and so it ends...

Well, it's hard to believe, but here I am: posting my last post from Aix at the end of an incredible semester. As I am sure it did for you all, the semester flew by, and it seems not too long ago that we all went out to dinner the first night and met everyone even though we were all jet-lagged. Needless to say, this semester has been everything I had hoped for, and a lot more besides. No matter how much pressure this puts on my remaining semesters at Vandy (looks like it might be 18 hours for the next two, ugh), I am extremely glad that I decided to come abroad for the semester.

Firstly, the people I have gotten to know here have been a lot of fun. I was kind of nervous coming into this semester since I basically knew no one on the trip. Sure, I had met a few, maybe even had a class or two with some, but I never hung out with any of these folks outside of class. Thankfully we got really lucky with our group, and pretty much everyone here is really, really cool. Obviously being in a foreign country with only 25 other students forces you to become relatively close with the other students, but we have had a lot of fun when we hang out, and it is going to be kind of sad to leave (although seeing all our friends at Vandy is going to be awesome).

Secondly, just the experience of living in a different culture has been fascinating. Granted, it's not like living in some country in the Middle East where the culture is almost completely different, but it has still be quite an experience, and one which I am very glad I was able to be part of and one which I will not be likely to forget any time soon. From observing the way people here dress differently, act differently, etc, to eating with an older French woman 4 nights a week, we have been privy to a good deal of French culture, and it was very interesting.

Lastly, the improvement to my French has been quite substantial, and one cannot be helped at being impressed at the progress everyone in the program has made in just 3 months. Sure, we may not be fluent, but we can watch French movies, converse with French people, etc, etc without a problem.

I am really excited to be going home (especially now since I am flying into Nashville directly and avoiding the whole Atlanta-then-drive-home deal). All the same, I would lying if I said I wasn't sad to leave France and Europe behind. I would love to come back here someday, but obviously one never knows, and thinking that this might be my second-to-last day in Europe, ever, is kind of sad, lol. Well, I suppose I should be getting back to the 10 page paper that is hanging over me...got that and the PSCI final for tomorrow. Tomorrow night we are prolly gonna hit up the usual haunts one last time before we all go our seperate ways. Hopefully the friendships made here will translate into more fun times at Vandy....on verra.

I guess I probably should include some pictures since I know that they are integral to a blog that isn't otherwise terribly interesting or well written, so let's see what crazy photos I can dig up.

Me, Shannon, and Chris at the Thanksgiving party we had at the center.

Sara, Amanda, Jenn, Stephanie, and moi at Le Manoir the other weekend

Beginning of one of the craziest nights (from Barcelona of course)

Taken at the apartment of some students kind enough to have hosted a christmas party...and it had vin chaud too!

Au revoir....