hard to believe it's been a whole week.

This week has flown! I've updated my picasa album with more pictures... you can check it out here.

I'm starting to make French friends, which is very exciting. My host-bro and his girlfriend are super-nice and have been inviting me out with them. It's so good to have French friends like them who are willing to speak slowly enough and/or repeat things so that I can stay on top of the conversation :-)

My classes start next week. I'm still not entirely sure what my schedule will be, since I registered for more classes than I will eventually take. I'll be able to sit in on all the classes during the first week, then decide which ones to keep. Although I'm sort of dreading the start of class since it means I'll have less free time to spend with friends and to explore the city, I'm excited to experience the French educational system and to get back into academics. I may also be taking yoga through the university (!) which would be very exciting.. we'll see.

Tonight, after dinner, I had a long conversation with my host-mom's copain, Sol, which covered topics including my family heritage, the Columbian exposition in Chicago, Glenn Beck, what I should do in Barcelona when I visit, and banana bread (which apparently doesn't exist here). Talking to Sol is great because he's very interesting, but it's also exhausting because he's a stickler for grammar and always corrects my errors... that's definitely a good thing, too, but still fatiguing for me. Fortunately, though, I can feel my language skills improving every day.

Now, off to bed. OH and if you would like to send me snail-mail, let me know and I will send you my address... and if you'd like a postcard from France, give me yours as well! :-)