alum
A year ago at this time I was still in France, thinking about my year ahead as a Senior. Today, it is the day after my graduation and I am now a Dickinson alum and I don't know what the future holds. It's so hard to belive and all happened so fast!

Final Reflections
Well,I'm long since home now. During my last days I went to the movies and walked around. My last night, I went to an Airbus party with the German student. I was definitely ready to leave. I had a good flight.

Now I'm home. I'm glad to be, but there are definitely things in my daily life that I miss about Europe. I learned a lot there, mainly to relax and to take time to stop and smell the roses. My year abroad will always hold a deep,dear place in my heart and was definitely worth while.

Semi-final days
I spent some of last week walking around, taking pictures of the gardens. I finsihed my last final on Friday. Friday night, I had dinner at Petit ZioZo's for the last time with Leslie, Eng and Marc. Then we went to a bar with Jeff, but there was a rugby game going on so it was too crowded, so we left. On Sat, I had a nice lunch with Eng at a Moroccan place. Then we walked around and ended up at Leslie's place. I spent the rest of the afternoon helping her pack-what a mess! Then we had a nice final dinner at a Mexican restaurant-Sandia's and then we met up with a bunch of people at Bar Basque-it was quite an interesting time. I am now all packed, and have spent the past few days walking around and shopping. 4 more days!

This Week
I spent a lot of the week reading Harry Potter. It was really hot last week and Europe is awful in the heat with no AC and such-so hard to sleep! Tues night was the end of the year reception at the Dickinson Center. It was pretty nice (although nothing compared to the Malaga one). On Thurs I revisted the Musée Labit just next door to the Dickinson Center with Missy. Then we went to a café because she and another girl were leaving on Fri. Friday night I went to Hippopotamus for dinner with Leslie and Catherine and then we met up with Eng to go to a karaoke bar. We definitely gave away our identity by singing American songs-Respect (a very different version) and Man I feel LIke a Woman. It was fun. Then on Sat Leslie and I went to Oasis for dinner then sas "Ma Petit Doigt M'a Dit" based on the Agatha Christi book "BY the Prickiling of My Thumb". It was good. Sun Les and I had lunch at Place du Capitole.

This week
Last week was the last week of classes (except for lit). I had my history final, and it wasn't bad. On Wed, I saw a Columbian movie, it was so depressing! On Friday, I had dinner with Leslie at Petit Zoizo's and then we saw Shall We Dance in French. On the way home somone in a car stopped and asked Leslie for directions and then pulled out a fake gun-kinda freaky! I'm already getting really bored and I still have 3 weeks here, I spent most of Saturday reading. At night, Leslie came over and we made dinner, played cards and watched a movie. Sunday, I read almost all day, except to go to a creperie for lunch with Leslie. Yesterday, I had 2 finals and today one, which all went well. Now, I just have one final left and I'm here for 2 and a half weeks still.

La Rochelle and Ile de Ré
Last Monday, Leslie and I had dinner at 7-Eleven and then hung out at Place du Capitole to do some work. On Wed we had dinner again together. On Friday, was our end of the year trip to La Rochelle and Ile de Ré which are pretty much beach towns. We had a group dinner on Fri night at La Rochelle. The next day, we went to the jewlery market and visited the 3 tours there. Then we left for Ile de Ré. Our hotel was awesome-it had a heated pool and we had appartments with a kitchen. So, we made a dinner in our appartment then went to the beach. On Sunday, we went biking and our destination was a wildlife preserve. Unfortunately, we didn't get too far because it monsooned. We were completely soaked. We were able to seek shelter in a wine store. The guy there gave us samples and put on music. We were there an hour til it stopped raining. Then we had a group dinner at the pavillion at the hotel. On Monday, we went to the beach again. Then we had to leave. On the way home, the train stopped in Bordeaux, because there was an accident with a person at another station. They said we could change trains. It was so packed that we had to sit in the bike storage area for a while. The train was stopped for 2 hours, but we got back safe and sound.

