In my experiences in France, I have had such an amazing time! I have made several great friends and I have gone to so many fun events and places; knowing that I need to leave in less than a week is incredibly bitter-sweet for me. I will be really sad to leave my friends and the beautiful city of Paris, but I am also happy to be able to see my friends and family from home soon – especially my bed and my dog. This weekend and past week, I have tried to have as much fun as possible and experience everything possible in Paris to make my time here the best possible!

I went to see Justin Timberlake with my coworker-turned-friend (which was AMAZING, he was worth every penny and we had a blast!), I saw a comedy show (“How to Become Parisian in One Hour”) with a group of friends, and I visited a Parisian museum on immigration for a work trip (here, I learned a lot there in relation to a project my organization has been working on which focuses on the rights of Roma people). I am so thankful for this program to have been able to have met so many great people, especially the other students from Pitt on this program. I am so glad I was able to meet them and make new friends, foreign and domestic 🙂

I also challenged myself this past week by wandering around Paris without a destination, which was a personal goal of mine. I started out at Notre Dame, where I attended the church service, and worked my way from the gardens beside the church around the surrounding neighborhoods. I’ve found that as long as I know the metro lines I can take to my homestay, I can easily walk around anywhere and be able to find myself home safe without using Google Maps. Before coming here, walking around an unfamiliar city without a destination (and even more-so without GPS capabilities) was something that I was really nervous about. I have noticed that, even when in familiar environments, I don’t like going anywhere without a set location in mind. This summer, I wanted to be able to branch out more and overcome this.

This weekend, I was able to ignore my instincts to immediately look up a nearby restaurant or store for a place to go and instead managed to wander around. I was so glad I did this because it honestly felt extremely relaxing to walk around without a set plan: I was able to take my time, not worry about getting lost, and just enjoy the sites around me. I was really able to appreciate Paris, and I am so glad that I did.

I can’t wait to see what the next week brings; I will be traveling to the south of France after my internship ends and I am so excited! I am so grateful to have been able to experience this program this summer because I feel that it has opened so many doors for me, professionally and personally.

I opened my blog posts with a Les Misérables pun – it only makes sense to keep the tradition going 🙂