Episode 29 - The Final Days
How in the world do I get across the Channel, an academic weapon, and girly brunch!
And so, the end of an era has come. This blog post marks the last 2 days I spent in Paris before flying home, back to In-n-Out Burger, UCLA, and freedom.
I literally feel like I landed in Paris not too long ago, and yet now it is time to leave it. I will never be an undergraduate student abroad again. These memories I’ve made are so special, and I thank you all so much for sharing them all along the way.
Thank you to everyone who supported, read, commented, and checked out this blog over the last few months. It has been truly amazing to have you all along for the ride. :)
Monday 12/18/2023
After saying bye to Joe, Emma, and Ben at the train station (how sad!!), I took the lovely Southern line down to the Gatwick Airport, where I had my flight from Gatwick to Paris CDJ. The train ride was smooth, and I made it through security with no problems at all.
Unfortunately, the plane is delayed by an hour and a half due to there being no crew. Fantastic. I love it when there is no crew.
I head back to the central lounge to relax in some more comfortable chairs, and return an hour later to the boarding gate, 30 minutes before the delay was supposed to end.
The plane is gone. It is not there at all. I can see it leaving the gate, but it is no longer connected to the airport. Fuck.
It seems that a substitute crew was found sooner than expected, and the plane left as soon as everyone at the gate was boarded.
This everyone did not include me.
This was a serious problem, as I had to be back in Paris the following morning for my final exam at 10:30 am. Considering I was flying back to California on Wednesday, there was absolutely no chance I could miss that exam. That is a third of my grade right there.
I frantically run to the easyJet desk, and they tell me they could offer a guarantee for a maximum new flight price of 110 British pounds. Unfortunately, there were no flights that were landing before my exam (from any airline, not just easyJet), so that option was sent out the window. The lady at the easyJet desk proceeded to spend forever filling out a report about me missing the flight while I was trying not to be a Karen and have her escort me out past security to the entrance of the airport (since I had already passed through British customs, I had to be decontrolled on the way out since I had technically left the country).
At this point, the only 2 ways I could make it back to Paris on time for my exam: take the Eurostar at 6 in the morning (at a horrific cost of 300 pounds) or take the overnight bus from London to Paris that left from the Victoria coach station at 9 pm.
It was 8 pm, and I was still at Gatwick. I had to make it onto that bus, since there was no way I was paying 300 pounds for a train.
I make it to the bus station at 9:05 and thank god, the bus is still there and people are still boarding onto it. However, since the bus had theoretically already left at 9, it was no longer possible to buy a ticket at the ticket counter, so I had to convince the bus driver to let me on the bus in exchange for me paying him the bus fare in cash once I withdraw money from the ATM at the ferry terminal in Dover.
I was desperate, so that plan sounded good to me!
I make it onto the bus, and am just so happy that I will make it back to Paris. The bus is scheduled to get in at 6 am — plenty of time for me to eat, study, and get ready once I get to Paris before the exam begins at 10:30. I study a bit on the bus for the exam, fall asleep, and wake up when we all need to get off the bus to get through customs at the Dover ferry station to cross the English Channel.
I do have to say that I found it quite cool to get the passport stamp in that customs control, since it shows that I have now crossed the Channel in the three different possible ways, all stamped differently in the passport — plane, train, and boat. How cool!
At the ferry terminal building, I ask the bus driver how much it would cost for the fare.
He hits me with “100 pounds”.
Online, the bus ticket was 60 pounds. Wtf. I know that he is literally extorting me for this money because
I am not a listed passenger on his bus since I didn’t buy a ticket online, so he can legally leave me at the Dover ferry platform and not let me back on the bus.
He is making me pay him in cash, and I am 100% sure he will pocket all of it because the bus company does not know that I am on the bus.
He purposefully changed 40 pounds over the true fare cost because he knows I will pay anything to get back on this bus.
The worst part of this entire situation was that I knew that he was extorting me for the money for certain, and a small part of me respected the shit out of him for doing so because it’s a fucked up, yet super smart thing to do. It just sucked so much that it was happening to me.
Handing that driver the 100 pounds was extremely painful. I hope that he gets his kids something nice for Christmas, stubs the shit out of his big toe, and loses every single left shoe he owns.
I get back on the bus, and fall asleep immediately. The ferry crosses the Channel, and we are back in France!
Tuesday 12/19
The first problem I notice is that I wake up, am still on the bus, and it is light outside.
Considering that we should’ve arrived in Paris at 6 am when it is still very much dark outside, this was a serious problem that I was still on this bus.
I check the time — 9:30 am. I check the location — near CDJ airport, on the freeway. The traffic is not moving.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuck.
I check my email, and there is an alert from the US Embassy that there was a massive accident that burned down several cars and closed off both directions of travel on either side of the airport, resulting in us being in a standstill traffic for 4 hours straight.
You literally cannot make this shit up.
I am normally tremendously optimistic in the face of adversity, but let me tell you, that optimism was very much beginning to crack when I realized that despite all my best efforts, I was going to miss the exam completely.
All I could do was hope that we make it on time and study for the exam in the process. As soon as I got off the bus, it would be sprinting to a blue velib, parking it at the nearest velib station to Sciences Po, and springing to the exam hall.
The bus eventually takes a detour along a side country road to avoid the rest of the standstill traffic, and we arrive on the eastern edge of Paris at 11:30 am.
Let me remind you, this exam began at 10:30.
I sprint to the velib station that I already mapped out the directions to in my mind, jump onto a deliciously charged blue velib, and sprint the hell out of the bike of Sciences Po. I made it to the uni 11 minutes after getting off the bus, and averaged around 30 km/hr the entire ride there. I hop off the velib at Sciences Po, run to the entrance of the Sciences Po wearing all my backpacks and my Moroccan sun poncho, run by Lara (wtf are the chances of that??!!), and sprint up the stairs to the exam room.
I drop off my shit at the back of the room and briskly walk to the front of the exam room. I tell the administrators that I want to take the exam (there are only 45 minutes left at this point in the exam time) and they are extremely confused as to why I was so late and what happened.
I told them I was in Londres (London, in French) that morning and the bus was stuck on a massive accident near CDJ. Apparently, the accident was so serious that even the administrators had heard about it on the news, and they was a brief language barrier situation where they thought that it was my bus had burned down. Fortunately, my bus was fine in the grand scheme of things.
They handed me the final exam paper and took my ID to the academic registrar to give me approval to take the exam. I begin the exam immediately after being handed the paper.
What proceeded over the next 45 minutes was such a pure display of academic might and prowess that I doubt I can ever duplicate it to such a comprehensive and awe-inspiring extent for the rest of my life.
I flew through the multiple-choice, spewing confidence and international finance expertise. I dominated the free response pure theory section, writing such amazing prose that the grader might need to change his pants after he reads it. And the applied theory free-response questions?
I annihilated it more than the bathroom after Chipotle.
Holy shit. I finished the exam with 2 minutes to spare and left the exam room like Django after he blew up Candyland in the movie Django Unchained.
Vini. Vidi. Vici. I came. I saw. I conquered.
I honestly believe that sometimes, my genius, it generates gravity.
*brief pause in the writing as I step back, admiring both how I took the exam and the way I wrote about it after the fact*
It was time to celebrate! With the conclusion of my final final exam, the academic semester had finally come to an end!
I celebrate by brushing my teeth for the first time since London and putting in my contact lenses in the bathroom of Sciences Po. The student life is crazy out here.
I meet up with my Czech friend Magdalena, we grab coffee and muffins, and talk about life, and hang out for the last time. Oh my! She’s heading off to Prague tomorrow, and me, back to California! Magdalena, it was so amazing to meet you. I am excited to see you in Prague one day. :)
After all that, I depart from Sciences Po for the last time and head back to my beloved velib bikes. This time, I take them south, toward the Denfert metro station, to check out the catacombs. I had bought the ticket the night before, and was excited to see the last thing on my Parisian bucket list!
