Sans poile

So yesterday, I had a Brazilian wax. It was the first time that I had ever had any kind of wax, and I have to say that it hurt way less than I was expecting it to. I mean, it hurt a little, but no more than having my eyebrows threaded. It was just a bit of pinching, a couple brief moments of pain, and then it was over. Totally worth it. In fact, I was in such good shape after that I thought about having my legs and underarms waxed too, but the hair wasn't long enough, so I abandoned the idea.

Also yesterday, my French mother cooked dinner again--quiche, OMG SO GOOD, even if she did have to use American ingredients, which meant no lardons, no creme fraiche, and no gruyere. (Side note: when I first moved to France I referred to the gruyere as Swiss cheese because it had holes in it, and my French family thought I was crazy. They firmly corrected me and informed me that gruyere is French, and then they picked up a piece of bread with a hole in it and asked, "Is this Swiss bread?")

After dinner our other guests from France came over for coffee, so it was a big French-speaking party in our living room. It was kind of awesome. It was great to see them all interact. I'm so used to translating for my French family when they meet people I know--so it was lovely to watch everyone get to chat in their own language and to be able to sit back and just listen and participate in the conversation without having to serve as an interpreter.

And yesterday, my office threw me a surprise bridal shower. It was so trickily done--I met with my boss for my end-of-year appraisal, and she suggested we take a walk, and I figured that it was so that we could talk about things without other people hearing, and then she led me into a conference room all decorated with purple ribbon and my entire department was there and they all yelled, "Surprise!" And there was a purple cake and a big bouquet of flowers and a gift card. And it was amazing and I almost burst into tears because I was so touched.

Today is my last day in the office, and I'm even leaving early. So as of 4 p.m. today, the relaxing and the concentrating on getting married can begin. Tomorrow there will be one last post as a single girl, and then--EEEEEEEEEEE MARRIED.