second to last day

So I thought I would walk around Paris today after taking care of some pre-packing things. I took care of all my recycling (papers, water bottles, wine bottles, Nutella pots...) that had been building up all semester - it was a LOT. I did some laundry and started organizing my clothes. After that, I planned to do a last shopping trip and walk around some of my most-frequented places, like the St Germain area and the Marais, maybe get some falafel, a crepe or some ice cream, and finish up in the Luxembourg garden.

Well, it's almost 4pm and I've just finished all my chores, I still have to drop off my library books at AUP, and my shopping areas will now be full of people :( I guess I'll go tomorrow and deal with the tourists/other people swarming around. I think I'll still take care of the AUP books, but I don't think I'll have time to do much else. I have to go look for Renee's camera (again) and then I have plans to go out with Aurelien tonight.

A bunch of my friends have left the last couple of days, and it's been a little sad. Two of my closest friends here and I went out a couple of nights ago for the last time: we went up to Montmartre to walk around and go to this famed little fondue place, then we sat under the Eiffel Tower together until it turned off. The restaurant is really fun and interesting (and delicious, of course) because it's this little building with just 2 communal tables where everyone sits and shares fondue dishes. As soon as you go in they give you an apertif and small dish of tapas-style appetizers (free) then when you get the fondue they give you wine in a baby bottle.

We hung around talking to other people in the restaurant for a while and didn't wind up leaving Montmartre until about 11:45pm, but decided to go to the Eiffel Tower anyway. They light the Tower up at night - it has a bunch of lights and a search-beam type thing, and then on every hour it sparkles for 10 minutes. So we walked around the gardens and sat under it until it turned off, got some gelato and went home (my only cab ride of the semester!). It was fun, but sad because I won't see them anymore.

Tomorrow during the day I'll probably walk around and pick up some stuff I'd like to bring home, but at night I guess I'll have to pack. My flight is at 5:15pm on Sunday, so I won't have a ton of time to finish things that day. And for those of you who will be lost without my little blog here, I will continue for a bit after I get back; I have to finish talking about Italy, and don't think I've forgotten about the Eastern Europe trip! And maybe I'll also discuss a little bit about going back, I'm not sure.