Alright, time to get back into the swing of things here. I know I FAYULED big time during my semester in Spain with the blogs I was supposed to be writing. So here´s to a new year and trying to do better. There won´t be that many simply because we´re working with a less than perfect internet connection so we´ll see how long I keep this up.
Last minute thoughts on Spain: I met so many amazing people who I now consider some of my closest friends. The stuff we went through and shared together is amazing. It´s crazy how close you can get to someone in a matter of months. I miss every person I went with so much, and not seeing them every day for hours on end is one of the strangest things to go through. I saw a lot of amazing places, not as many as I should have, which I regret a little bit, but the places I did see were well worth it. Spain was an experience that I don´t have enough words for, I learned so much, not just about Spanish, but about life as well, it reinforced some ideas I had, completely destroyed others, and created new ones I´d never thought of before. I´ve definitely grown as a person from that experience and I hope it continues on in France.
I can now say that I've slept in a train station, and that my first 12 hours of France were spent memorizing the waiting room in the Charles de Gaulle airport train station. My flight over, was ok, not as great as the trip to Spain, but it wasn't the worst I've ever had. There were no problems, no lost luggage, no delays, nothing to make me worry about whether or not this journey was screwed like the rest of the planning stages of this trip. I have found out that I love train traveling, it's pretty phenomenal.
My host family is great, I get along with them so much better than my last family, which is a relief, and I get vegetables here. That along with having a dog here makes me believe my family here is full of saints. If I had the vocabulary to describe how happy both of these things make me, it'd take about 17 pages and everything would be in capitals with plenty of exclamation points. Part of my excitement might also be from the fact that the dog is a Bichon-Friese (which is basically just a tiny poodle, and I don't even care if it's spelled right), and that's a pretty stereotypical French dog. And if you know me, you know how much I love a good stereotype coming true.
My host dad is hysterical, and actually talks to me, which is a bit of a difference from my last one, he makes sure I understand what he's saying, and he tells the best jokes. My host sister is nine and she's so excited to spend time with me, it's a great feeling. She loves helping me with my French, and it's nice to have a living dictionary around to help me study. She's also one of the sweetest kids I've ever met, and she talks so fast!! But I already feel like I can understand French better, and I've only been here 24 hours, just don't ask me how my speaking fares. Coming from Spain has made me horrible at French, in the 24 hours I've been here, I've replied at least 10 times in Spanish when my host family asks me a question, then I have to pause for 5 minutes until I can figure out how to say it in French. But they work with me, and I actually feel comfortable here.
The only downsides that I've discovered so far, are that I have to take showers at night (which isn't so bad, it's just that no one will see me with my hair down), and that I can't walk to school because it's a bit too far to make it in under 30 minutes, and I like sleep, so...yea. I also think that I have school on Friday's, which makes me want to cry, because I'm not used to actually having real school schedules after Spain. I'm planning on traveling a lot, starting this weekend. So we'll see how that goes, and whether or not I have to cry home to mom about finding some extra living money somewhere. I'm really starting to think that France is going to be a better time than Spain was. Which is exciting considering how much I enjoyed it in hindsight.
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