Day Twenty One ~ Thursday, May 16

A relatively early start today, but not too bad. Breakfast was between 8 and 8:30. Again, a little less than it had been a couple days before, but we did get crepes this time.
We left a little late again, right around 9:15. The hike really wasn’t that bad. We made it to the hotel between 11:15 a.m. and 11:30. We were in our rooms by 11:45 because I was sound asleep by 11:50.
I got up shortly before 12:30 to join everyone for lunch, which was especially bomb. We had multiple meats and enough cheese for all of us to have 3 kinds. We had “Guac”, tomatoes, and other greens. It was all great.
After lunch we had time to go out into the town. I joined Chandller, Sean J., Stephanie, Cindy and Natalie in going to the café with the amazing macaroons that Chandller was swearing by. Each bite was crunchy, foamy and chewy all in one. Delicious! I also had a pecan pie. Yum!
After dessert we went shopping for a bit. Chandller was looking at some clean clothes for the flight home. I stopped to get a poster of the peak of Mont Blanc. Then we made our way back to the hotel. Blaine was out most of the afternoon with the only key to our room, so I slept just outside the door for a while.
Dinner was just spectacular. There was a bit of attitude from the chefs, which was irritating, but I think we were all just hungry and so after being full and having a couple people make sure everything was alright with me, I easily wrote it off as emotions being emotions.
Evening program was a great reflection about our time in France by means of roses and thorns. I reflected on my emotional meltdown and once again got tremendous support just like the other night. Seriously, thanks again everyone.
Evening program also covered a recurrence of our hopes and fears in a hat, from our second night in Europe. It’s amazing to think about how far we’ve come, about how many of our hopes we’ve achieved, and how many of our fears we’ve overcome.
The rest of the evening was filled with ice cream for dessert, and good “riddle games” such as “stinky pinky”, “green glass door” and “black magic.” There was a lot of laughter tonight. Our group has truly come an inspiring distance in bonding together.
Thank you for the awesome memories guys. You’re the best. Seriously.

-Joseph Bruner