10 days from today I'll be on my way home. Have I really been here for 3 months? Apparently.
Yesterday morning I got up early with a few other students to go to the catacombs of Paris. Something like 160 kilometers of tunnels beneath the city that were created when mining the stone used to build half the area. It's been both a substitute graveyard and a headquarters for military operations. Back in Napoleonic times, the cemeteries of Paris were overflowing (literally, one got so full that bodies burst out of the ground in a sort of landslide, spilling into a nearby apartment building—gross! Imagine coming home to that?) and even more bodies were just being buried in local parks (because the Edict of Nantes had been revoked and Protestants weren't allowed to be buried in cemeteries). So it was decreed that around 6 million bodies would be buried in the catacombs. I'm glad I didn't have the job of moving the bones and then arranging them inside these tunnels. Back then, candles were used to light the way, and sometimes the flame would go out. People got lost in the tunnels and died there.
Of course I loved the place. Historic and morbid. I did, however, find myself squeamish about touching any bones (no one else in the group was willing to touch them either, which is probably a good sign). Taking pictures for your viewing pleasure (or horror) was another story:
Classes are winding down, in other news, and I'm having exams interspersed with exposées. I feel like I'm in real school for the first time all semester. This weekend I head to Budapest for a few days, where I might be going caving. It depends on whether or not the hostel will arrange a special weekend tour for our group, because usually they only do caving during the week.
I know I'm not getting enough sleep, which is why tonight I've designated as going-to-bed-early night. In the morning I want to go by the Richard le Noir market that I missed Sunday for being too tired and in order to do that I have to get up at 8:30.
My list of Christmas presents-to-get is about halfway checked off. Some people are harder to shop for than others, but the market should have some cool things. If not, there's Budapest and a whole week left.
I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, but I'll miss the sight of the Eiffel Tower on my walk to school everyday. The ease of the metro, where I don't have to get in a car and drive (if I even remember how). I must start figuring out how to pack the things I'm bringing home into my suitcase. This semester has gone by so fast. If I weren't coming back this would be a lot harder
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