Graduation and Reuniation (not a word?) !!

Yesterday was the official last day of l'Université d'été, which was sad. It started with final presentations of the internships in the morning, then a quick trip to the 24 Hour Race museum, just because we'd never been. And then there was the graduation reception! It was no caps-and-gowns affair, but all of our names were called to accept our diplomas. The French don't do graduation ceremonies - when they're ready to graduate, they go to a secretary's office, ask for their diploma, and she prints it out so they can both sign it. That's it. So the fact that Akron has approximately 5 different graduation ceremonies, for each college, is a very weird concept to the French.

To celebrate our last evening together before everyone left, we went to dinner where I ate my first vegetable of the entire trip - a salad with avocado, egg, and mozzarella (and tomatoes which were eaten by Esther because I could only go so far) !! A picture will be uploaded soon so that I can prove that I did indeed eat it! The 20 of us then watched La Nuit des Chimières which is very similar to when the animations are projected on to Cinderella's Castle in Disney, but instead of a castle, it's a cathedral and Roman wall (cathedral from the 12th-ish century, Roman wall from 200BC-ish). France and it's history is crazy. Every time I saw the cathedral, I was temporarily in shock because this monstrous cathedral was in the town, and none of the locals even batted an eye.

The salad (before and after, to show that it was all eaten)

The sundae I got post-salad (Foret-Noire) because all of the salad was eaten

La Nuit des Chimières at the Cathedral of Le Mans

This morning, I was up at 7 to clean my room, room inspection was at 10, then there was shopping, lunch, and eventual, tearful goodbyes with the French students. Overall, I believe that I gained a lot from this five week program. First of all, my French improved! I'm not fluent, but I'm on my way! Additionally, I have become more tolerant, patient, and open-minded as a whole. This was the first class I've taken that wasn't America-centric. I also have a new empathy for what foreigners go through when entering a new country - learning a new language and culture by just being thrown into it is hard! I loved this entire program and I have made friendships that will last well beyond this trip. I can't wait to study abroad again! And for the French students to come visit Akron next time.

This afternoon I took a train from Le Mans to Paris-Montparnesse and then a taxi past EVERY TOURIST SITE IN PARIS to eventually get to the apartment where I was reunited with Mom, Ellie, and Aunt Jen!!! They're all tired, since they got into Paris this morning and jet lag is hard, but they were able to walk around the neighborhood a little this afternoon and then we all went to dinner at this wonderful restaurant that Aunt Jen knew of from a blog. It's an early night for us all, since they're jetlagged and I woke up so early this morning. Tomorrow, however, will be a day of much walking and seeing all of the sites! Can't wait to explore the city with them!!