Episode 24 - The End of Paree
Moving out of my apartment, my final volleyball game, and one last Christmas dinner with the entire Paree gang 🎄
And so the end has come at last. :(
After what seemed like the shortest 4 months in the world, the last full week in Paris has come to an end. Along with it, I finish my last classes, move out of my apartment, and have one last final dinner with the entire gang in Paree.
Where in the world has the time gone?
Wednesday 12/6/2023
I woke up at 9 am for the last time ever in my apartment. It is move-out day!!
I recently bought a lighter so that I can light the candle in my apartment. This candle was one that I got from my landlord for the 2 weeks that I lived in Aubervilliers, a random suburb north of Paris, while I was looking for a permanent crib.
Aubervilliers! What a random side quest. I almost forgot that I lived there.
Long story short, I lit the candle the night before to see how much it would burn through over the course of the night. Surprisingly, it did not burn through that much at all when I woke up this morning. Looks like I’m leaving the candle for Emma! She is moving into my apartment once I dip at the end of the day.
On the topic of the apartment, it was practically empty at this point since I had dropped off 90% of things at Emma’s the night before. All that was left was my Christmas present for Eliana, my backpack, and a few items that I needed over the course of the day.
Though I was done with classes, I still had one final assignment to complete, then one exam in a week.
The assignment? 2 history essays of 1500 words each, +-10%.
Look at me using word counts to measure my writing. I sound like Emma!
I finished up the first prompt (what an excellent response I felt) and rewarded myself with breakfast, as I had not eaten yet and was holding out for once I was done writing. I biked to a boulangerie near Emma’s apartment (a top 5 that I had seen in the top 5 croissants in Paris videos), then biked home and ate it in celebration.
Absolutely delicious!
Once breakfast was finished, I packed up the last few things I had in my apartment and biked north to Eliana’s for the last time.
Eliana was quite grumpy today and even locked me outside on the balcony for a cool 15 minutes at one point. I think she was upset that I was leaving for good, and didn’t know how to cope with it so decided to physically lock me in Paris so that I couldn’t leave.
As it was my last session with her, I wasn’t tripping at all and was straight chilling. It’s the home stretch, so I just need to practice my patience one more time this afternoon and then I’m all done!
We made some more paper snowflakes later and I chatted with Eliana’s dad some more. He is really smart and interesting, and I find it tremendously entertaining to speak with him.
Turns out, Eliana got me a Christmas present as well! Max told me it was some coffee from his friend’s coffee shop, and I was super happy and excited. I can’t wait to make a cup at home! Eliana loved my present too, and her dad was happy to hear it was a chess/checkers set. He told me he was planning on getting her one too, so looks like I saved them a present!
And before I knew it, it was time to say goodbye to Eliana and her family for the very last time. Eliana was terribly sad to see me leave (as were her parents) and they continued to wave bye out the window until I was out of eyesight. The next time I see Eliana, she might be all grown up!
On the way home, I didn’t play any music through my AirPods but simply enjoyed hearing the sounds of Paris as I biked back home for the last time. There was no food left in my apartment, so I got Urban Grill for the last time, said goodbye to Hasen, Mumu, and Muhammad Ali, and left with a fully stamped card (worth a free kebab!) that I will give to Emma as a Christmas housewarming present. :)
I came back to my apartment and did the final cleanings real quick, and then Norma Jr. showed up to do the final apartment check! She was super happy at the cleanliness of the place (and said I was a great tenant, not to brag), and we together figured out how the central heater works in the apartment (Emma insisted I made sure it worked). Turns out, the switch to turn it on is very small and located on the back of the heater, against the wall, out of sight.
Tremendously product design! And the manual didn’t even show where the switch was!
The final check went smoothly, with Norma Jr. and I chatting the whole time. And before I knew it, it was time to say bye to my home for the last time.
Moving in, September 11, 2023:
Moving out, December 6, 2023:
Thank you to this home, off to the next!
The entire conversation made me very excited to see Norma the First back in California. Norma is my dental hygienist, and told me about her daughter living in Paris when I got a dental cleaning right before I left for study abroad.
And under an incredible stroke of luck, Norma Jr. just so happened to be looking for a new tenant when I moved to Paris and was looking for an apartment.
I decided that when I have my next dental cleaning, I will make a powerpoint presentation to show Norma all the pictures that I have from Norma Jr. and I and tell her a bunch of stories about the good times we had. :)
I biked up rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine for the last time and made it to Emma’s, who was working on another essay she was due soon (that girl has so many essays to write, oh my). Apparently, the team scheduled another volleyball practice for tonight, so I dropped off my things and biked back to the gym on a lovely blue velib.
