Wow. I'm sitting in a living room, in a house, in Courtice, in Canada. I didn't have to make my own meals today, I got to drive a car, and didn't have to pay for the public bathrooms. It is so nice to be back in Canada, and yet so strange. Paris, and really all of Europe in general, is now a part of me, even if it's only in memories, pictures and journal entries. A part of me will always be that baguette-eating, Notre Dame visiting, French-speaking, world-traveling student. There were many mixed emotions as Justine, Shailene and I waited in the Paris airport overnight, endured a long layover in London and passed the time watching movies on the 8 hours flight to Toronto. (The fact that I didn't sleep for 46 hours might have played a part in that.) We were excited to see our families and friends and be taken care of for a little while, but we were sad to leave the place that we've been calling home for the past 4.5 months. It was a strange, overwhelming feeling to walk out of the plane, hear Canadian accents, and eagerly search the crowd of people to find our parents. And so now we are home and dealing with a bit of reverse culture shock, but all in all, it's a good feeling.
To summarize the last couple weeks that I had on the other side of the ocean: Exams were about the easiest thing that I have ever written! I feel like this was almost a gimme semester - the worst thing I had to do this semester was write a 3 page essay. All of our conference exams were only out of 20 marks, so 100% of the grade for those courses rested on 20 marks. And yet, I feel pretty confident about it! Our grammar exam was huge and took a full 3 hours to write, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting (though my grade might tell me otherwise).
After exams were done, I had a few days to visit all of my favourite places in Paris one last time before flying out to the UK for my 10 day vacation. My favourite place in all of Paris is Notre Dame, so I climbed the stairs of her towers, walked inside of the cathedral one more time, and spent some time in my usual spot in the garden across the street, just gazing at the gothic beauty. On May 31, I packed up all of my stuff, handed in my key to my residence, and walked to the metro stop for the last time.
But I couldn't be sad long, for I was going to Scotland - a place that I've wanted to visit since I was about 9 years old. I flew into Edinburgh first and spent hours in the magnificent castle fortress, climbed the ancient volcano to look over Arthur's Seat (another volcano), sit on the green grass and journal in the open air, and ate more scones than I probably should have. I loved Scotland! I had no rain that week, an odd phenomenon for that area, and I loved gazing over the glens and lochs from the hills and from the castle.
Next stop was Inverness in the highlands. Okay - so there's this tiny little town named Drumnadrochit that I've wanted to visit for years after hearing about it in a movie (not mentioning it was a Scooby-doo movie...). It's only about 25-30 minutes from Inverness, so I took the bus out of the town and up the River Ness to the famous Loch Ness and into this tiny town. Being on Loch Ness and dipping my feet in its cold, deep waters was amazing! I walked through Drumnadrochit, visited the Loch Ness Centre and learned all about legendary Nessie, and then walked the 2 ish miles out to Urquhart Castle, an old ruin overlooking the loch. The walk was one of the best parts of Europe, I think. I was surrounded by grazing sheep, broom bushes and green trees and hills, and Loch Ness lay constantly before me. God was my traveling buddy that week, and I got to spend some time talking to Him and thanking Him for the incredible journey that I was on (and have been on in general over these few months).
Upon coming to Urquhart Castle, my camera was snapping non-stop. The castle was so old and in so many ruins and had so many amazing views and photo opportunities. I kept scanning the loch for Nessie, but she happened to evade my sight that day. As much as it's only a legend, it was fun to imagine an ancient sea monster gliding through those waters. I had planned on going swimming in Loch Ness, just to say that I'd been swimming in the same loch as Nessie, but it was freezing cold and there was really no place to swim, so I just waded in and let my feet go numb. It was difficult to leave that place and take the bus back to Inverness, since I had wanted to see it for so long and I was finally there. But the next day turned out to be just as lovely and I discovered an oddly-shaped log at the end of the island in River Ness, completely hidden from human view, and I sat there for a good 3 hours, listening to the rapids, watching the birds darting back and forth over the water, and journaling whatever decided to come into my head. It gave me time to sing praises and pray out loud and just be completely alone - something that is impossible to do in Paris (where you are constantly surrounded by people and man-made noise if you're outside). It was a beautiful day in every sense of the word.
My final stop was Belfast in Northern Ireland. I spent ages in the Titanic museum, walking where it was built and where it was last docked and taking my time through the museum itself. But other than that, I didn't find a whole ton of things to do in Belfast city, so I took a tour bus up to the northern coast - to Giant's Causeway. Google image it. It's like nothing you've ever seen before! There are pillars of rocks all over the place, looking like they've been purposefully placed and causing the landscape to be unique and even more beautiful. We stopped off at various places along the coastal road on the way up there, including a couple castles and the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge - which was awesome to walk over even though it was super foggy, but that almost added to the beauty of the cliffs and seas there. Driving through the Irish hills was just sheer beauty and I don't understand how anyone can look at creation and not believe that it was carefully formed by a loving, involved God.
And so here we are, at the end of my European travels. It's been a challenge, a blessing, a learning curve, an eye-opener and really, just overwhelming. I can't really describe how it feels, what the best thing was, how the journey was or made me feel. Europe is a part of me now, or rather I'm a part of Europe. Canada is a beautiful country, has a beautiful name and has the most difficult flag of life to draw, but it's home. Europe, specifically Paris, is a beautiful continent with so much variety and deep history to discover. It's name causes an overflow of mixed emotions - ranging from extreme dislike to absolute love. The red, white and blue of France is more familiar to my eye right now than the Canadian flag. I'll miss the busy metros, the boulangeries, picnics at the Eiffel Tower and walks past Notre Dame.
But now I'm in my home and native land and Paris remains on the other side de l'océan.
