I woke up at seven this morning and set another alarm for an extra five minutes. It was just that kind of day. Before I tell you about today, I have to tell you about last night. So you remember lover boy and that he's keeping my suitcases for me, right? Well all of this happened last night after I talked to you:
- shit. I've been talking to him all day only because he writes in French to me and it helps me practice. My life is so fucking weird.
Anyway, back to this morning. I woke up to an email from mom agreeing to the price I had found for my flight and telling me to book it. I thought that I should do it right then and just get it out of the way. I tried to book one flight that I had open in my browser but it was denied. I tried another browser and it had also expired. I picked the flight in a new browser and actually paid for the flight! Until I saw an email saying that my return flight was pending confirmation. I figured that it was nothing serious so I went along with my morning. I checked my facebook messages and then finally got up to study a few minutes after 7:30. First on my list of things to do was working on my French presentation. I wrote my last slide about if I ever get to come back to Paris and then wrote the sentences for my notes sheet. I fixed the presentation and then emailed it to my professor.
I wanted to finish studying for pop before my histories final at 3:30. I was getting along fine enough, but then I got a headache. I tried my best to push forward but I feel like the second I review something it flies right out of my head. Well there's nothing to do about that now. It's already bedtime.
I was studying away when I saw an email from the airline. The email was entirely in French so I google translated it. Turns out the word that I didn't know was that my payment had been denied for my return flight so I had to follow the link to pay for the flight. It turns out that I had to pick out the flight and go through the whole booking process again. Then I had problems with my credit card. I finally figured out the right code number and paid for the flight. Parfait. I then went back to studying. I then got more emails from the airline. The booking agency stated that I had paid them the full amount of the flight and the confirmation number was different than the one that I had just paid for after my rejected payment. I then got an email from the company that rejected my payment stating that the flight was five euros more and giving me a different booking number. I kept forwarding all the emails to mom so that we could figure it out when she woke up. It turns out that the booking agency had communicated with the return flight airline and that's why I was getting all those emails. The second email from the booking agency had the same flight number as the second email from the return flight airline. So complicated!!
Dealing with my flights was really distracting from the studying. By a little after twelve I still had three lectures to review and I wanted to reread the essay on Times Square for my histories final. I then got this series of emails:
Dear UC Students,
I’m contacting you to inform you that University of California would like to invite you to a farewell snack today!
Please come and enjoy a special Christmas snack with us at the ACCENT Paris Study Center at 3pm!
À tout à l'heure !
The ACCENT Team
Can you believe that your Paris semester is almost over? It seems like it was just yesterday that Carole and I were standing in front of you during orientation, handing over the keys to Paris. And now you are all Parisians, listening to David Guetta, ordering your cafe noisette and wearing black.
Please join us at 3pm today over in the ACCENT space to share a little bûche de Noël, the traditional French holiday sweet, and plenty of goodbye hugs and photos.
We will miss all of you, and hope that you will continue to hold Paris close to your hearts as you make your way to your next adventure, be it back to the USA or another study abroad experience.
Cordialement,
Shelby and Carole
I figured that I should go. There was the promise of a bûche de Noël after all. I was so done with studying so I took a break to do my makeup. Then I did another lecture. My stomach was really rumbling at this point so I thought that I'd go to the boulangerie. Good thing it was raining. I threw on some clothes and grabbed my umbrella and went downstairs. Lucky for me the boulangerie that's closest to my apartment was closed because it's Wednesday. I had to walk to the one on the corner that had a line going out the door because it was lunchtime and the other boulangerie was closed. As I was walking I saw a guy munching on a baguette while walking down the street without an umbrella. I thought how sad his soggy bread must be. I got to the boulangerie and waited huddled under the awning for what seemed like forever. Do you know that feeling of being slightly damp from the rain when it's just enough to make you conscious that you're out in the rain? It wasn't helping my life.
I got my baguette and went home. I only ate part of the baguette so that I could rush and skim the article. It was fairly helpful for my argument. I then finished the last pop lecture (wait, what I told you doesn't add up, I definitely only did one lecture after my bread run. I'm sorry that I've forgotten the details of my life already!). It was barely after two by then so I took some time to get into bed and relax before leaving. I watched some Judge Judy and then threw on a comfy sweater and tons of warm clothes and left the house a bit after three. I went to the UC center to turn in my reader (Nic gave me a weird look when he took it. Maybe they only wanted novels back?) and then went downstairs. Of course everyone and their mother was there. I saw Sandine from my pop class and asked why she didn't come to the review yesterday. I told her that I could send her the notes on facebook. I then just tore my notes out of my notebook for her. I wasn't going to review them anyway. I then went to a computer to print off my hotel and flight confirmations and then headed upstairs for my final. The door was locked and I had a few minutes so I left my stuff with Morgan and went downstairs to get cake. The center had laid out ice cream versions of bûche de Noëls in several flavors, different kinds of cakes, bonbons, soda, and apple cider. I got a piece of vanilla cake (which was different kinds of vanilla ice cream shaped to look like a cake) and went upstairs. The cake (sorry, ice cream) was delicious an the perfect distraction from my final.
