My last day in Paris

This was it.

My official last day of my study abroad in Paris. My flight back to the US was taking off in less than 24 hours so I had one last morning, one last lunchtime, one last dinner, and one last night of sleep before it was all over.

I know this sounds slightly depressing and like I'm expecting to never return to Paris for the rest of my life (completely untrue). But it FELT like that. I was focused all day on trying to burn every remaining feeling into my memory. I have pictures to remind me of the sights, but to me, it was the feeling of living in Paris and being familiar with certain parts which I wanted to remember the most.

First, I had to take care of the packing and moving out of my apartment. My landlord wanted me out a day early so he could move in a new tenant (don't worry, I had a couch to sleep on at Monica's place). I cleaned up everything I could, shipped off my winter clothes to my house (it most definitely would not fit into my luggage), and around lunchtime I met Monica and Catalina for some very delicious pizza near my (now old) apartment.

The next big task was moving my bags to Monica's place across Paris so I could stay the night there. There was no way we were taking the metro for this. My two bags were the size and weight of dairy cows so I opted for a taxi, and it was totally worth it because seeing Paris by car is actually quite beautiful. Anyway, after a lot of struggle and very fatigued hands from gripping the bag handles, we made it to Monica's. By this time, the hard part of my day was over and I was dead tired from it all (my previous paragraphs about how difficult it was to accomplish everything I did really don't do me justice). Monica and Catalina went out for some last minute shopping while I stayed behind and napped for an hour or so. Then Mariel (our friend from Mexico) came over and that's when the reminiscing began...

I wanted to get a few candid photos of us all talking as a group, so I set up my camera on a chair and put it on a timer for a while- the result is a slide show of pictures showing what we all look like when we're just relaxing and having good conversation...

From the left: me, Mariel, and Monica.

Catalina joined us on the right.

I really like photos like these- ones of real life where no one is posing.




But posing isn't so bad sometimes...

It hasn't been that long and I already miss Mariel! She's one of the few people I know who can be the life of the party and make you feel so close as her friend at the same time.

And we couldn't leave Paris without seeing the Tower one more time!

After dark, we brought some wine, cheese, baguettes, and made a little picnic in Champs de Mars, the green space right next to the Eiffel Tower, and Monica's roommate, Nicole, and her friend joined us too.

During our picnic, we all decided to help Monica fulfill one of her promises to a friend back home. She had to take a picture looking as French as possible- meaning she dressed up in a beret and held a bottle of wine, a baguette, and a cigarette in her hand while standing in front of the Eiffel Tower (we bought all the accessories earlier that day).

Here's a video of us all teaming up to make this picture possible...



Obviously, there were Frenchies all around us laughing at the "silly tourists who think they're French"... but we were well aware of how crazy we looked and it only made it funnier! I personally thought it was a bit ironic- here we all are, students who have been living in Paris for almost a year, and some of our last pictures of Paris involve major stereotypes about French people (ha ha). But then again, what better way to conclude an experience like this one than with a big fat joke?

We obviously couldn't stay out too late since both Monica and I had flights the next day, so the time came (too soon) that we had to go back to get some sleep. Of course, we all cried and said long, over-emotional goodbyes to the Tower and Paris and each other.

And the next morning, I was flying home.

Au revoir, Paris, and bisous XOXO!!