It was strange to see the volleyball gym that just last week I literally wrote about me never seeing again. Never say never, I guess! Justin Bieber was right, it seems.
I was honestly pretty exhausted and played like shit (plus I was wearing pants), but I wasn’t worried at all. Tomorrow is the last French collegiate volleyball game for me, ever! I can’t wait. My semi-professional career is ending just after it started.
Lol.
Biked home at a chill pace after practice, made some tea in a bowl-sized cup, and went off to bed early. It is strange knowing that that is the last time I’m seeing Emma’s apartment as well.
Crazy!
Thursday 12/7
I woke up to Emma snoring in Dutch nearby, made us some tea, packed up all my things that I had stored at Emma’s, and together, Emma and I headed off to Joe’s! His apartment is the next one that I am crashing at, so it was time for me to drop off my things there too.
As we were leaving, the cleaning lady for the apartment stopped by, and I was so confused because I was told Emma’s Dutch roommate’s mom, Isabel, was staying at the apartment, too. So when the short Asian woman walked in and I thought she was Isabel’s mom, I was so so confused.
Emma cleared that confusion up real quick!
Emma and Joe live quite close to each other, so Emma and I decided to walk there rather than take the metro because I really didn’t feel like taking my heavy af check-in bag down the stairs and back up.
No thanks.
We eventually met up with Joe, who was grabbing breakfast with his grandparents at the favorite boulangerie of Joe nearby.
Joe’s grandparents were so lovely and were exactly what I expected British grandparents to be like — British-accented, cheesed up, and just so British all around. Within 5 minutes, the conversation had already moved to politics.
The Brits love to discuss politics, it seems!
After breakfast, Joe, Emma, and I headed up to Joe’s to drop off my things, and then the Interrailing gang was all back together as we biked together from Joe’s to Sciences Po.
One of my favorite bike rides in Paris, hands down. :)
Joe had class, so he dipped there. Emma had to finish one of her papers, so she dipped to the library.
I also had a paper, but can’t focus in the quietness of the library. So off to the Apple Store, I went!
It was still quite early in the morning (only around 10:30), so the Apple Store had just opened, there weren’t that many people and the security guards were eying me up and down as they were wondering what in the world I was doing there.
As I was under their scrutinizing stares, I finished the second of the two history papers, submitted the Word document, sent a thank you email to the professor, and just like that, I was done with 4/5 classes!
All that is left is the international finance exam on the 19th, and the semester will be officially done!
I had some time to kill before the volleyball game, so I biked over to the postal museum because I had heard it was cool from someone random.
Definitely wasn’t anything to write home about. I got in for free as a student so I was fine, but I would not pay to go to that museum. It basically talked about the history of the postal service, but I just couldn’t get into it.
It was, however, very cool to see post boxes from different countries and the first style of French stamps!
After the postal museum, I walked over to the Pasteur Institute, which I was interested in checking out ever since I saw a random statue in Louis Pasteur in the center of some random Parisian square. Pasteur was a legendary chemist and invented the process of pasteurization (used to kill bacteria in dairy and saving countless lives in the process from better food safety), and there was apparently an entire research institute dedicated to him near the Eiffel Tower.
The building was really cool, with a tremendous exterior facade. By far the funniest thing about it was the defenses around the building, which included armed guards, anti-terrorism road blockers (typically reserved for bank offices, embassies, and other important government buildings), and a robust security camera system.
French people take the defense of cheese research extremely seriously. Cheese is a concern of national security in France!
I took a nice velib, and just biked really slowly along the Champs, just straight vibing in Paris. I parked the velib near some super fancy stores, and window shopped in the Gucci store and some other fancy shops that I definitely can’t afford.
I made it to the Petit Palais, which also had free student admission, and checked out some sick artwork in a beautiful building. Highly recommend checking out the pieces they have there. Free for the public, beautiful statues and paintings, everything there is great!
After that, I walked along the Champs, checked out the US Embassy (nothing special), and made it back to Joe’s. I got Noma’s Tacos (a taco place near Joe’s that he recommended), though there was nothing special there (not by SoCal standards, at least!). I showered and chilled at Joe’s for a bit, then headed over to Denfert train station to the last French volleyball game of my career.
There were actually so many people at the train station, and I was getting slightly concerned that I would show up late to the game. Somehow, I met up with my teammates on the train that led from the train terminus to the volleyball gym, and we all pulled up into the gym late, but together. Good stuff!
