Saying goodbye...

With the approach of the first real work week after my three weeks abroad, it's definitely setting in that I'm back home again and my trip of a lifetime has concluded. Despite being back in FL for a couple of days, it still seems strange not to get up in the morning and head down to the hotel restaurant for our croissant breakfasts before a class trip out into the city. Even though I didn't always understand the French conversations and questions swirling around me, Paris was great and it was fun to be a tourist and stumble our way through ordering at restaurants. :)

I loved the whole three week experience in general, though, because it was great to take a face-to-face class and meet professors and fellow classmates in person rather than only online, and it was so much fun to see London and Paris. Thanks to FSU, Dr. E, and the whole LN85 group for making it a great class and trip! I miss everyone already, and it will not be remotely the same this fall when I go back to being only a distance learning student. It was so fun to meet and interact with everyone in person as we toured the cities and saw the sights; even though we stayed busy for three weeks, time flew by and I can't believe it's over already! I loved every minute of my three weeks in London and Paris, and I'm grateful to everyone in the program for helping to make it my trip of a lifetime...

Before I left, a lot of people mentioned various things I would miss while in Europe, from iced drinks to air conditioning to elevators. I will admit that it wasn't so fun at first to hike up to our fourth floor flat in London—at least not when we had to tote our luggage up or forgot something and had to head back up a second time—but that was part of the charm of living in a historic building, and we did learn to plan ahead. The whole lack of ice in drinks, no refills, and no air conditioning also never seemed to be much of an issue either. I did wind up missing decaf iced tea, but that was really to be expected since its not often offered in restaurants here either.

I think the big surprise for me, though, was that I missed driving. I'm not a huge fan of driving here, but I suppose I'm so accustomed to being able to hop in the car and drive somewhere if I need to go somewhere or pick up something that I missed that freedom. The city transportation systems of Paris and London are fairly efficient and inexpensive (and every person driving would be totally impractical), but I was sort of glad to be reunited with my car and be able to drive to the store or work or wherever rather than trying to plot out what bus, pedestrian, and/or underground routes would get me where I wanted to go. At the same time, though, I do miss the trains for distance traveling, and it's a definite shock to go from huge city back to quiet, suburban central FL.

Such a fun trip...so many memories...and so many pictures! (I won't know what to do without carting Peep around everywhere and stopping for photo-ops.) :)