Goodbye

          This post is probably one of the hardest I’ve written yet.  My time in Toulouse has finally come to an end, and tomorrow I will get on a train at six in the morning and travel seven hours to Paris to meet my family who I haven’t seen in four months.  I have been so excited to see my family and friends back home that it hadn’t hit me that going home also meant leaving behind a beautiful city that I have grown to love and amazing friends that have become my family here. 

At the Salon de The

Last night I went out to a cute little Salon de Thé next to San Sernin (one of the landmark churches in Toulouse).  We had the most amazing dinner! I had stuffed rabbit with a chickpea based side and thé gourmand (which included an amazing black tea brewed from fresh tea leaves and served in a teapot, a lime cheesecake, and mint ice cream) for dessert.  The dinner took three hours, but it was lovely.  We had the absolute best time.  I really enjoy spending a long time eating here.  You really get to enjoy the food and the company.  That is one of the things I am going to miss for sure. 

The girls that I had dinner with are some of the coolest people I have ever met and were my best friends here.  After girls’ nights, wine and cheese parties, movie nights, travels, class, and living in the same city for four months, they kind of became like my sisters.  We were all sad to leave each other so we came up with an idea to ensure that we keep in touch.  We are going to share a bracelet among the six of us and each time we send it to the next girl send a letter with it to update her on what’s new in our lives.  We of course also plan to use Facebook, but the idea of letters and sharing a bracelet is so cute to me!

Going Away Party #1

Tonight was my last night.  As people have started leaving, we have been having “good-bye parties” in my apartment building.  Basically, we all get together in someone’s apartment to visit and say good-bye to whoever is leaving next.  As you can imagine, they are quite sad little parties.  Tonight myself and several others said goodbye.  I thought I was going to be fine.  Like I said, I assumed the excited of seeing my family would even out the sadness of leaving, but I quickly found that it doesn’t really work like that.  I began saying goodbye with my friend that I went to Nice with. She looked up at me all teary eyed, and I lost it and started bawling like a baby.  It was much harder to say goodbye than I thought. 

Last night in Toulouse

I hope that all of my Erasmus family knows how much I love them.  You guys have been my friends, classmates, teachers, traveling buddies, neighbors, and family here, and I cannot describe how thankful I am to have been privileged to meet and spend four months with all of you.  You are all amazing people, and you are the reason my exchange has been so absolutely incredible! I hope to stay in touch, and if you are ever in Arkansas (or the U.S. for that matter), you will always have a home there! Stay beautiful! Love you guys!    

My Last Week

               It’s hard to believe that my stay in Toulouse is almost over.  Both of my roommates have already moved out; my last day of class is tomorrow; I have already started packing/ cleaning; and I am officially leaving on Monday.  In some ways I feel like I just got here, but at the same time I feel like I’ve done so much in the past four-ish months. 

                My last week in Toulouse began with a trip to Narbonne.  It was a beautiful day in the small coastal town.  As usual here in France, the bus system wasn’t working due to the holiday.  We began the day walking around the small town.  It was quite charming with a lovely canal and an absolutely beautiful cathedral.  When traveling in France, I’ve found that you see many cathedrals, but this one was quite impressive.  My only complaint about our short visit was the map.  We were given a beautiful map of Narbonne at its impressive office of tourism complete with illustrations and explanations of major landmarks; however it only displayed major street names so it was quite easy to get lost.  After our tour of the old town, we caught a train to where we were told there was a beach since the buses were not running due to the national holiday.

When we arrived we had no idea how to get to the beach.  After briefly scanning a map and gaining an idea of the general direction of the nearest beach we began walking.  About an hour later after walking through “creepy French suburbia” where all of the pink houses all looked the same, we finally arrived at the beach.  The weather was perfectly hot.  The cool Mediterranean water even felt nice.  I would have spent more time in the water had it not been for all the jellyfish all over the place.  Overall it was a lovely afternoon sleeping, sunning, reading, and chatting on the beach.

Best Cook Award

Tuesday was the final Erasmus event of the semester organized by our wonderful welcome team.  The final gala was an amazing four course dinner on a boat that cruised down the Canal du Midi at sunset.  The food was amazing.  It was served progressively by waiters carrying around trays of food so we got to try everything including gazpacho, duck and goat cheese skewers, a massive cheese assortment, and panna cotta.  It was delicious! The event was so nice.  We all got dressed up and felt super classy eating our French food cruising down the canal.  After dinner, we went downstairs for the presentation of a video and an awards ceremony.  We had all voted for our favorite Erasmus.  I got the title of “Best Cook.”  It was the perfect end to an absolutely incredible and unforgettable semester.

The rest of my last week in Toulouse was spent in Artemis, a business simulation.  I have done an online Capsim business simulation twice before at the University of Arkansas.  Each of those was completed over the course of an entire semester.  We did this one, which I would argue was even more complicated than Capsim, over the course of four days.  It consisted of two practice rounds, eight decision rounds, a series of conferences, a business plan, several excel models, and a final presentation.  The business decisions we were required to make in each round involved marketing, production, finance, labor issues, changing economic conditions, and response to carbon emission regulation.  My team did relatively well.  We didn’t finish first, but we were competitive the entire simulation and showed the highest exponential growth during the final two quarters of any team.

It was a lot to complete in four days, but I found it to be immensely beneficial.  I learned how to deal with complicated decisions in a short matter of time and how to better work in a team (something I’ll admit I find difficult when under extreme time pressures).  The intensity of the simulation made it a good and somewhat realistic experience.  I’m very glad I decided to participate. 

I can’t believe my studies in Toulouse are complete.  It’s weird to think that the next time I’m in a classroom I will be at the Walton College in Fayetteville.  This has been an unbelievable experience both personally and educationally.  I have learned how to work with people from all different backgrounds and operate in a very dynamic setting while simultaneously studying very relevant and diverse business topics including trade law, finance, marketing, management, and economics. I wouldn’t trade my time here for anything.