We changed real quick, warmed up, and I was put as one of the starting outside hitters. My hitting and passing have improved so much in the past few months, that I was now in the starting position of the most frequently set front-row attacker!
We were playing another team that had lost all of their regular game seasons as well, so this was the game to determine which team was the worst in Paris.
We started off on a bad note, losing the first set by quite a margin. The second set went much better, with me getting some kills and Antoine, our middle hitter, starting to shut down the opposition’s offense with some tremendous blocking. We squeaked the victory in the second set, winning by just 3 points. The second set also featured some crazy calls from the ref and some intense frustration from me, with me almost cursing out the ref in English and getting ejected from the game. I got my shit together, apologized to the ref and opposing teams, and it was game on to the third set!
We had the momentum at this point, and scraped the other team to a comfortable win of over 10 points. Paul, our opposite hitter, was an absolute brick wall and completely shut down their outside hitter. I myself was getting some kills and keeping up the team’s energy with yells, screaming, American chants, and lots of smiles.
We won the last point off their missed serve, and just like that that, it was official — we were not the worst team in Paris! We took some celebratory photos as if we had won the national championship, celebrated like crazy with the coach in the locker room, and then took a group shower as teammates.
Europeans are not fazed at all with nudity and it was quite a strange experience, though liberating in a way because, after all, we are all just humans with bodies.
I probs will not be doing that back in the US, though.
We took the tram and train home in high spirits, then got to McDonald’s, where I was absolutely robbed when I was charged 13 Euros for 20 nuggets.
HOLY SHIT!! That’s like $15 for 20 nugs. Insane in the worst way. In America, 20 nugs are $5!
Nevertheless, I was starving and we were all eating at McDonald’s, so I sucked it up and bought the nugs. We went to a Sciences Po party club afterward, but it was so lame that we left after a pint and a few pictures. I said goodbye to my teammates for the last time, biked back to Joe’s where he and Emma were still writing their essays, and went to sleep.
And just like that, my collegiate volleyball career has come to an end! What a great run it was. :)
Friday 12/8
I woke up around 10 and heard some scuffling in the adjacent room in Joe’s apartment. I wanted to surprise Joe so I hit him with the “Hey baby” in a deep voice.
Imagine my surprise when Emma responded with, “Good morning!”
What the fuck?
Turns out, she had spent the night on the couch because she stayed up so late writing her paper due at noon today.
Improve. Adapt. Overcome.
I was moving my stuff over to Annabel and Gibs’s apartment at Goblins soon (I’m staying 2 nights with them after visiting London!), so I decided to be proactive and repack my suitcase, putting all my heavy things that can be taken into carry-on into my Kraft Heinz backpack to drop off at the new apartment tonight. Turns out there were a lot of heavy things that could be taken into carry-on, like chocolates, cups, mugs, and my massive liter glass I got in Munich. Lol!
Emma was dialed in at this point, finishing up her paper that was due in less than 2 hours. Joe and I headed downstairs to grab a lovely breakfast at the nearby boulangerie, then we chilled for a bit before I met up with my Israeli friend Guy for lunch.
Guy and I met in our French class, where we would sit next to each other and laugh tremendously each time we’d talk. We met up at a delicious sandwich shop recommended by both Guy and Joe, and it was both a lovely lunch and a lovely conservation. Guy even invited me to his Jewish wedding when I asked about Jewish weddings, though he doesn’t have a girlfriend nor a date yet planned.
The finer details will be resolved in the future!
After our delicious lunch, we headed for a nice walk along the Seine, during which we bought some beers and checked out an art exhibit along the way. The art display was at 59 rue de Rivoli (my favorite road!!), and it basically shows the workspaces of different Parisian artists and their work. You can walk around the 5 floors and see the different artists in action. All the artists were so unique and different, and it was so cool to walk around with Guy and check it all out! We even snapped some amazing photos with the beautiful murals someone had painted along the staircase. All least amazing for Guy. The jury is still out about me.
After the art gallery, we walked to the island at the center of Pont Neuf, sat on the tip of the island, cracked open our beers, and just chatted while looking at the birds along the island. Some guy was feeding a ton of ducks and geese nearby, and there was another, larger, black bird with a large beak that was diving under the water and resurfacing 15 seconds later. After one dive, it came up with a huge fish in its mouth, and swallowed it whole and alive!! It was crazy!
