12 More hours left in France OMG!!!!

I'm so not ready to leave!!! I'm so hhappy and content to stay with my host family and explore more of Nantes and France! I would have liked to stay for a few more weeks in Europe, but my awesome film internship starts on Monday so I have to return to Indy this weekend. I'm so excited to see my friends and family though!! I'm so anxious to just get my baggage on the plane and not deal with the weight. This week has been so bitter sweet. I had finals which were a major pain- like pulling teeth really!! I made puppy chow for my students in my favorite class, and they loved it!!! On Tuesday I met up with my French friend Justine and we went to La Maison for the last time. We went straight for the bathtub! It was so great to see her before I leave! The teachers from my internship took me and another student from IEs too! The dinner was great and we had a fabulous time. We had two bottles of wine, a creole salad, lamb with pineapples and tomatoes I think (it was awesome!), and incredible chocolate cake! It was so strange going out with teachers (one of them is my Grammar teacher at IES too)! They were so normal and chill. We had some good laughs. I'm really going to miss working with them. Wednesday I had my final dinner with my host family. Per my request, we had Raclette!!!! I was so happy, but I ate waaaaaay too much! I couldn't stand! I didn't even eat breakfast the next morning! On Wednesday, I had lunch with DeeDee- Justine's mom- and Megan at Brioche Doree (the place where we first met DeeDee. It was perfect! Everything was coming full circle! She's so wonderful and we're definitly keeping in touch! I learned a lot from her! I went to the Lieu Unique finally. I don't know if I explained this before, but Nantes is famous for the Petit Beurre cookies made by LU. Well they used to have a huge factory with two big LU towers at the entrance. The cookies are made else where now and the company was bought by Kraft, and one side of the factory was torn down. The half of the LU factory that's left has been turned into a bar, a restaraunt, artsy (really really really artsy) shops, and a place for art expositions. It was very cool, and they even had a piano in a corner for who ever wanted to play. For two euros you can go to the top of the soul surviving tour from the LU factory and get an awesome panoramic view of Nantes. The top has big glass windows and you can climb this platform and turn a wheel to move it from window to window to see the city. It was great! Afterwards I went to the Jardin des Plantes with Megan and it was gorgeous! There were loads of different kinds of flowers and it felt like something out of an animated movie with french people in it! I wanted to sing! Instead I filmed :). I stopped at the Musee de Beaux Art one last time. That night was like high school graduation all over again. Everyone from IES had dinner sur L'Edre (on the river Erdre) We went on this grand boat with two levels of chique tables for dinner and everyone was dressed to the nines! It was fabulous! A three hour boat ride seeing the many chateux and the Fleuris de Beaujoire! We ate fois gras which was surprisingly delicious, the best salmon I've ever tasted (I'm converted to salmonism), a cheese that I think was chevre (goat cheese), and this awesome rasberry and kiwi cake! We took loads of pictures and gave our gift to Madame Rouchet, Mounsieur Beranger, Beatrice, Julie, Samuel, Mathilde, and Estelle (all of the people who work at IES). It was so wonderful. I couldn't believe I was eating on the Erdre. It was like being on a cruise with out having to pay and getting to go home straight after. I had to say goodbye to Megan last night. I almost cried. We've become so close!! I'm so used to seeing her or talking to her every day! We never got sick of each other. She's the bread to my butter, the cheese to my macoroni, the wine to my heart. I miss her dearly, but we have plans to get together over winter break, and I can't wait!!! 7 months from now, we'll be together again!!! Today was my last day in Nantes. I had my final galette at the same place where I had my very first galette in Nantes (full circle!) I said goodbye to Kathleen Talya and Andrea Navarro (there are two Andrea's so I don't want to forget). I turned in my paper for my class at the Fac, I said goodbye to all of the staff at IES and did some final filming at the Machine de l'Ile and other places with my buddy Kelsea Manns! We waited for the navibus for over an hour but it never came! Its a public transportation boat that goes under the city! It never showed up, so I didn't get to go :( Oh well I accomplished everything else! Thibaud taught me how to dance Le Rock! It was so funny! Its basically swing dancing! Now I can say that I've danced with my host brother! It was very fun. I've said my goodbyes to my whole family, and tomorrow Stephan will take me to the train station. I'm packed and nearly ready to go. All that's left to do is sleep. See you all soon! Gros Bisous!