Goodbye.

Well, I’ve reached the end. It feels so surreal, but my four month stint in Europe is now over. I’m actually writing this on the plane ride back. I think I’m at 7 hours down, 3 to go. Until Dallas at least. 

I spent my final days in Paris mostly cleaning and packing during the days and hanging out with friends at night. I wandered some, and just tried to take it all in. This has been such an incredible experience all around. I don’t think I would trade it for the world. 

It’s a little weird writing this. Well really, it is a lot weird. I’m kind of at a loss for what to say. I’m not sure it’s possible to sum up 4 months of living in a place into a blog post. I talked about this last night with a friend, or somewhat did. His university was making him write a 10 page paper on his experience studying abroad; a pretty ridiculous feat. 

I am excited to get back to LA and the sun, and family and friends, but I feel like I really meshed with Paris as a city. That sounds pretty ethereal and silly, but it’s true. I love LA, but I’ve never felt like it was necessarily my city. Maybe it’s too big, maybe I haven’t explored enough. But I’ve always imagined myself as more of a northern California girl. I guess I vibe with it better. That being said, I feel so at home in Paris. It is my type of city for sure. Though I couldn’t possibly quantify why. 

I was pretty sad to be leaving. I hope to have the opportunity to live in Paris again someday, or maybe just Europe. It is just such a different way of life. I think people are more relaxed and just take life a little slower. Which took me a while to adjust to. It actually frustrated me a fair amount for a while. I’m used to such a faster pace of life, and learning to slow down is difficult. But seriously, most people here get 5 weeks of paid vacation. What do you even do with that much time off?

Either way, I had an incredible time abroad, an amazing experience, and I’m really so so grateful for getting to do this. I’m sad it’s over, but can’t be anything but ecstatic over the whole experience. 

However, this was my abroad blog, and now that I’m not, I believe I’m done with writing. Thanks for all those that read and kept up with these. 

Au Revoir.