Les vacances de Pâques

I find it amusing that in a country renowned for its secularism in all other aspects of life, my school still refers to spring break as the "Easter holidays". Go figure.

Whatever you choose to call it, we had our mid-semester break last week. Before I talk about the break itself, I would pause on this point for a moment. It's important for a few reasons. First, it is a very clear reminder that my time in Paris is halfway over, and I know that the second half is going to fly by even faster than the first. I have midterms this week (but I'm trying not to think about, let alone write about, that right now); my friend RM is visiting from St. Petersburg this weekend; I'm going to Barcelona the weekend after that; and then it will be May already. Crazy.

Even crazier, I realized this afternoon that while I am halfway through my semester, most of my friends at home are almost finished with theirs. Georgetown's classes end next week. All of my senior friends are getting ready for graduation, and everyone else is counting down the days until summer vacation. This is another, different kind of reminder that I chose to be in a very different place right now. I don't feel sad about it...in fact, I don't really feel any kind of strong emotion, just a mild sense of surprise and recognition.

And on that pensive note, I will begin the retelling of my spring break adventures. As a quick overview, I took a 10 day trip to Nice, France, and Florence and Rome, Italy. I'll write a separate entry for each location, rather than one epic post...