The catacombs were honestly quite creepy, but it was interesting to see the bones and read about their history. Most of the Parisian buildings are made from limestone mined from underneath Paris itself, and after a serious disease problem from cemeteries in Paris at the end of the 18th century, all the bones were carried underground into the old limestone mines. They were eventually rearranged so that tourists could go see them, and now we have the Parisian catacombs!
I breezed through it since I felt quite uncomfortable being down there in the narrow hallways surrounded by bones. I would not want to stay there for long, and definitely not alone!
I resurfaced from underground, and there was a security guard who asked to check my bags. I asked why, and she said it was to make sure that I didn’t take any bones with me.
The fact that enough people collected bones from under the catacombs to warrant security checks of the bags of visitors is both disgusting and terrible. Why in the world would you take the poor bones? Oh my…
Back in the fresh, aboveground air, I velib back to the Goblins apartment (back for the first time since before the Morocco trip), though neither Annabel nor Gibs are there (Annabel is studying and Gibs is working). This is quite the problem, since I need to meet Anna in 30 minutes at Notre Dame for our planned dumpling eating session and walk that was long in the works.
I had 3 options at this point:
Bike to the library Annabel is studying at, get her keys, drop off my things at the apartment, then return the keys to Annabel and make it to Notre Dame. However, this will mean I will be 30 minutes late to dumplings.
Bring my heavy backpacks to dumplings and walk with them afterward. Not ideal, but I will be on time.
Leave my bags with the lady who owns the Vietnamese restaurant underneath the Goblins apartment where Annabel and Gibs live, and who Annabel tells me is trustworthy based on the fact that she has picked up packages for them before. This is a risky method because I am leaving my bags, but I will make it on time to dumplings and will not have to carry all my heavy shit around.
I decide to go for option #3 because I have been late every single time Anna and I hang out, and I figure this is the last time we’ll see each other in months, potentially years, so I need to get my shit together and get there on time. I leave my things with the Vietnamese lady who is happy to watch them after I show a picture of me with Gibs and Annabel, then bike to Notre Dame, showing up 5 minutes early.
Amazing!
In a funny turns of events, Anna herself is 10 minutes late, and then we stroll together to dumplings while she tells me about her action- and alcohol-packed uni ski trip the week before in the Alps. The pictures were insane!
We make it to Russ Market, the lovely Russian store Tatiana and I found when we were walking along the Seine in November. I order the delicious pelmeni and some black tea (how amazing to speak in Russian again!) and find it tremendously funny when Anna orders her hot chocolate in Russian. The pronunciation! Crazyyyyyy!
I tell Anna about my ordeal getting to Paris (literally that morning, wtf), inducing a large amount of secondhand anxiety in Anna. We then dip from the Russian store and walk along the Seine, past the Louvre, and to my favorite rue de Rivoli to the Rose Bakery where Gibs in working. There, we say hi to Gibs, I get the keys to the apartment, and we get some free cookies (biscuits for the Brits) and coffee! Hooray!
After, Anna and I head to Chatelet, where Anna will meet her friend and I will take the metro back to Goblins. We stop at a map store along the way, admire the maps, and talk about many a small and minute things.
Strolling with Anna in Paris is always a lovely time. We really should’ve done it more often. :)
We make it to Chatelet eventually, say our goodbyes (until tomorrow, when I will see her and the rest of the gang that’s left in Paris for girly brunch), and I walk in the underground maze that is Chatelet all the way to the pink line 7. Smooth sailing to Goblins, where I see Annabel (who had grabbed my things from the Vietnamese restaurant) and tell her the crazy story of me getting to Paris literally that morning.
Just like Anna, Annabel got secondhand anxiety from the story as well!
I then proceed to take an amazing shower, wiping off all the grime from the travels (first shower since Twickenham!), and then chill in the apartment with Annabel until Gibs comes home, then we all chill together some more.
Goblins is a great place to chill!
Gibs eventually dips for a planned hangout with some other friends, and Annabel and I head downstairs to eat dinner at the Vietnamese spot downstairs because it is close by, cheap, and I feel it would be nice to repay the lady for watching over my things that afternoon. Along the way, I toss my beat-up old Hokas (tied together) up into a tree because I know Mama would not be happy if I took those terrible, dirty, hole-ridden shoes all the way home. Mama, you must be proud!
