I attended the annual “American University Club Cocktail Party” at the pimped-out Parisian mansion of the US Ambassador’s house. Eager for a romantic prospect to pop up in the form of a dashing young diplomat with a British accent, Italian sartorial sense, Parisian address, and American education, I ended up surrounded by a lot of priggish lawyers and their skirt-suit-wearing dates — who were probably also lawyers.

While chatting with a semi-drunk French banker who spent a semester studying at a Californian university, I made an offhand comment about the low quality of the champagne at the party. He said, “Wow, you’ve really become Parisian after all.”

I may be leaving Paris in a month to return to America, but I guess Paris’ absurd snobbery rubbed off on me. I am sure I will be cured of it once I taste some delicious American Tex-Mex food and watch the entire season of Gossip Girl that I missed during my time living abroad.

- Haley Hogan

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