Last days in Paris

I cannot believe how much can happen in only one week. I thought my last entry would be the ultimate entry, nothing to add to that conclusion. –Yet, in one week so many things can happen…

So after having praised Paris and the life in France so much, I will need to come to some downsides.

1. I am very sad that I got robbed 4 days before my departure. Someone came into my room and stole all my jewelry, not that they are worth a lot, but they had a lot of personal importance to me. Some were from by Dad… I cannot believe that someone on campus of a Grande Ecole needs to steel something. Where is your dignity, guys?!
I’ve always been nice to people and tried to see the best in every person, and now, do I need to start mistrusting the world, because I got stolen once? I’ve been asking this myself. Of course, I won’t start mistrusting everyone, but it still pisses me off that they are people in this world who do stupid like that.

2. I’ve had the worst hang over in my entire life. There was the last last laaaast POW ( I mean it, it was the last one!!!) and so we girls decided to get really drunk. Starting preprepowing in my room, moving on to the prepow and finally ending at the actual POW we cussoned the whole night.
Man, the next morning was sooo horrible, I wanted to die, for real… I vomited every hour and felt terrible! It took me 10 hours to sober up, and guys, believe me I’M NEVER DRINKING AGAIN (well, for the next couple of weeks!)

3. Still haven’t understood the French male world…

4. So after saying good-bye to Nicole, she returned to me in the end  Yea, thanks for missing your flight! (After she left the first time, I had to buy three dresses, spent so much money in order to compensate her loss and yet it could not fill up the emptiness of my heart, haha – the dresses are reeeeeaaally nice tho!!!!;) )


I’m leaving in some hours from Gare de l’Est. Although there were some downsides this week, I still had a great time in Paris. We had a picnic at the Champ de Mars, we chilled at the Seine and enjoyed the sun. Everyone, who hasn’t been here before –COME TO PARIS!

So this is definitely my last entry in France.

For all of you who haven’t left – have a save trip back home.


Love, Christine

In the end...

My exchange semester is almost over and it is time now to reflect over the past 4 months.

When I first came here, I did not like it here. I didn't like the campus, I didn't like JJ and I could not identify myself with most of the people here. I had a hard time adjusting to this new lifestyle and I missed home which was really paradox, since I was actually so eager to get away from it
- I guess, when humans are being thrown into a new environment and life, they are just still attached to their old life, since it is something they know and feel secure about - although the old life was really miserable. Anyways.

4 months changed everything.

I chose my courses wisely, so I had most of my time off. This put me into a new situation - I've never had NOTHING to do. In my last past 4 or 5 years, I only knew working, doing five things simulatenously, organizing my life with various calendars to be more efficient and sleeping only little in order to work even more.
Having nothing to do, virtually nothing - no exams, no homework or no reports to write was something I had not experienced in so long - and at first I didn't like it at all. For the first time in such a long period, I was confronted with a thing I forgot it even existed - boredom.

So I began wasting time.
and maaaan how it feels good to just spend time on things like watching all episodes of Gossip Girl, Heroes and How I Met Your Mother. How it just feels good to start the day at 12 p.m. and to do only sports afterwards. How it just feels great to lie in the sun for the whole afternoon being lazy and listening to music (and get a tan!!!!yeah:) ). How it just feels good to just sleep out of boredom - how it feels amazing to just relax and chill.
It took me a while to adjust to this new way of life, but I really start to like it a lot ( I hope I can change this laziness when I get back to Munich ;) ). It is the deserved long holiday I needed so badly after having worked non-stop the past time. It definately charged up my batteries and I feel so energetic and vital now that I could jump around like a little kid. (It also helped a lot to sleep 11 hours every day....;) )

I am very happy.

I am happy spending time with all the wonderful people here on campus. I got to know and love them. At first I thought I could not relate to them and they were boring. But I came to the realization, that each and every person on this campus is very very interesting (thanks to the hard application process to get into HEC!) and has his or her unique story of life to tell.
I met people who were very diverse and smart, who could impress me and with whom I could relate to. For example I met people, who could speak 7 languages fluently, people who spoke Chinese nearly perfectly (thats very hard for foreigners!), people who studied at Stanford and Harvard, people who are studying at HEC and other Grandes écoles at the same time, people who mastered in various sports, in various instruments and people thinking about deep stuff and the world and had the same views about things like me. How enriching it was spending time with them.

I love Paris.
The city is so marvellous and superb. I love every aspect of this city and I'm in love with its people and its language. It is a dream to come back and work here for a period of time.

So as a conclusion I can say that these 4 months were probably one of the best experiences I had in my life. It gave me back my energy and motivation. It showed me once again how many different and interesting people there are in this world.
I had a really wonderful time here.


I have a bit more than a week left.
I enjoy every moment that I have left, living only in the present, forgetting about the past or the future.

Only in the present you can feel entirely fulfilled and happy.



Some last impressions: