It’s officially our last day. It finally hit me today that this will probably be my last time in Paris, and even my last time seeing some of the people here. We had a good-bye “party” this morning; the school brought us breakfast. We started eating it and then someone invited the French class next door to join us. It was a little awkward, plus they ate all our food. At least we got to exchange photos with each other.

After that we proceeded to presentations. I was number 4 out of 7. As soon as I started, Luis came to the front of the room to plug something in and blew out the power. Then Peter had to save the day to get the projector going again.

When that was over with, we headed to Montparnesse for our last meal together at a Belgium Mussel restaurant. In an effort to avoid French fries, I asked for rice instead; however, I ended up getting both. I can’t look at French fries anymore! You know, as silly as it sounds, I thought they were more of an American food; but they are everywhere here. 

I went home to drop off my computer after lunch. Then I met up with AJ, Andres, Peter, Harish, Lidia, and Jean at the River around 7. On my way there, I stopped to get a metro map (since Harish threw mine away in the morning) and the guy behind the counter ended up talking to me for half an hour. The conversation went like this:

Guy: That will be 2 euros. (in French)
Me: No
Guy: 2 euros for the small one. 5 for the big one. (in French)
Me: No
Guy: Something in French that I don’t understand
Me: I don’t speak French
Guy: Just a smile will do
Me: Smiled

It turns out that he is Moroccan—what a surprise, another Arab. He was very pleasant and I must admit, attractive.  We talked about traveling and how it was like in different countries. He wants to come to America but he is afraid of discrimination since he is Arab.

At the river, we all drank some wine and played games like murder, boom chica boom boom, etc.  My stomach was hurting because of how much I was laughing. We were going to call it a night since Lidia and I had to use the restroom and there are no public ones by the river, but we decided to go to a café instead. I think we were being a little rowdy because some people approached us about our obnoxiousness and a lot of other people left. The staff didn’t seem to mind us, though. After some coffee and ice cream, we went back to the marble steps across from the Eiffel tower and just hung out for a while. All of us were being really silly and laughing. I feel like it took us way too long to open up like this. The sad thing is that I may never see AJ, Jean, and Peter again since they go to different campuses. We took a lot of pictures and said our goodbyes before we headed home around 11. I am almost done with my packing. Although I’m sad to go, I am relieved to go back home.