Last Visits, First Tries... Is that a hint of nostalgia around the corner?

“What is the feeling when you're driving away from people, and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? -it's the too huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.”

So this is probably my very last post from Paris (to make sure the blog is totally finished, I'll probably write one from home after ITALY with the girls next week.

So I'm sitting in my apartment with less than 18 hours before I leave and trying to think of how to best sum up this trip. In a lot of ways, it was good, and in a lot of ways, it was really hard. I think the best way to sum it up is that if it were February right now, I wouldn't do it again. But since it's July, I'm glad that I did. The whole thing was overwhelming... deciding to move to a completely foreign city, one I've never before visited... and not just any city, but Paris. The City of Lights, the City of Love, one of the supposed greatest cities in the world. And I will admit, there are days I hated this city and just wanted to leave. But the closer I got to doing just that, the more I have to admit that it is an incredible place.

That's not to say it wasn't the hardest thing I've ever done. I can't even count the number of times I called home crying, the number of times I wished I'd never come, the number of days I stared at what are supposed to be the greatest monuments in the world and wanted only to see the Ben Franklin Parkway. But I guess going through anything that hard forces you to mature in some way or another. And it was, overall, an experience not many people will get to have. I lived in Europe for 5 months! I had wonderful experiences, saw beautiful things, met lovely people that I will never forget...

And yet. I looked at the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower and just wanted to be looking off the Empire State Building. I picnicked in the Jardin du Leuxembourg and missed the trees in County Park in Lancaster. I looked at one of the trillion sitting rooms in the Chateau de Versailles and just wanted to be in Gmom's living room. So was it worth it? I don't know. But I am glad I did it, and even more glad to be going home, to what I personally consider the Greatest City in the World- LANCASTER COUNTY BABYYY

(photo cred to some random website on GoogleImages)