La fin

So I'm back at Mudd and getting back into research. It's hard to believe how quickly you can get readjusted after being in a foreign country. On the other hand I asked Terence at dinner the other night if we were allowed to put our elbows on the table at meals in America. So I've done a lot of thinking about whether or not it was really a good choice to go abroad. I've fallen a little behind in terms of classes for my major, my English has been set back a little, and somehow I'm having problems loading gels in lab. At the same time, seeing France gave me a viewpoint I could never have found elsewhere. Above all, it showed me a surprisingly different way to think. The lifestyle is a lot different, and it was really cool to see how the thought process can lead to so many of the differences I noticed. I can make up the missed classes, I can go back to English, and I can spend 12 hours a day in lab to relearn the basics, but I'll never have another opportunity like studying abroad. It was definitely a great decision, and if anyone reading this is on the fence about doing the same thing, you gotta go. I miss Paris a lot, but I really hope to get back there soonish, maybe even taking a job over there for a while between college and grad school. I'm finishing this post and probably this blog with my favorite photo of the semester, taken the last night I was in Paris. I think it was take number seven on the backflip in front of the Eiffel Tower project, and somehow Glennis caught me right before takeoff. I think it perfectly expresses the unimaginable anguish of having to leave the Paris that I had come to love. But I'll be back.

Plus de photos

So Glennis finally sent me the photos I had been asking for and here they are. The first is from Biarritz, at this awesome place where the waves were crashing. I wanted to be in a cool pose with the water breaking right behind me, but as you can see, I was a little afraid of getting soaked.

This one is from the opera we went to, with Alexa, Glennis and I all dressed up.

My last night in Paris, Glennis and I decided we needed to get a shot of me doing a backflip in front of the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately we weren't as fortunate as in Greece, and it took 13 attempts. It was actually kind of cool because she caught me at different points in the flip each time, but here's the good number 13.

Château de Vincennes

So I'm back at Mudd, but I'll update you on the last weekend in Paris. I went to the Château de Vincennes with my cousin on Sunday, and had French lunch and dinner with Glennis and Alexa on Saturday. We made a tiramisu from a recipe my host mom gave me and it was fantastic. We finished the whole thing in a half-hour. The castle was really cool. This is the castle within a castle: the fortress of the king.

And here's the chapel, done in the flamboyant gothic style.

After visiting the castle, my cousin and I headed back to the Latin Quarter, and I finally got a picture of the big statue of Saint Michael.

Glennis and I met up after I got back from the castle and hung out on the Champ de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower. We saw this woman with a crazy hat and got a picture of her as she posed with some random tourists.