Bonjour a tous!

So it’s over now.  I have officially left Paris, and frankly, I’m heartbroken.  I assumed I would be sad when I left, but I had no idea how genuinely crushed I would be to leave the amazing life that I built in just eight weeks.  I have completely fallen in love with Paris and Parisians, from the big things in the lifestyle and the culture to the small things like how so many window balconies are covered in flowers and how waiters are going to be rude to you no matter what so you might as well say directly what you feel like.  I also love how easy it is to access the rest of the world from Paris- I could go somewhere new every night and visit a new city every weekend and never run out of things to do for the rest of my life. What I will miss most, however, is all the people I have met who have made my time in Paris so special.  My coworkers were all absolutely amazing people who I fully intend on keeping in contact with for as long as they want to put up with me. We have definitely become genuine friends, not just colleagues, and I hope they keep feeling like they can vent to me about their personal problems for forever. I have also met so many more people in Paris who I hope to remain in contact with.  The British screenwriter, the Frenchman with the old Hollywood apartment, the Mexican chef, the Parisian girl with a completely neutral accent in English, and so many more people who made my experiences in Paris memorable and irreplaceable will live on forever in my heart, and in the stories I tell at parties.

I finished the chapter I have spent the entire summer writing on Friday at 4:40pm, with 20 minutes left to spare.  I managed to condense it down to 8 incredibly dense, information packed pages, with 4 additional pages of citations.  I feel sort of empty now that it’s done. This has been the most challenging and rewarding work I’ve done in a very long time, and I am going to miss this job very much when I go back to real life.  However, I was promised by my supervisor that they will mail me a copy of the book when it gets released, so I’ll always have a nice memento of my time there. I’ll also have proof for the future that I have written something that was published in an academic work, so that’s cool.

Now I’m going to go travel, see some more of Europe and some old friends, and unwind from this crazy amazing experience.

Since there’s no more next time, I’ll just say: au revoir!

Madeleine