Last Days: Strasbourg

Continuing on from London; Laetitia and I returned to Strasbourg on the evening of Sunday, May 25th.

I spent all of Monday in a frantic panic: I went shopping for host family gifts (eventually settling on chocolate, flowers, and a nice bottle of wine), went for a last lunch at Flam's with Kat, and closed my French bank account. Then I packed, packed, packed! My host family also took me out for dinner one final time at the pizza restaurant that I visited for the very first time back on August 30th, 2013, my first night in Strasbourg. 

Tuesday morning, I spent furiously packing and throwing out trash. Originally I had thought that I would have plenty of room in my suitcase, but when it got down to those final moments, I had barely enough space to put everything! It is absolutely astounding how much stuff accumulates over ten months!

I was in such a rush to get to the train station on time to catch my train that I didn't even have time to be sad. I had spent the last month--basically all of May--saying goodbye to my city, and on my final morning in Strasbourg, I didn't feel heartbroken. I didn't have the energy or spare moments to be heartbroken. I said my final goodbyes to my host family at the train station, did a final round of bises (cheek kissing) to everybody, and then waved as they drove away. 

Malou was meant to meet me at the station, but she ran very, very late. I boarded the train and stowed away all my luggage near my seat, then paced the platform looking for her. Three minutes before my train was set to leave, I see her running crazily across the platform to me. That's when she decided to lecture me on French politics!! An election had taken place two days before, and the results were grim: The UMP (a far, far right-wing political party) had won the majority of seats in the European Parliament, and Malou didn't want me to have a bad impression of the French because of it! 

Then conductor was blowing his whistle, and Malou had tears in her eyes, and she said she would truly miss me, and I was running for the train, and I was in my seat and Strasbourg was far behind me. 

I was headed to Paris. Then I was headed home.