One more time.

Bonjour de Cannes, France one last time! This has been one crazy ride, but one that I am thrilled to have taken. We've been talking a lot lately about our first days here way back in August, and how we've all grown and changed throughout the semester. In many ways, that first day seems like just yesterday, and in others, it seems like another age entirely. I remember waking up in a hotel room in Nice on my first morning here, hearing the maids speaking French just outside the door, and groggily thinking, "Oh NO, I have to get up and use all my energy to translate that noise all day." Then I thought about this past Tuesday night when I was able to jump in at the last second and direct a choir of kids for a French song on the spot in front of an audience. The language is so deeply rooted in my brain now that I can't help but understand it without even trying. I have so much more confidence speaking and navigating, and that's really exciting to realize.

This has been a hard day for everyone here. We had our last class with Sylvie this morning; it finally began to hit home that you can't spend three hours a day, five days a week with the same people for four months and not miss them. Luckily, I will be able to see most of my friends from CSB/SJU next semester (although it won't be the same), but I don't know if I'll ever see my friends from France, Germany, and those with the AIFS group from all over the United States. This afternoon, Mickey and McGhee left for Nice for the night, and a group of us will walk Katie to the bus station at two o'clock this morning so she can make her early morning flight. There are so many goodbyes to be said and everyone is getting sick of it; I already had to leave my students and my flute teacher at the Conservatory earlier this week.

Studying abroad is one of those experiences that has dozens of unforseen consequences and outcomes. The hardest thing about it for me is the finality of leaving and not knowing when I'll be back to this place that I've called home for the past four months. After wandering around Cannes this week, I realized that I also don't remember a lot of things that struck me about France when I first got here - or I don't remember why they struck me, because everything about France is so normal to me now. I guess the last part of this adventure will be the reverse culture shock stage, where I stare, dumbfounded, at green, same-sized currency and scream and run away in fear of giant SUVs that just might eat me. I'll have a phone again, no need for a plug converter anymore, and the waiters at restaurants will bring the check right away after the meal without my asking for it. Also, people will give me strange looks when I try to order my food or respond to questions in class in French without noticing.

I also want to say merci mille fois to all of my family and friends who have supported me through this semester in so many ways. Thanks for the cards, emails, Skype dates, Facebook messages, and for giving me motivation to keep up with this blog throughout the semester. Thank you for putting up with me missing and craving Chipotle from time to time (even though I'm in France, for heaven's sake) and complaining of the "cold" here. And thank you especially to Mom and Dad for working so hard to get me here, worrying incessantly for four months straight, coming to visit, and for taking good care of Johann Sebastian in my absence.

I will see all of you soon on the other side of the Atlantic where I see a snowstorm has been arranged as a welcome back gift. Mais avant de partir, je voudrais dire à la France: C'est pas "au revoir", c'est "jusqu'à la suite". Tu me manques déjà.

Happy Tanksgeeveeng!

So, I'm back to "regular" life in Cannes. It's been a strange couple of weeks not traveling, so I feel as though I don't have much to write about, but I guess we've had some excitement here and there. As many of you know, I didn't make it to London last weekend because I was sick; I think it was a good decision because Katie told me it was very cold up there. Plus, I was able to go to Thanksgiving dinner here at the Collège; it was actually very good! Because there are so many Americans here, I sometimes forget that things are different in Europe and they don't have holidays like Thanksgiving. But the culinary staff put forward a great effort to make us feel at home for the holiday. They had a grand display in la salle à manger (the dining room), compete with a tepee and Playmobile pilgrims. We got to explain to our German, British, and Australian friends the purpose and story of Thanksgiving. ("Why do you celebrate all the Indians you killed?" questioned one of our friends from England. Fair enough.) The Nice Matin (the newspaper of Nice) even showed up to take pictures for a small article about Americans celebrating Thanksgiving in France.

