Packed

Salut,

so I've just finished packing for 10 months, and oh my god I thought it would never end, but fortunately it has. I'm eternally grateful to be finished after 5 days of running around my house pulling out clothes, extra toiletries, art supplies, etc. and making list after list of reminders. Today I stuffed them all into my apple green suitcase and one other little one with much frustration and back pain. Then I measured them on the bathroom scale and they are both, thank goodness, under 50 lbs. If they get lost I'm screwed because they hold basically all the clothes I own, and I'll be wearing the same two outfits for the days it takes them to find and ship it. Not to mention the fact that the little one only has coats basically, so if just one gets lost it better be the little one. Now that the packing part of my preparations is over I don't know what to do with myself! Maybe I'll go eat a hot dog or a hamburger to prepare for leaving the US...

A bientot

e

ONE WEEK

wow its finally here, and I barely know what to do with my self! I've been wanting this for so long, probably about 7 years and now that the time has arrived I feel so out of the moment and out of my body; almost like looking in at the preparations, detached. Well, the preparations are innumerable: Packing, repacking, writing down addresses and phone numbers, and email addresses, visiting friends/family, saying goodbye to the library where I volunteered this summer, planning sleepovers, calls, making cake and pie (mmm), copying recipes and emptying my camera, etc. etc. etc. Things to do keep popping into my head and then I write them down (or forget them!) but I'm making progress. Oh not to mention the fact that tomorrow is my mom's birthday, and my dad's birthday is four days after I leave, so we're planning several birthday bash events, but finding/wrapping gifts is very difficult when the gift receivers don't want to leave for a minute.

Tonight: Tacos! I'm trying to pack in as much new mexican food and chile as I can before I leave. I don't know how I'll survive 10 months without any chili sauce, which is the staple food of my life, along with bread and milk. Tomorrow we are celebrating at the Shed so yay for red chile sauce on blue corn cheese flat enchiladas!!!

I have more journals than I know what to do with, so I guess that means I have to crack down and keep a written log of events this year (can I do it: probably not, but I'll try). Thanks to everyone who gave me a journal Perhaps, thanks to you, I will be able to learn some actual discipline in the art of journal keeping.

Oh, for all those who are reading this and in Nuevo Mexico, my friend, Shanny, just sent me this quote in an email and I love it so I'm going to post it here, sorry if you're not in NM, hang tight ;D..."Poor New Mexico, so far from heaven, so close to Texas..." haha, its perfect, thank you Shanny.

Now on to more news of France. I'll be arriving in France on Friday, and starting school on Monday, not a lot of transition time, but I guess that's nice in a way; I won't have time to let the anxieties build about my language skills, or lack there of. I know next to nothing about my school, or schedule except that it is Catholic and . . . well, that's it. Wish me luck! I know I'll need it.

A bientot,

e a la france

20 days and counting!

We had the party on Sunday. It was a great success, I'm only sorry that a few people couldn't make it! Am taking a break from thank you notes and sticker-ing up my new planner (thanks Megan!). Also packing for my up-coming trip to Colorado with friends. I got these great vintage, only used once, green suitcases, a two-suitcase matching set when we went to truth or consequences last fall, and I haven't had a chance to use those yet so it should be exciting, though I'm only taking one. Oh, I'm also seriously considering going to Prep for the first day of school, as I don't leave until the next day, though I won't have any classes to go to so I'll have to tag along with my friends. we'll see. anyway thats all my exciting news, wow I do live the high life, thank-you notes and project runway in one day phew, so much excitement. more later, a bientot!

Un Mois (1 month)

Now that it is officially less than a month until I leave, I thought I would post something about the last few weeks. I now have a student visa; got rejected once because, of the 25 documents and their copies we sent to LA, we missed one on the never ending list! (ugh, frustrated sigh, ... bureaucracy). Well now that that's over and done with I have everything I need,

1. Adapters
2. Cell phone info (I have decided to get a cheap on-the-go phone once I get there)
3. Skype (?)
4. Umbrella (not needed here in the desert)
5. Packing list (harder than you'd think, 10 months is a long time, but you can't bring too much)
6. a shiny gold debit card
7. and much, much more!

I've been looking for gifts for my host family I have most of them, I really just need one more, but I won't give any specifics here until I have given them out. It seems the closer Aug. 25 gets, the less real this all seems, crazy I know, maybe I've been watching too many twilight zone re-runs!?

LIBRE

I've at last finished my sophomore year at Prep, and can now focus all my attention on France, huzzah! Malheureusement (unfortunately), I still don't have a job because the restaurant I worked in last summer closed. I'll keep looking, never you fear.

A bientot,

e a la france (presque en france)

Map of France with Nord-Pas-de Calais highlighted

Contact

Today I sent my host family an email. I eagerly await their reply. I found the official tourism website of the town Marchiennes. The site is in French so for those of you who can understand click the first link, for all you folks who can't (I had had to translate for maximum comprehension) I've translated it so choose the second link.

ttfn

-e a la france

p.s. I found out its not in Normandy (my dad was wrong) it is in the region called Nord-Pas-de-Calais

http://www.ot-marchiennes.fr/ville/ville.html

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ot-marchiennes.fr%2Fville%2Fville.html&lp=fr_en&btnTrUrl=Translate

a photo of a street in Marchiennes (I didn't take these I found them, they're not mine)

The forest in Marchiennes

Accepted (with family and everything)

Victory!

Today was a momentous day in my abroad experience (and thus in my life): I was simultaneously accepted completely to the program and given a host family. This apparently never happens so quickly, but I guess I got lucky! I will be in a town called Marchiennes close to Lille in Normady. I am very excited! I leave for my Boston orientation August 27th.

more later ttfn

- E a la France (now officially)

my premier post

Hi, 

I started this blog to record my year abroad in France.  I leave in August, and I'll get back the following June.  Let the preparations begin!