Il y a une année aujourd'hui j'ai laissé mon coeur à Paris...

*One year ago today I left my heart in Paris*

A more fitting blog title does not exist. One year ago today, I was flying home over the Atlantic leaving some of the best people in my life, the best city in the world and my most enjoyable 3.5 months of my life. And I definitely left my heart in Paris.

One year ago I was so sad that I didn't know what to do exactly. As my plane pulled away from Charles de Gaulle Aéroport I couldn't do anything else except sit there and cry. Depressing, I know, but it's true. My semester abroad was so incredible in every way possible, except for being away from any Stonehill friends not in Paris. I know I've written other posts about going abroad, but this topic has a different feel. I knew that from then on out my life was going to be different. I wasn't going to wake up to fresh croissants and baguettes every morning, I wasn't going to cross the street and have the ability to take the metro to anywhere in the city, let alone out to Versailles or Disneyland Paris for day trips, I wasn't going to be understood when I went out in public and spoke French (believe me... I tried once I got home and got some WEIRD looks), and worst of all, some of the most important people in my life weren't going to be with me every day.

It was really hard coming home. I remember the first day back I just sat on my couch and watched TV all day long for lack of nothing else to do. I didn't have a car at that point and my parents were both at work all day, none of my friends were home yet and I had no work since my semester was over. I just sat, blankly staring at the TV for something like 6 hours straight and hated life. I hated that I couldn't walk to a patisserie or hop on the metro and go hang out at a museum or the Eiffel Tower for a few hours. It took me a long time to get back to normal.

Charles and I were talking today about how we felt so much more like ourselves over there. I just adore the lifestyle and culture of the French. Life there was the best and I miss it every single day. Mostly I just miss speaking French whenever I felt like it and having people understand me :)

Tonight my suitemates and I exchanged our secret santa presents. My secret santa Melanie made me a collage of pictures from my Euro-adventures :) They are framed and now hanging on my wall all lovely :) As much as I love them, they made me miss France, but in a good way. I keep trying to spin my sadness post-France into a good thing and feel lucky that I had such an incredible semester. You know the quote "How lucky I am to know someone who was so hard to say goodbye to"? Well that's how I feel about my time abroad; thankful and glad.

Below is a photographic expression of the things I miss from France... these are all everyday things, not traveling or special once-in-a-while luxuries...

Wednesday Night Family Dinner! Every Wednesday a bunch of us would come to the Cité where most of us lived and cook dinner together, usually some form of pasta sautéed with veggies since that was about all we could make, though one time we did make burgers :) Always accompanied by red wine and baguettes, of course!

Trying to fit into really small elevators :)

Being ridiculously excited to watch Grey's Anatomy on iTunes every Friday afternoon on a laptop, even if the episode did skip every 10 seconds or so...

Spending way too much time here, in my favorite room in the Musée d'Orsay

Lunching daily with Rosaleen in the Jardins de Luxembourg :)

Having picnics at Versailles :)

Watching the French go on strike and protest one thing after another... yes that is a man standing on top of a bus shelter with flares going off in the background...

Eating crepes at any hour of the day... or night :)

Joyeux Anniversaire :)

Today is a very special day :)

Today Miss Jill Rachel Federschneider and one of my very best friends FINALLY turns 21!!! We have been waiting... and waiting... and WAITING... for this day for SO LONG. She's obviously that last one of us to turn 21, as we're all seniors and now our circle is complete. We have a whole week-long celebration planned for Jilly with different events each night and I am SO psyched about it. Poor Jill has been left out of far too much this semester... she couldn't come into Boston with us to celebrate anyone else's birthdays, nor could she hang out with us at Owen's or Buddy's whenever we go. But now, that all will change! Birthdays are always so much fun, no matter how old you're turning and I like to make a huge deal out of them.

Jill and I have been friends since freshman year, when we had religion and philosophy together. The next year, and every subsequent year since, we've had French together. We were always good friends... then we went to Paris and it all went UPHILL from there :) While I was studying in Paris, she was interning there and we became even closer. I realized what an incredible person she is and how much fun we have together and I knew she would be in my life forever. Even now as we plan to move to Paris together next fall, I can't imagine not having her in life. It's true when they say you'll meet friends in college who will be your friends forever and Jill is definitely one of those people for me. Je t'aime chérie et je te souhaite le plus joyeux anniversaire du monde!

Last night we took her out for some birthday celebrations, as we started off with a little celebratory champagne in the courts and then headed to Owen's at midnight. All of our friends came and it was a total blast :) Exactly what your 21st should be-- friends and fun :) Just wait Jill... we've got a whole week of this!

