update!

Finally! I have achieved what seems to be the impossible and found a few minutes to update everyone on the final days of my Parisian life. Besides the usual IFE classes with the wonderful and adorable Jeromes, I finished up classes at the Sorbonne and took the final exam there. I probably could have done a lot better but I became sick the night before the test last Saturday (mmm love weekend exams) and pretty much slept until the moment I had to drag my lifeless body to the Sorbonne. I did in fact pass, that's all I am aware of. They posted what I expected to be the grades a few days ago, but it turns out they just tell us if we passed or not. That same weekend I was sick, I somehow pulled together two oral presentations, one on this French law on the mécénat, or the foundations that fund the arts, and the other on Picasso. I unfortunately had to pull an all-nighter to get them done, so needless to say I wasn't in top form. The first one was pretty bad because I could barely put together a sentence in English let alone a 15 minute presentation in French. By the time we got to the Picasso museum that same day, I was so overtired that I was able to ramble in some form of French that apparently was comprehensible because Jerome seemed to enjoy it. After that, the majority of the work was over and I took a few days off to recuperate, which was pretty enjoyable since I didn't do anything but sleep and roam around the city. Then, Friday I left to go to Bristol for the weekend which was so much fun and spent time with CRAMM, which was, like always, very excellent. It rained all weekend, which it did all over Europe apparently, so we were limited to what we could do, but it was like having a nice and relaxing weekend at home which I was definitely in need of. Romesh and Annie took such good care of me and fed me amazing meals including lamb and curry and a huge breakfast. I got to see a bunch of Romesh's family which was really nice, played games with the kids, took a quick trip to the park, and decorated the Christmas tree. Cara and Marco are so grown up and mature it's amazing! All in all, I had such a great time there and it was nice to get away, even for the weekend. So pretty much now I have to do my Giacometti paper and then I can begin to pack for Saturday (!) so I must shut myself in my room for the next few days and get it done which I am not looking forward to. But thus is my life as a student.

xx C