really is the same everywhere. It brings people the same joy no matter where you are. We got to eat some yummy food after too, (beignets are the best in the world) and hang out with the missionaries, which is always a fun time. Just note to self: don't bring up the fact that you have nicknames for them, especially when they're embarrassing nicknames, and especially when they're standing right behind you.

Tonight (which I'm still counting because we are leaving), we went for our final group dinner on a boat on the Seine! It was magical. We got dressed up, ate really yummy food, and see all the beautiful sights around Paris. I forget how beautiful this city really is sometimes. Seriously, I felt like I was in a movie or something. What an amazing experience. Getting to boat on the Seine TWICE? How lucky are we?

This month went by so incredibly fast, and the program itself went by even faster. Honestly, November was a bit of a blur. We realized we had like no time left, and life got really busy. We visited Versailles, which was amazing, and those gardens are beautiful. I was sick so I didn't get to fully experience them, but luckily I had been before to the garden part and got to lounge around and that was nice. We also traveled to Strasbourg, which you can read about here. Apart from that, it was a lot of homework, papers, studying, more art history classes, and shopping for souvenirs. I can't believe it is already time to go home. I will blog more about my feelings and experience later, but right now I reallyyyy need to go pack. So much so that I used 4 y's. Which obviously means a lot.

At Caitie's birthday dinner

Disneyland! I stole this from Mallory...those are her parents in the corner. haha

"The Londoneers" as Kaitlin likes to call us.