It's almost time to say goodbye.

This will probably be my penultimate post; I'm heading back to the States on Thursday. I plan to write a debrief sort of post sometime after I get back to the States and re-acclimated to the culture. I've had an eventful last week or so, what with finals and my parents coming to visit for a few days. Eventful, but honestly not all that interesting, other than my Dad cracking me up with some of his attempts to speak French. There are some pictures over on Facebook, if you're interested. They were only here for about 3 days, so we mostly just did the rounds on all the museums. They had a museum pass, and my student I.D. gets me into most Paris museums for free, so we had a really nice time observing a lot of art and history. But that's not really what I want to talk about in this post. A couple of days ago, a friend from the States asked me a question that really fits in well with what I'm feeling this week.

So I went to Disneyland. In Paris.

So, before you read any further, you should know that this post will be full of me basically being a little 10-year-old girl on her first ever trip to a Disney park. I'm serious. Don't say I didn't warn you... During my 2-week break from school at the beginning of May, I went to Disneyland Paris. And it was awesome. And utterly exhausting. But basically the best thing I've done in the last couple of months. I went with my dear friend Lindsey. She's American too, but she's been living in Paris for the last 5 years or so, and teaches 5th grade at a French school in the area. We have a mutual love for all things French, Disney, and fairy-tale related. And it was her birthday. I mean, seriously. Who doesn't want to spend their 28th birthday at Disneyland? So we had a slumber party at her house two nights in a row, drove to Disney together (with accompanying Disney music playing, of course) spent about fourteen hours in the park, and had a fabulous time.

France, I'm so PROUD of you!

So, in case you all on the other side of the pond haven't heard, France passed a law legalizing gay marriage and adoption about a week ago. It's a really amazing thing. I even got to go down to the Assemblé Nationale and stand outside when they announce the successful passage of the law. Unfortunately, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing I decided to do on my way home from class, so I didn't have my camera with me. Here's what I'll say, though: the screams of delight, expressions of love, and general jubilation far outweighed the boos and shouts of disgust from the right-wing protestors. After I got home that night, I had a very interesting conversation with my host Mom which got me thinking about French culture and how this new law works within the French social construct.