Avignon
On Mon, it was still vacation with no classes, so Leslie and I had lunch together and then walked around town, doing some window shopping. On Wed night, we saw Vanity Fair. Thurs was another holiday, so we had lunch and went to see Garden State, yes the lag time is rediculous, but it was really good. Afterwards, we did some shopping. On Friday night, I went to Leslie's house for dinner and to watch a movie. On Saturday, Leslie, Eng and her French friend Marc and I went to Avignon. It's a very cute,old town. Eng, however missed the train, since it was at 7am, so we met up with her after lunch at a nice crepe restaurant. Then, we went to the Palais de Papes and the famous bridge. Then we had Chinese for dinner. On Sunday, we went to the gardens. Then, we wanted to take a little day trip to see waterfalls, but we missed the bus. So we just went back to Toulouse early.

Italy trip
So, I spent the last 2 weeks in Italy. I don't know where to start, especially since I don't want to write a book.

We left on a Fri night. At the Toulouse train station, we already had our first problem. Our tickets were for Geneva, Switerland and not Genoa, Italy (the names are similar in French). Fortunately, we could change our tickets, but our overnight train would get in 2 hours later. We finally got to Milan on Sat afternoon and were greeted by one of Leslie's friends. She showed us around and we climbed the duomo. You get to walk on the roof. It's absolutely amazing.
The next day we left for Venice. We bought so much glass. Unfortunately, we kept going to Murano too late, so we never got to see them make it. We rode a gondola and our guide was really cute. We also saw St Mark's Cathedral, climbed a bell tower and saw the doge's palace. We also had a mysterious roommate who shared our hostel room who we never actually met.
On Tues we went to Bologna for the day. We climbed the twin towers. Then we went to Florence. There was a problem with our hotel reservation because Leslie had changed it. Fortunately, we could move to another upgraded hotel for one night. We went to the Academia to see the David and climbed the duomo. The next day we took a day trip to Pisa. We went in the church and climbed the tower. It was amazing and you could feel the tilt as you climbed. That night, back in Florence we had an awesome dinner withe cutest waiters. We had some chianti. The next day we got up really early to go to the Uffizzi and we still waited 2 hours.
On Sunday, we went to Rome. It was so crowded since it was the first mass with the new pope. We did a tour of all the monuments-Mouth of Truth, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, pantheon, plazas and sites from Angels and Demons. On Monday, we went to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. Then we went to the Appian way. Even though there wasn't much there it was cool to go. Tues was Vatican day. We got there so early to get in the museums. We ran to the Sistine Chapel and then spent 4 hours in the museums. Then we went to St Peters Basilica. First we climbed the dome. Then we went in the church and finished with seeing the tomb. Unfortuneatley, we wasted a lot of time because we couldn't find each other.
Wed we left for Naples. There is so much insane traffic there. We went to the archeological museum and then down to the port for a view of the ocean and Mt Vesuvius. The next day, we spent the day in Pompeii. We took the wrong train at first, but we just backtracked to take the right one. The site was huge! We spent 5 hours there and didn't see everything. We took a night train to Nice.
Nice was gorgeous. We went to the Matisse Museum and then hung out on the beach. On Sat, we went to Monaco. We went to the aquarium and saw the palace. Then we went to a garden and ended at the casino. I only bet 5euros, but I didn't win anything. On Sun, we went back to Toulouse.

French Catalogne
This week was a really bad week. My host mom yelled at me for having too much laundry. She thinks I can wear socks more than once! I'm really want to go home. This Italy trip is keeping me going!

The Dickinson group went to French catalan this weekend, so close to the Spanish border it killed me. First, we went to Perpignan, where we went on a guided tour of the Palais de Rois de Majorque. The guide talked so long, that we didn't have time to see anything else. Just time for lunch, where Les and I each ate a whole pizza, and Eng a whole chicken! Then we climbed this hill to an abbey. It was so steep and not worth the climb. I thought I was going to die and my butt still hurts. It was so windy during that night that I couldn't sleep. And it continued during the day, during our guided tour of Villefranche and I was miserably cold. Fortuntely, they cancelled the tour of the fort, so we hung around the hostel. Then we went to the Art Museum of Ceret-more Picasso! That was the highlight I think. I heard Spanish too and even had sangria! We watched L'auberge espagnol on the way home! Italy on Fri!!!!

This week
Didn't do too much last week. I saw a movie in French on Fri night, Go, live and become (Va, vis and deviens). It was really good. On Saturday, I watched Best in Show with Leslie, then we went to a club. This guy kept following me, so I spent most of my time trying to avoid him, but the music was good-latino! Yesterday was free museum day and so I went to the Musée Georges Labit, that has Egyptian and Asian artifacts.