So in honor of Miss Fed reaching her milestone of a birthday here are some favorite pictures from years past and present:

Our favorite picture from our semester abroad :) This pretty much demonstrates our love for each other :)

This was taken at about 6 am after our most favorite night out in Paris...

Our first photo together in France! This was taken I think the day after Jill got to Paris, and you can see Notre Dame and the Seine in the background.

This was taken on MY 21st back in March-- like I said, Mandi had flown Charles up for my birthday and she and Jill went to pick him up at the airport to surprise me!

This is of Jill, me and Ayatt, one of her best friends from home :)

Spring Weekend 2008 :)

This was our "Oh my God I can't believe we're seniors" picture, let's smile and not worry about it...

Haha, this was this October in our shirts that Mr. Charles Knorr so lovingly made for us... long story, just go with it!

I love you so much Jill and I hope your birthday is everything you wanted it to be! Can't wait to celebrate future birthdays with you... et bien sûr, pour notre vie ensemble à Paris!

Gobble Gobble :)

Well this blog is a bit delayed since Thanksgiving was last week but that doesn't mean I've already forgotten about it. I had a great time at home and I hope all of you did too. It was not the smoothest airline adventure I've ever had, as my flight out of Boston departed at a lovely 8 am last Wednesday morning, so I was up at 4:30 in order to get my stuff together and get up to Logan Airport... I ordered myself a nice venti-sized Starbucks and plopped myself down at my gate with plenty of time to spare. I intended to do work on the plane ride... but then I fell asleep... then I woke up and decided I didn't feel like doing work; instead I'd rather watch a movie on my computer... so that's what I did! Once I got to MN all was well-- I visited with some of my neighbors, some friends from high school and lounged a lot at home (isn't that what you're supposed to do over breaks?) and I didn't do an ounce of homework (oops)... Thanksgiving Day itself was pretty quiet, as my family is very small (just me and my parents) and my extended family is spread out all over the country. But here are two pictures from Turkey Day, one of our table and one of my yummy plate of goodness (with my VERY OWN STUFFING!):

Mmm that meal was so good! While I prefer our Christmas meal, Thanksgiving is always good too... I'm a big fan of the cresent rolls myself :)

Spending some time at home was so nice since I hadn't been home all semester. Like I said on Wednesday my parents picked me up from the airport and then we went and visited with some of my neighbors, met the new neighbors who moved into their house across the street from us in September and just sort of hung out. We opened a nice bottle of Bordeaux and caught up which was very relaxing and fun. Thursday was obviously Thanksgiving, which was spent watching football and me frantically texting Paul every half an hour to make sure he was still alive since the Lions just couldn't pull off anything close to a victory in their Thanksgiving Day game ; ) Luckily he didn't take their loss too hard though he has sworn that he will not watch any more Lions games this season... we'll see ; )

Friday was the best day of the year--- BLACK FRIDAY! My mom and I hit the mall around 6:30 am (which is pretty late for us, but I just couldn't get out of bed at 5:30... ew) and we got all of our Christmas shopping done. Plus I got some new clothes to wear in the mean time. Then on Saturday I got to see my littles!! I had missed the kids so much since I hadn't seen them since summer and to go from seeing them every day to now was hard. Miss Sophia (the youngest one, she's 2) was beyond excited when I walked into her house which was so great, as I wasn't sure how she'd take it. I figured she'd take a while to warm up since she hadn't seen me in 3 months, but no, she came running over with her arms wide open ready for a hug :) Aren't little kids the best?

Friday night was spent going out for drinks with some friends from high school and a yummy steak dinner at home with my parents. Then Sunday morning we went out for brunch and I did some last minute packing as my flight was supposed to leave at 5 that evening. Well as I'm sure many (if not all) of you are aware of the lovely New England weather we were blessed with on Sunday... rain, hail, sleet, the works. Due to Mother Nature's cruel sense of humor, my flight was delayed a good 3 hours and I didn't end up getting back on campus til around 1 am... granted Mandi and I then stayed up til 2 catching up with each other, which made getting up for our 9:30s on Monday morning oh-so-fun... MN got its own taste of Mother Nature when I woke up Sunday morning to this:

Yes that is my back porch all covered in disgusting SNOW... I want summer back! But all in all break was great and it'll be nice to be home again in about 3 weeks.

Something else very exciting is occurring today... but that deserves its own special post :)