...So cliché, yet soon, my heart will be (partially) in France. The prospect of my dad moving out here to start up his new job in less than one month and coming for a visit in one week is a very, very exciting one! With that comes more visits from my other family members.
Here's a map of where he'll be living, that's Geneva, Switzerland to the northeast and Lyon, France to the west. Hope you bring some warm clothes, Dad :-)
Although he'll be about 5 hours northeast of me by car and 7 by train, it just opens so many more doors! He and I can travel to fun places one weekend a month. He can make his way down here and pick me up to visit our family and family friends near Toulon. I can go out there and experience life on the French/Swiss border! And did I mention I'll get to see my family on multiple occasions during the next seven months?!
Obviously, you can tell I'm getting pretty homesick. Now that the excitement of travel has certainly dwindled and even come to a lull, I'm left dreaming about the next school vacation in about a month and a half.
Don't get me wrong, everything here is still fun and different, but I'm starting to get into a routine that doesn't quite meet the expectations I originally had for France. But this weekend does hold the promise of meeting some local French boys. I'm meeting Ludo to go out on Saturday night, and perhaps I'll be having dinner with Sarah and her neighbor's friends just before that. If I can get into a groove and begin speaking French more frequently than I hardly am doing now, I'll start to feel better about things. Actually going back to teaching has helped me a little because it's forcing me to speak French since the little ones don't understand much English at all. It's better (as far as learning the language is concerned) than being on vacation with other Americans speaking only English together!
Oh and one thing I really missed about home was Grey's Anatomy! I can't watch it on ABC.com here, because those bastards have blocked free access for anyone outside of the U.S. But suddenly it dawned on me last night to full-out illegally download episodes through a file-sharing service. Like we used to do in the dorms when we missed out on our favorite shows. And it actually worked!! I've got the first three episodes of the new season on my computer and tonight ABC is airing Episode No. 6... so I'm not too far behind! Plus, I'm sticking it to the man (I've never said that and being a moderate-conservative, never really wanted to until right now... must be the liberal European sentiment winning me over) by illegally downloading a show they refuse to let me watch for free online. If I was back at home or still in college, I could watch on ABC.com to my little heart's content, so they're not really losing out on a future customer. I have every intention of legitimately watching once I return home.
Anyways, I'm hoping I made the right decision to be here for nine months.
Obviously, you can tell I'm getting pretty homesick. Now that the excitement of travel has certainly dwindled and even come to a lull, I'm left dreaming about the next school vacation in about a month and a half.
Don't get me wrong, everything here is still fun and different, but I'm starting to get into a routine that doesn't quite meet the expectations I originally had for France. But this weekend does hold the promise of meeting some local French boys. I'm meeting Ludo to go out on Saturday night, and perhaps I'll be having dinner with Sarah and her neighbor's friends just before that. If I can get into a groove and begin speaking French more frequently than I hardly am doing now, I'll start to feel better about things. Actually going back to teaching has helped me a little because it's forcing me to speak French since the little ones don't understand much English at all. It's better (as far as learning the language is concerned) than being on vacation with other Americans speaking only English together!
Oh and one thing I really missed about home was Grey's Anatomy! I can't watch it on ABC.com here, because those bastards have blocked free access for anyone outside of the U.S. But suddenly it dawned on me last night to full-out illegally download episodes through a file-sharing service. Like we used to do in the dorms when we missed out on our favorite shows. And it actually worked!! I've got the first three episodes of the new season on my computer and tonight ABC is airing Episode No. 6... so I'm not too far behind! Plus, I'm sticking it to the man (I've never said that and being a moderate-conservative, never really wanted to until right now... must be the liberal European sentiment winning me over) by illegally downloading a show they refuse to let me watch for free online. If I was back at home or still in college, I could watch on ABC.com to my little heart's content, so they're not really losing out on a future customer. I have every intention of legitimately watching once I return home.
Anyways, I'm hoping I made the right decision to be here for nine months.
...Did I do the right thing to sign up for the nine-month program instead of seven? Most of my friends leave in May, but I'll still be around after. Hopefully by then I'll be much more accustomed to living by then and already have friends here to keep me busy! So far I'm content, it just is a lot of work to go from day-to-day here!
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