The last nine weeks of my life have passed so fast that it all just feels like a blink. A warm, fuzzy, good feeling but stressful blink.
Hmmmm, how to sum up the last few weeks of Lacoste.
Finals were truly the hardest that I've ever had at SCAD due to the shorter quarter, the weather, the atmosphere of being in France, and of course because of the mountains of work that I had to accomplish. Vernissage was stressful as well, but really successful. The show itself looked absolutely wonderful, and Becks had her senior show set up, which was absolutely beautiful. We made almost 3,000 euros, though I didn't sell anything. Which is really okay, because I was kind of attached to all of the stuff that I had for sale. On top of the show going on, everyone's parents were in town to visit and see everything, and Bridget's mom Susan came and hang out with us :)
When the actual show was over we had the Bon Voyage dinner, which I expected to be really sad, but everyone was in such a good mood and really just happy to be spending time with each other. We really did have a drama free group for the most part, and it was just so nice to be surrounded by my friends and their families when around 7 weeks ago most of these people were still complete strangers to me.
Everyone who has been to Lacoste told me over and over again that it would change my life, and I knew that to some extent living in a foreign country for two months would of course change my life in some way. But the thing that changes your life is the people... That's what I'm going to miss the most about Lacoste. Yes, my classes were wonderful, and I did learn a LOT but this wasn't my strongest quarter in any of my classes. And yes, the landscape was amazing, but as slightly snobby as it might sound, I grew up with a stunning (but very different) view of my own. As gorgeous as South France is, the landscape looks more like California than anything else I've found in the states, and it made me homesick as well as making me want to road trip through California's wine country.
But. The people.
Every single person I met there influenced me in some way. Obviously there are the more prominent people, like Bridget, Breece and Becks, but everyone has opened my eyes in some way. It's hard to put a finger on it, but that's certainly the thing that has changed the most... that and the fact that in less than 2 months these people became my family and took in the flaws of living with me, seeing me cry, seeing me ridiculously silly and drunk, sharing a bed and cuddling, and dealing with my crazy ideas.... and they appreciate it all as just a part of me. They're the most honest relationships I've made in such a short amount of time. And I am going to miss every single part of that.
And of course living in a medieval French village.... that too.
But for now, that is all. I fly out tomorrow morning, and tonight I'm at a hotel in the city of lights just counting the hours until I get home.
It's like it was all a really good dream.
But, life before that has been crazy. We have so much stuff due this week, travel photos, photo stories and travel journals as well as submissions for Vernissage. We had our last traveling class last week, and we went to Gorge de Oppedette for a few hours and then came back and had a work session.
This week has flown by as well, Monday I took a book making workshop where we learned how to different types of stitches for bindings and how to fold and assemble everything we needed. Tuesday was a full work day for both of my classes, 6 hours of paying attention to small details. Wednesday was critique for travel class, which went pretty well (Thankfully). After that it was just more work. On Thursday it was another work day all day, and then I decided to take a break and watch the new Robin Hood with Becca. We had a kind of early night, just working on our sketchbooks and our projects for class. Yesterday, I got to go to Ikea with Eleanor to get the frame orders for people who didn't get the frames that they needed in our frame lottery. Ikea in general is crazy, so Ikea with everything in French was completely overwhelming. We had lunch there (so good, I had salmon) and then headed back to campus. Everyone else was on another field trip so I had the entire studio to myself and got to print a bunch without anyone around. From there it was dinner and a few drinks down at the cafe and then a long night after that.