Christina saw us all in the stairwell and went to get someone to unlock the door. We went inside and settled in for a minute before Christina announced that she decided to give us a Christmas/Hanukkah/going away present and then passed out the exam. She only made us write one essay instead of two! I then proceeded to take an hour and fifteen minutes to write one essay that was supposed to take 45 minutes. I wrote very slowly and kept crossing things out and fixing my bad handwriting. I feel like the essay turned out okay, but it's not going to win any awards any time soon. I was happy that I wasn't the last person in the room; actually I was far from it. I gathered my things and walked to turn in my exam. Christina made the hand gesture of "phew" and smiled at me as I said goodbye. It was a nice way to say goodbye. I'm really going to miss her.
I had planned on stopping at Monoprix to get mom's soap and scope out a scarf for Uncle Alvin. Mom has been hassling me all quarter to buy her soap from Monoprix. She read online that you can get real made in France soap at Monoprix for less than a euro. I thought that I should buy her the damn soap before it was too late. I found the hand soap section and then went kinda nuts. I ended up choosing about five bars of soap. I looked like a crazy person balancing that much soap on my books while swinging an umbrella from my wrist. I took my crazy parade to the men's section. I checked out the price of scarves and then paid for the soap. 9,48 worth of bar soap. I shoved it all in my purse and left.
Outside I saw Tatiana on her way home so we walked home together. We talked about finals and my upcoming trip to Barcelona. She's a nice girl, but I'm not in love. It has been so nice to have someone to walk to school with, though. I got to the elevator with Tatiana and Nora and Shanni from my French class got on. They were holding the bouquet of flowers that they had bought for our French professor. I asked them if they still needed money for the flowers and they said yes that it would be nice if I donated. I had the hardest time finding a one euro coin in my bag. I got off the elevator with them so that I could find the coin. I finally found it and then got back on the elevator. I came upstairs and knew that I had a lot to get done before my date with mom at eight.
First was washing all of the dishes in the sink. Then I made my packet of mashed potatoes and the packet of gravy. I'm so proud of myself with figuring out that there were measurements on the side of my hot wine souvenir cup and using the internet to convert that to cups. I washed dishes with one hand while eating the rest of my baguette with the other with two boiling pots on the stove. I was full from the bread but I couldn't resist making myself a huge bowl of mashed potatoes and gravy. I added extra garlic powder and black pepper to the gravy and it was delicious! I was so full that I actually felt sick when I bent over to clean out my draws. I made signs for "donate" and "curb" and then started sorting out the things in my desk. Then I moved on to getting everything out of the cupboards. I then packed up all of the glassware that I bought when I was in Venice. Last was packing my clothes for Barcelona. I'm only taking my flower bag so that I can avoid any baggage fees. I might need to take some clothes out of it.
After all of that business I took a shower. Afterwards I turned my attention to my French presentation. Earlier in the day my professor had sent me three corrections that I needed to make. The first correction was really difficult for me. I tried to fix it and then emailed her back. She then emailed me that it was still wrong! I fixed it and emailed it back to her again. She said that I really earned my French breakfast tomorrow. I'm really going to miss her too. I tried my best to practice my script and then I tried to just just the key words on my slide to think of sentences without my script. I can semi do both of them. Who cares anymore. The presentation is only one of six in the class and I couldn't possibly fail. I'm ready to let go.
I finished practicing for my presentation with one second to spare before it was skype time with mom. We talked about my flight, that I have to get a hotel for Monday, Patrick (she reminded me to not leave money or credit cards in my luggage), and the Christmas tree that she bought with Matthew. I've decided to name the tree Henri the Noble Tree. Henri was the greatest king of France. He's going to be a very noble tree indeed. Mom made me make my Christmas list of five items as requested by dad. I couldn't think of anything. Mom wants me to get a blu ray player for my bedroom. I guess I'm getting one of those for Christmas. I requested underwear because I always do and because I'm legitimately out of it at the moment. I also asked for a set of champagne flutes because I only have three (I broke one years ago and never replaced it). I also asked for a used copy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and a Bukowski. She didn't write down that I want a pony. We then made last minute plans for Tuesday. I told her my flight number and where to find me at the airport. My phone won't be working in California either so we're meeting at the baggage claim. Mom and I always talk for forever. She always makes me laugh.
I'm ready for tomorrow.
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