When my last few days arrived, I realized that I had seen only a small fraction of what Paris had to offer. There were so many hidden nooks and crannies of the city that I hadn’t even heard of. However, this trip was very much a good introduction to the city. I was introduced to the culture, the language, the customs, etc. Each visit in the future will allow me to add bits and pieces to my total Parisian experience.

After five weeks of zero responsibilities and total fun and excursion, I have to admit that I was getting pretty exhausted. I missed my family and the small things about home that you don’t realize you love until they are gone: the water pressure of your shower, your vehicle, your bed, and other things like that. So for those reasons, I was pretty ready to head home.

However, I was still very much into learning French. I felt that I had improved greatly, but a few more weeks would have been great to gain a confidence and a greater fluency. The situation was what it was, and I was scheduled to leave the airport at around 6 a.m. Lucky for me, that meant that I was leaving too early in the morning to catch either the train or the Rossybus, a bus that goes directly from the opera house to the airport. I had only two options: call a cab to pick me up at around four in the morning to take me, or stay over in the airport that night. As I’m sure you’ve noticed throughout these serials, I’m all for a good adventure. I decided to stay the night in the airport.

I left the opera house at about 11 p.m. the night before and, after some very sad goodbyes to my Swiss friends, I arrived at the airport at around midnight. I found my terminal and went to sleep on top of my suitcases. I happened to meet a couple from Montréal sitting near me, and it was the first time that I noticed the stark difference between a Parisian accent and a Canadian accent.

I arrived in Iceland again at about 9 a.m. and I had literally seven hours to kill. I thought about taking a trip to see some stuff, but I didn’t really want to chance being stuck in Iceland for any length of time. So I sat, ate, slept, and read for the entirety of my stay there.

I left Reykjavik and arrived in Boston in the early evening to be greeted by my mom and my grandparents. It was really nice to be back in the states and even nicer to see my family again. The entire ride home was filled with pictures and stories which I didn’t mind sharing at all.