Dinner was amazing — cheap, delicious, and paired with one of the best conversations I’ve had in Paris, talking about life, returning back home, culture, and politics. The conversation wandered like a river but was always interesting, precise, fun; conducted between 2 people with a powerful command of the English language.
Annabel, I will truly miss you and all the deep conversations we had.
After that, I take the metro north, back to Chatelet, then bike to the 20th to Élise’s (my vb teammate) apartment for a French hangout with her, Manon (they’re besties), and some more of their French friends for my last night in Paris! I saw Élise earlier in the day and kinda invited myself over to this dinner once I learned that Manon was going to be there too, and there I was! Of course, I broke a 6-pack of Heineken and a bar of Milka chocolate as a thank you to the host. :)
I basically chatted with Manon the entire time, then was getting ready to leave around midnight. Saying goodbyes took forever, and I started talking to Élise during that process, since Manon and I were leaving to the velibs together.
What proceeded was an absolutely wild conversation about Élise’s personal life that absolutely blew my mind. I promised to keep confidentiality (don’t worry Élise I keep my promises, and welcome to the blog!) but holy shit, that was crazy. That conversation, along with the one I had just had with Annabel, was a top 5 conversation I’ve had during my study abroad. Good luck with the plans you told me about next summer, Élise!! I hope they work out.
I said bye to Élise for the last time (this time for real), then headed back to the velibs with Manon. It was so sad to say goodbye to her (I already miss you Manon! Tu me manque), but I know that I will see her in Chilé before I know it!
Smooth sailing home, where Gibs was waiting for me to say goodnight. And just like that, it was time for the last night of sleep of my study abroad!
Wednesday 12/20
I woke up around 8:30, then got up around 9 and chatted with Gibs for a little bit. We had tea and talked, then I went out and about to go Christmas shopping! Along the way, there is a brief detour at the Goblins metro and some strange situation with a metro map, though there is no need to go into the details here. If you know what happened, you know what happened.
I velib north to stop by Joe’s favorite boulangerie, since I was planning on going to Lidl nearby (for some last-minute Christmas shopping) and figured I’d stop for breakfast and buy some snacks for the plane as well. I get the pain au chocolates (7 of them!) and head to Lidl, where I get the Christmas presents.
I was out of data at this point (35 Gigs used!), so I had no idea where the girly brunch at 11:45 was happening.
So I walked the Apple Store Opera, which I know has lighting-fast WiFi. I get the location of the girly brunch (right near the Apple Store, actually!), and walk around the Vendôme for a few minutes as I had some time to kill. All the security guards were eyeing me up and down since I clearly did not look like someone who was going to buy some thousand-dollar jewelry.
And then, it is time for Girly brunch! With Annabel, Anna, Lara, and Gibs! The first guy in Paree to successfully infiltrate girly brunch, is me!
Girly brunch was great, with lovely stories shared, yummy food (very American menu though lol), and very strange, Aprés Ski vibe club music playlist.
Anna was not feeling the music, nor was Annabel.
And before we knew it, Girly Brunch had ended, and it was time to say goodbye for the last time to Anna, Lara, and Gibs. So sad. :(
I take a perfect blue velib back home to Goblins (so fitting that the last velib I take is a perfect one) and enjoy my sweet time on Rue de Rivoli, across the Seine, and to Goblins for the last time. I will miss these velibs so much, even though I can’t wait to ride my road bike back home.
I make it home and meet Annabel there, who took the metro back. I repack all my things into my check-in bags and backpacks, make sure I have everything, and before I know it, it is time to say goodbye to Annabel, the last of the people in Paree to whom I say farewell.
I take the metro to Denfert, the OrlyBus to the airport, and have a smooth check-in and boarding process at the airport. No hiccups here! I cannot take the bus back to California. And here I am now, just like it started, flying back home to California, despite Paris feeling like home to me now.
And just like that, my time in Paris has come to an end. :(
There is so much to say about studying abroad as a whole and my reflection on the entire experience, though I will save that all for a reflection post right after this one. :)
Final velib stats:
