Goodbyes

So it was that time - time to say goodbye. About half of the Georgetown group left this afternoon after a nice lunch we all attended (plus Guy). It was also the celebration of the end of our course - I received an A (no surprise considering the lack of difficulty of the course, though I certainly was probably only one of the few to get one in our class) and I enjoyed today just talking (mostly in French) with the profs and students in a casual setting.
Tomorrow it is off to London - I have mostly packed and am not looking forward to waking up at 6:30 tomorrow morning (for an 8am train), but I'll be travelling with Jacque all the way to London (sorta - we have seats that are not next to each other on each leg of the trip), which will be nice. Upon arrival in London, I will have to take the Tube (subway) across town to my hostel with a suitcase with a broken wheel...
I may be giving my friend Max, who lives in London, a call, and I hope to see the rest of the city that I missed last time - like Tower of London, Tower Bridge, and St. Paul's Cathedral. We'll see how it goes!
After that, I will be spending Sunday in Oxford visiting Chi and Brendan (Georgetowners doing a business program there)! And then Monday I will be meeting up with fellow Tours-program student David to stay at his uncle's house and hold a last hurrah in Europe before I depart the next morning for home!
Anyway, should be a fun weekend - hopefully nothing goes too wrong...
It will be sad to say goodbye to Europe - it truly is all its cracked out to be - the history, the culture, the food. Awesome. I'm so happy to have done this trip!! But of course, all things must end, and I am excited to go home as well - to relax, to see the family, etc.
So I may have spotty Internet service for the rest of the trip, but I will do my best to finish off this blog right!

Proficiency Exam Tomorrow!!

Ahhh! It's just one day away: the light at the end of the tunnel - the test that could lift a great weight off my shoulders - the School of Foreign Service language proficiency exam in French. At 11:15 tomorrow, it will be just me, Professor Spielmann, and an article - and for 20 minutes I have to talk about the article, answering questions about French politics, society, etc. and formulating arguments in response to the article.
Well, the weird thing is...I'm not really nervous. I figure this: I have been in France for 6 weeks now and have been speaking it almost every day for most of the day and have been reading Le Monde (French newspaper) every day - so there's not really much more I can do. Plus, I am thinking maybe the test will be easier because it is monitored here by a professor who normally doesn't monitoring them and is rather relaxed and easy to understand. So on the whole, not too stressed. But only time will tell how I will do...
After the test, since I have the afternoon off and a bunch of free train tickets remaining, I have decided I will be visiting the nearby towns of Saumur and Angers. Not sure why i picked them - but they both have large chateaux and a good deal of nice churches and whatnot. Since I only have less than a week in Europe left, I might as well take advantage while I can, eh?
On that note, I am also planning the final few days of the trip, when I will be in London from July 31-August 3. I just booked a hostel near Waterloo station (unfortunately not the station I get into from Paris on the Eurostar, so a connection is necessary) and am in the works of planning a day trip up to Oxford University to visit Chi, Brendan, and compnay on August 1. Also, David was kind enough to offer a place to sleep for August 2 with his uncle in Chapham Junction, so the two of us will hopefully have a little last hurrah (pub crawl, maybe? haha) that night before my flight the next morning out of Gatwick Airport.