Whoa

This is my cool picture of the day. Last Saturday my parents and I had lunch at Marie-Alixe's and then spent the afternoon with her and her family. We went to the Park de Bercy for part of the time, where I took this crazy cool picture.

I can't believe this. I have two days left. One day of work, one day of last-minute souvenir shopping, and then I'm leaving on a jet plane. It's kind of bittersweet. I'll be absolutely ecstatic to be back home again. But at the same time, I won't forget the people and the places I've gotten to know while I've been here. Yesterday I was talking to Sibel, the one (girl? lady?) who's the main secretary or something along those lines. She asked me if my experience has been everything I thought it would be. I told her that I'd had no idea about what I was going to be working with. I thought I was going to France to cheer up old people. In reality, you only have to be over age 50 to be accompanied by Les Petits Frères des Pauvres and the specific fraternity that I worked with specialized in people who were in difficult situations (who'd been living on the streets, etc). So I often felt like I was working for some sort of homeless recovery center. Anyway. All that to say that I feel like, although it's never something that would have particularly caught my eye, working with these sort of people has been a priceless experience.

Today was my "Pot de départ," aka going-away party. I made Caroline's King Arthur recipe of brownies (using French chocolate... mmmm) which was pretty dang popular, and there were all sorts of other food things that they had gotten ready. I actually didn't know that they were organizing my pot; from what I'd seen I thought it was up to me, so I'd actually purchased a few things, too (using a budget we have for l'étape). Everyone made speeches, including me. (Holy cow. I can make speeches in French now.) They gave me some presents. From the office, I got a beautiful hard cover book that shows Paris as seen from the skies, with detailed histories accompanying scenic pictures. From some of the accompanied people, I got a DVD and a CD of a performance that they'd starred in to remember them by. Boy, did all those speeches boost my self-confidence. Maybe I should go away more often... just kidding.

Oh, and funny story. Today after lunch I called my parents (who was in the airport in Switzerland getting ready to leave). They had me worried, at first. He answered and said, "Boy, am I glad to hear your voice." I asked him how he was doing. He evasively replied, "Ask your mother how we're doing." I was expecting the worst when he passed my mom the phone. She told me that they'd found their gate and had been waiting their boarding time when she heard, over the loudspeaker, a voice asking for Passenger Nelly Lott to come to the desk. She went and they upgraded my parents to first class seats! For no apparent reason. Plus, I think the flight was full, too! Lucky them! I'm glad they got hit with that good luck.