Last post of 2009!

So my time here for 2009 is coming to an end. I go home on Monday the 21st! I could not be more excited :)

I had originally considered (wayyyy back to last year) about not coming home for Christmas. I was thinking that it might be too hard to leave all of my friends and family, JUST get used to life in France, go home for Christmas, and then have to do it all again. And yes it might be hard to leave everyone again, but the time i'm going to have over this Christmas with my friends and family is going to DEFINITELY make it all worth it!

Life in Lyon over the past few weeks has been pretty tame in comparison to Exam time at McMaster. As an International student, I get treated a little differently, so instead of doing some exams like the french students, I had to do written assignments instead. So out of 9 classes, I only needed to write 3 exams during the actual exam period. I had one oral presentation in 20th century lit this past monday, one french to english translation written exam this past wednesday, and then i will have one english to french translation written exam when I get back to france in January. Luckily though it turns out this exam isn't until January 12th, so I get to spend almost 3 full weeks at home!

As I had a lot of time to prepare for my exams, I feel they went pretty well! And now that they're over for December, I have lots of time to just relax, hang out with my friends before we go our separate ways for Christmas, and of course.... PACK!

The only bad thing about the french schoool system and having exams both before and after christmas is that i'm going to have to study over the break, as well as write a 10 page essay :( which is too bad, but could be so much worse!!

I have so many plans to see as many people as I can over the break, and it's going to be so hectic, but definitely fantastic, and I absolutely cannot wait to get home!! I'm pretty much only packing presents to bring home, and then on the way back to France will pretty much just be food!

It's been SNOWING in Lyon!! Something we've been told is pretty rare around here. But over the last week, it's snowed 3 or 4 times! And on Thursday night, some actually stayed on the ground for a few hours!! It really made me think of home.

So it's farewell Lyon for 2009, see you in 2010!