I can't believe I haven't started crying about having to leave yet. I only have six days left in Strasbourg, three of which will be taken up by finals. It feels really strange. There's so much I still want to do, so much still to see and explore... Four months feels like a long time until the end when you realize it's all gone by in a flash. I've been pretty mopey the last few days at the prospect of leaving. I love life here.

Last Tuesday was the Institute's annual Christmas party and it was amazing. International language students are insane. Our language group did a dance/skit to Foux de Fa Fa, a Flight of the Conchords parody of French culture. All the girls wore black and white, with headbands and neck scarves. All the guys wore striped shirts and berets. We stole the show. After we performed, people were yelling "Encore! Encore!" and we did it again. It was so much fun and so silly. When all the performances were over, we ate food from around the world (mostly France, though) and drank vin chaud. From there we went out to Bar Exil, where I drank too much and realized just how much I love life here.

Wednesday morning we visited the European Parliament, which was pretty cool. We saw them in session and got a brief tour. Definitely a great oppurtunity. Then Thursday was the last day of class, which was just sad. I'm going to miss all of my international friends and Isabelle, our wonderful professor. Last night our entire group had a holiday dinner to celebrate the end of the semester. Have I mentioned how much I'm going to miss this group of fantastic people? I am. We gave flowers to Beth and all exchanged secret santa gifts. I gave Clif a bottle of Bailey's and gummy bears, Ciel gave me a super cute Alsatian mug. It's perfect because now I'll be able to think of Alsace whenever I drink tea back at LC.

This morning I got up earlier than I had intended and went down to Petit France. Even though it's the famous part of Strasbourg, I really hadn't been down there (sober, at least) since our boat tour. I took some pictures and also went to the Museum of Contemporary and Modern Art, which was a little bizarre, but nice. Now it's time to start studying so, naturally, I am downtown at an internet cafe. These next few weeks should be a bit hectic, as I'll be travelling a lot, but I'll try to post from internet cafes around Europe. Or at least have a final farewell post when I get back to the States.

Here's my plan for the next few weeks. I'm going to be travelling with Clariece, Chris, and Mike at various points...
Dec. 15 - 22 -- last days in Strasbourg
Dec. 22 - 25 -- train to Paris
Dec. 25 - 29 -- train to Amsterdam
Dec. 29 - Jan. 2 -- bus to Prague
Jan. 2 - 4 -- train to Vienna
Jan. 4 - 6 -- Fly back home, final goodbye in Strasbourg
Jan. 7 -- Return to Seattle... cry a lot (dramatic much?)

Most of the girls in our class before performing Foux de Fa Fa... from left to right:
top row -- Isabelle (professor), Elizabeth, Ciel, Alison, me, Katherine, Kae (Japan), Hanna (Belorus)
bottom row -- Kelly, Maiko (Japan), Carolina (Guatemala), Aurelie (professor)

European Parliament building... it's pretty cool.

Walking to class one morning... For some reason they cut all of the leaves off of the trees here during the winter so the roads are sort of ugly, but it's become sort of endearing to me.

Okay, time to go study for real. Or take a nap... that sounds like more fun. Does anyone want to take my psychology classes next semester so I can stay here a while longer?