i still feel like i'm at camp

i haven't settled in yet. it's not a bad thing...i just still feel like i'm at camp, and i only have a few days left, so i better enjoy it all.

but this is it. the eiffel tower, the museums, the baguettes, the adorable french kids, the metro...this is life until christmas (!!!). i have a feeling that, when it hits me, i'll be frightened and homesick. i'll tell you when it does, but for now...i've been too busy and happy to miss home too much.

this experience has already made me miss the ease and comfort of home/sb though. there, i have it all figured out. a guy from aup (sam, who led our paris by night bus tour after taking 5 shots and downing a few gulps of wine) was talking about the clubs/publications/student gov't activities you can get involved in, and that was when i realized that i acutally set up a pretty sweet life for myself back in sb. i've got the nexus (love and miss you!) and i've got ambitions to do other things on campus. i've got beautiful friends and i'm in a major i love. really, it won't be a difficult life to return to.

i'm getting more comfortable with living where i don't know what people are saying 79% of the time. when i first arrived 6 days ago (shit, only 6?), i was shaking in my boots. i couldn't read any signs at the airport and anybody who spoke french sounded like they were speaking a million miles a minute. now, i can listen to the conversations and catch the words, even i don't know what they mean. i can read the signs at the museums/metro stations/food places and get the general meaning. OH and mme jeanson had our first french conversation! it was liberating...it gave me confidence to speak in french. that's what i'm really lacking.

oh, and we had GREAT cheap wine before the bus ride tonight. we had to drink it out of a boot on the bus because the bus driver didn't want us to have it, but it was very fun (sorry mom and dad!). check out the pictures on fbook.

tomorrow we're going to try walking to school across the seine. mallory, chris and i are awful at directions. julia's coming, so i hope she's better. if not...well, i guess we can't get lost. school is right by the eiffel tower. thank goodness that thing is huge.