Anyway, the food was fabulous. It far exceeded our expectations (which were low to begin with, let's be honest), except for the pumpkin pie. Apparently, year after year, they cannot seem to grasp the concept of the consistency of pumpkin pie filling. For them, all pies are like les tartes aux pommes (apple pie), where there are chunks of the fruit or vegetable in the pie.

They also put up red, white, and blue table decorations, so it was a kind of bizarre mix between Thanksgiving and the 4th of July. Still, though, everyone dressed up and we all took pictures (in front of the tepee, bien sûr). Afterwards, everyone moved into the café for a karaoke night! It turned out to be a lot of fun; I was going to skip out and go to bed, but I decided to go listen and ended up dancing until it ended at around one in the morning.

Then came maybe the most bizarre part of all of this: Waking up and going to class on Friday morning after Thanksgiving. Luckily, we could introduce our professor, Sylvie, to the effects of tryptophane.

On Friday night, I went with Mickey, Regina, and Andrew to the Sushi Shop one last time. It was only the four of us and Evans who were sticking around Cannes for the weekend. Saturday, it poured. I took Mickey and our friend Lauren to the American diner, which was all decked out for Christmas! They were also playing "A Muppet Christmas Carol" and we enjoyed watching that while dismembering a gingerbread man. It's still rather funny to see Christmas decorations here in the south of France with the beach only a block away and palm trees everywhere. It's also funny that all of the Cannes natives think it's freezing cold here, and while it's true that it's a colder year than usual for them, I would say it's decent St. John's football weather.

This week was rather busy. I had my Monday and Tuesday nights at the Conservatoire, which is getting hectic because of our fast-approaching concerts next week! Next Tuesday, the kids are going to sing the 12 Days of Christmas (except, since the words are difficult, they're getting the first four days of Christmas). They're doing so well! I'm not going to be directing it, though, because I'm going to be singing the verses into a microphone and they'll repeat after me. Régine and I modified the song so it works. Then, the middle-schoolers have written an accompaniment on their instruments and they'll finish the song. There's another French song they learned that I might be directing (at least, I've been directing it for the past week in class, so you never know what they're going to throw at you for the concert). I am definitely going to miss my students (especially les gamins - the little ones!) when I leave. It brightened my day on Tuesday when I walked into Régine's class and they all yelled "LEAH!!!!", and one girl gave me a little coupon she clipped out of a magazine with the name "Léa" on it. They are just too cute.

I also finally had another flute lesson with Caroline, and we decided that I will be playing in the recital on Wednesday. I threw together my piece with an accompanist in ten minutes and we are good to go...as long as both my accompanist and I practice a ton this weekend.

I had two final exams this week, in Cinéma and Histoire d'Art. They both went well. Now, all that's left are two papers and one final. Our grammar class has actually been very fun lately. Sylvie is an excellent teacher. We've been looking at French music videos/artists, some conventional grammar, and French texting abbreviations (like LOL - which they use here - and biz - bisous - kisses). There is also a type of language called "Verlan", which is kind of like gangster-speak; a lot of rap artists and people in big cities use it. Verlan is kind of abstract, but it is created by taking a word and switching the syllables; for example, they would say Céfran (say-frahn) instead of français (frahn-says).

Hmmm. Well, it feels kind of crazy that there are only eight more days here in France! On one hand, Christmas sounds lovely and it will be nice to be home; on the other hand, there is no snow here in the south of France. And there are Christmas markets everywhere in Europe! I went to the one in Paris a couple weeks ago, and the ones in Cannes and Nice opened today. I walked through the Cannes market earlier this afternoon; it is so funny. There are tons of tents set up along the harbor; people are walking around with long coats, furs, gloves, and earmuffs; right next to them is the ocean and a port full of yachts.

I plan on going back tonight with Regina and Andrew, and tomorrow, Mickey and I are going to Nice to see their big market! It should be a fun way to spend our last weekend. That art history paper will write itself...at some point.