Grenoble Goodbye Tour-Day 135-May 25th, 2018

I woke up feeling surprisingly well this morning, despite my late night. Nick and I had made a plan to go to Moana one last time this morning. I still had extra guest pass, so Kim’s brother Brian came with us.

I ate a quick breakfast than headed over to the gym to meet them. I was going to do leg day, but the squat rack was occupied. I also didn’t really feel like doing leg day to be honest anyway. Instead, I opted for back and triceps. The gym was really empty which was nice. I finished with a nice core workout as well. Before we left, Nick and I said goodbye to out friend who works there. We added him on Facebook and he said he wants to come visit Boston.

Nick and I took a picture to memorialize Moana

As soon as I got home, I took a much needed shower to cleanse all the alcohol I just sweated out. While we were walking back from the gym, Nick and I spontaneously decided to meet up for lunch at La Nat’ one last time. Kim and Brian were going to meet us there as well. After I showered, I headed out for lunch.

We got a nice table outside and all ordered the plat du jour. Today it was tortellini and salad.

The plat du jour

After lunch, we headed to the BU office to say goodbye to Celine. Everyone else was there and I hung out there for an hour. Celine gave us a sheet to write down all of our recommendations for next semester’s students as well. I said goodbye to Celine and thanked her for all her help throughout the semester.

On the way home, I stopped to buy flowers as a parting gift for Anne Marie. I now also had the daunting task of packing all my things. I was able to leave some stuff home while I was in the US, but not a lot. I was a little afraid my bottles of wine would make my checked bag too heavy.

After some squishing and intense packing, I was able to fit everything and had a little extra room. I was able to shove my heavy winter coat in my bag, which was a pleasant surprise since I thought I would have to carry it. I am not a huge fan of packing, but this was much easier than packing up my room at BU.

Packing had taken up a decent chunk of time, but I still had about two hours until dinner. I used this time to write a nice letter in French for Andre and AM. My letter  thanked for being super accommodating and making me feel so welcome in their home. I am glad I wrote a letter because I don’t know if I would be able to say everything I wanted to say during our dinner due to my occasionally lacking French skills.

My letter and flowers

Around 8, the dinner bell rang.  I gave my letter and flowers before dinner. Anne Marie read my letter allowed and really liked it. I was expecting have a very French meal for my last dinner, but surprisingly AM had made double cheese burgers. We did have quiche as an appetizer, which I guess is pretty French. Andre also brought out a nice bottle of Bordeaux wine to celebrate our last dinner. He also encouraged me to drink a lot of it, which I did happily.

During dinner, we talked a lot about my experiences in France and my favorite places I’ve been to. They told me if I ever return to France, I am always welcome to come visit them. I have an early bus tomorrow and Andre offered to drive me. This was really nice considering the alternative was carrying all my luggage for more than a mile.

Since I wouldn’t see Anne Marie tomorrow morning, I said goodbye after dinner and thanked one last time. My bus is at 4:45 AM and I was planning to get up at 3:45. Because of this early start, I wanted to go bed early. Sometimes this can be difficult, but drinking a ton of red wine definitely does the trick. I fell asleep really quickly around 10:30.