After finishing off the beers, we walked back to the bridge, said goodbye for the last time, and headed off in our different directions. Guy, it has been such a pleasure hanging out with you in Paris. :)
I peacefully walked to Musee d’Orsay and enjoyed the lovely day along the Seine. I made it inside the museum for free with my student pass, checked out some Monets and Van Gogh for 20 minutes (officially completing seeing everything in the museum), and had a great time just wandering for a bit. I left after the 20 minutes, back towards Joe’s.
The fact that I am able to do that is still crazy to me. Go to a world-famous and world-class museum, for free, whenever I want? Insane.
I biked homely slowly to Joe, who was still writing his essay, and went to Lidl (the wonderful, high-value grocery store) to get some alcohol and presents for the Paree Christmas dinner that night. My Secret Santa was Annabel, so I got her a Lidl jacket and wrote her the poem we were supposed to write for our Secret Santa. I also got some Lidl socks for the rest of the Paree gang!!
I made it back to Joe’s and together we headed over to Goblins to start off the Christmas party at Annabel and Gibs’s apartment. Gibs had been interviewing us the last few weeks for a documentary at the end of the semester, and it was all done now, ready for us to watch it together. We were all dressed in our pajamas, with lots of wines and jokes flowing between us all. How amazing!
It was legitimately one of the best videos I have ever seen with mine own two eyes, and there were so many tears, laughs, and jokes shared between us. I almost choked on my wine at one of the parts, and it was so lovely for us all to be there together to share that moment. It had been a tremendously long time since I’ve had such a great, close group of friends. :)
Gibs, your videography skills are amazing. Those cuts and edits were amazing. I can’t wait to keep watching your vlogs. Miss you already!!
After finishing the documentary, we all migrated back to Joe’s apartment for the dinner and Secret Santa's present opening. The lads all took bikes back and the girls took the metro.
Of course, we got back before the girls did, despite us stopping for an alc detour.
The lads win again!
The Christmas dinner was amazing, and it was quite sad that it was the last time we would all be together again for the foreseeable future (the dinner reminded me of the many group dinners we had at Joe’s, what amazing times they were indeed). We played lots of Christmas music (including some raunchy songs from Ben), ate pizza so that we wouldn’t have to cook and clean up that much, joked a ton more, and then migrated over to the couch for the opening of the presents.
The gifts were all so thoughtful and hilarious, with the roasting Secret Santa poems the stars of the show. I didn’t know you weren’t supposed to put your name on the letter and were actually supposed to have the person guess, so it was kinda funny when Annabel read my letter signed off, “Love, Dennis.”
The star of the show was Ben reading his letter in a sexy ski mask. Now that’s what I’m talking about!
Saturday 12/9
Everyone had left around 2 am the night before, and somehow I found myself waking up naturally at 8:30 due to a need to take a wazz.
I was planning on waking up around 10ish, but figured that the least I could do to help out Jo was to clean up the apartment so that he would have less to do when he woke up. Collected the pizza boxes, took out the trash, and organized the couches and all the cushions. The apartment was left surprisingly clean!
Joe woke up around 9 to drink some water, then back to sleep after that.
I dipped around 9:30 to get some pain au chocolates from the boulangerie downstairs, then went to Lidl again to do some more Christmas shopping, along with getting myself some more socks.
Around 11, I took the metro over to western Paris to meet Manon for coffee, since it was one of my last chances to see her before flying back to California! The coffee was so lovely, I will miss her so much and am very excited to visit her in Chilé next year when she studies abroad on exchange in Santiago. We also had a lovely conversation about the merits of capitalism versus socialism, and I gave Manon some Lidl socks as a Christmas present that she loved.
Turns out, Manon reads all of my blogs!
I took the metro back to Joe’s and was feeling like such a Parisian in the process for some unknown reason. Joe went off to work, then I took a piping hot shower, packed up the last few things into my big suitcase, and was off to Goblins to move into the new apartment! I took a nice long look around Joe’s for the last time, thanked that home for its hospitality and all the wonderful memories, and headed off to the metro station, zigzagging through Paris until I made it to Annabel’s.
I dropped off my things there, blasted some music while processing all my emails and packing for Morocco, and then took the metro to Bon Marché to check out Joe and Gibs working.
Lucky for Annabel and I, the metro got stuck in the tunnel because of some delay up the line, so we were stuck underground for an extra 20 minutes. Hooray!
It was great to see Joe and Gibs at the deeply beloved Rose Bakery, where I dropped off Joe’s keys to him, got some free coffee, bread, and cakes, and hung out with some of the Paree gang. Before I knew it, it was time to say bye to everyone and a final goodbye to Ben before taking the bus to Denver, the Orly bus to Orly Airport, and a flight to Morocco.
Africa awaits!
