Goodbyes

Soon enough the last days of classes were upon us.

One of our professors Mary Christine invited us to her apartment for a soup luncheon and to watch a movie for our last day of class with her. It was a delicious soup with duck in it that had had to cook over a day. 

With our other class had a celebration. In the morning we watched Les Choristes and then in the afternoon we all brought in food and drink. In the typical French style we had champagne, wine and alcoholic cider, all in class! We also had many different types of cake: Kings cake, Christmas cake, Basque cake, cookies and more! 

Kings cake is traditionally the cake for the Epiphany, however they eat it a month or so before as well. The way it works is that there is a plastic baby hidden inside the cake and whoever receives the piece with the baby, is King or Queen for the day. To decide who gets which pieces the youngest person must go underneath the table and call out the names of everyone in the order that the pieces are then given. Our King for the day was Yin who chose Nadya as his Queen.

We gave our wonderful professor Mary Paul some flowers and a class photo in thanks for all she taught us. The class had prepared a surprise for the four USAC students. (Everyone else was staying for the whole year) We received place mates with photos of the region on which all the other students had written us notes. We also celebrated Andys birthday early since we would be gone in January. We ended with one last game of Pictionary. I really love my class and wouldn't have wanted to be placed in any other :]

That night USAC threw us a goodbye dinner. Everyone dressed up and headed out to the restaurant. I ordered a steak forgetting that the French eat theirs quite bloody. My steak was sooo red, but I ate it anyways keeping with my goal of trying everything once! Greg made a big toast (although no one cried :P) and we even had a visit from Santa Claus. By Santa, I mean Ryan (our program assistant director) dressed in a Santa suit which was missing the beard, so his beard consisted of a bunch of cotton taped to his face. He came in passing out chocolate covered raisons from the chocolate factory we had visited as a group.

Wednesday was my first day without class, but I went onto campus anyways to meet Gabby, my conversation partner for our last meal together. Of course "le Vague" the cafeteria was serving kangaroo like they did on my first day there. On that first day I had told myself that I would try kangaroo another time and I took this as a sign and tried it. It was kind of like slimy beef. When we were finished eating, we had a photo shoot.

I miss her already!

Then it was time to teach my last day of English to my cute little girls. We had an hour of class where we played sales vendor and the girls got to buy candy canes and drawings. We also played duck, duck, goose, hot and cold and practiced some other basic conversations as well. Then all of the families came and we had a little Christmas party. The Moms of the girls gave me two French cookbooks (one of desserts and one of actual meals) all of traditional foods of the region. It was sad when all of the little girls asked me when I would be coming back and I had to say I don't know.

Angelina, Melina, Selma, Ambre, Kiara and Anna

My cute class minus Margo

I think this picture shows their attention span well

Thursday was our big exam the TCF which is a standardized test that places our language level. Afterword Summer, Courtney, Danielle and I all decided to treat ourselves to a trip to the Spa. We went to a Spa called Caliceo (It was actually a Best Western). It was pretty awesome. There were two indoor pools and two outdoor pools. There were jets and spouts all around which gave the perfect water massage. They also had a sauna which was at 90 degrees Celcius and an aromatherapy room. Needless to say by the time we left, I felt pretty relaxed.

Then it came to be my last night with Evonne, my apartment mate. We had champagne with my host parents. It was funny because at the end of the night when we would normally drink tisanne, everyone was too full and my host dad joked that champagne was Evonnes tisanne. (Tisane is an herbal drink that helps one to sleep)

My host parents

On my last day with my host family I spent the day with the kids. We did a lot of coloring. It was super cute because they kept mimicking my drawings and they even gave me some to remember them by. We watched Scooby Doo in French and Juliette dressed up as a princess of course!

As a goodbye present I made my host family chocolate chip cookies and I printed off some family photos I had taken of them and even framed one. Felix was eating the cookies for breakfast. haha My host parents have a notebook where all of their students write them a goodbye note, so I wrote mine as well. It was a little intimidating because my host parents have had students for seven years, that thing was pretty full! In the morning it was bisous and hugs all around. Again the kids kept asking me when I would be back. My host Dad dropped me off at the train station and I watched as the Pyrenees Mountains looked smaller and smaller.