In The Going Away Party

For the last night in Toulouse, we had a party on a boat. We all expected this to be an uncomfortably small boat for the quantity of people that were attending, where we'd end up needing to overflow onto the dock. Contrary to our expectations, the boat was amazing! There were two levels and the lower level was big enough for all the program kids, teachers, coordinators, and attending host family members.

It was also ideal for Titanic pictures.

Anyway, I got a chance to take pictures with all my people finally. 

Here's my FAVORITE person from the program. He's the tour guide I keep talking about and he's perfect. His name is Eric.

"You'd rather be poor and happy than rich and miserable. Trust me."

-Grandpa Vapes (AKA Eric)

Here's my professor, Marie. She's essentially a hippie. If you can't tell from the size of her bun, she has hair the length of her thighs.

Here's my program coordinator. There were three, but I got assigned to (chosen by) this one- thankfully. Her name is Meg, but we just call her mom. I love her. She lives in Florida.

This is Arnaud. He was in charge of my life; I'm not sure what the official job title was. We call him No No.

I don't know... you might have noticed that there is this one girl who keeps showing up in all of my pictures. Her name is Victoria and she is my person. She lives in North Carolina, the next state over from me. Unlike most of the summer friends I make, I might actually see her again. That's a big deal to me.

Au revoir à CIEE et à Toulouse, et un grand merci à tout (les profs, les coordinateurs, etc.). Mais- le plus grand merci est à ma mère d'accueil. Merci, Céline. Je te remercie vraiment. (Et vous, Ty/Karina.) And honestly I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with life without Karina.

PS I love my squad; please enjoy: