Leaving Paris...

So, I've just returned from my last day/night in Paris... and it was perfect. I'm really, really happy with how everything ended.

Finals were over yesterday, so today was the IES goodbye party, at the IES center at noon, and we had delicious catered food; it was all so good. After that I went shopping around for souvenirs with McKenzie, Scott, Mark and Joe. We went to the Champs-Elysées, then Latin Quarter/Odéon. I got some presents for my AC friends and this apple-patterned bag I'd been eyeing (I like it because I'm fond of apples, but this bag is like super-popular and I've seen like 5 different girls carrying it around Paris). It was really full circle because Champs-Elysées and the Latin Quarter are like two of the first places I/we ever went, and we knew so little then and now we know so much more. I think the word "full circle" came up in conversation numerous times today. I loved it...

Later we (McKenzie, Mark, Allie, Lindsey, and Joe) had dinner and decided to go out right, at a very nice cute French place we heard about from Katie's dad (a pilot, so we saw other airline-employee-looking people there too). The food was very good, naturally. After that there was supposed to be this big party at the Champ de Mars, the big park out behind the Eiffel Tower, with not just IES kids but French kids too. But the sky had opened up during the afternoon and it got canceled. But after dinner we went over there anyway, and no one was there but we just sat on a couple benches and talked and hung out. It was really, really nice, we laughed a lot. Around midnight we started walking up towards the Métro and when we got under the Eiffel Tower, just by chance, we met some other IES girls and chatted with them. Then it was time for us to part and I said goodbye to everyone and continued on alone, and they went the other way. I was only wearing a dress and a cold wind was blowing, but it wasn't terrible. When I got to Palais de Chaillot the tower burst into sparkles, as it does, and it was amazing, especially when I got up to that platform. I walked the rest of the way home for the last time.



so yeah. A perfect ending. I didn't get to say goodbye to some people, unfortunately, but you can never get everyone. Now I will finish packing, go to sleep, and tomorrow my host dad is going to drive me to where the bus to the airport is (meaning I don't have to take a taxi from my house) and then I will get on a plane and go hooooome!! Oh, I can't even believe it's over, and I'm so happy it ended on a high note...

But the time has come
To move along...