first and foremost...

Sooo, I decided since I have this thing now (p.s. I will not be using the word "blog" because Annie and I have decided it's nerdy), I should start writing in it to get into a good routine. I'm sitting here on vacation in Maine, and to tell the truth, going to Toulouse still seems like some far off, distant thing that I know I'm doing, but not any time soon. Oh but wait, actually I'm leaving in exactly 12 days. Scaaaaaaaaaaaaary. And I needed a good way to keep people updated, and Jason got this journal thing, so I thought I'd copy and get one too.

Just a little background on what I'm actually doing: I'll be studying in Toulouse, France at the Dickinson College study center for the 05-06 school year. I'll be taking one class at the Dickinson Center, and then some unknown number of classes at the University of Toulouse 1 (UT1), which is for social sciences. I'll be living with a family, the Marfaing family, who have two little girls, Alix and Manon, who are 6 and 8, but I don't remember who is what age. I have a little "bungalow" in the back of their house, with its own bathroom, which will be my home for the next year. I've seen pictures, and it looks very nice, so that's exciting and much different from a dorm! And I guess the thing that I am absolutely terrified about right now is just the whole language barrier thing, which is huuuuuge. Especially after not having spoken french for the entire summer, I'm probably going to be in pretty bad shape when I get to Toulouse. I'm imagining myself in the airport getting picked up by my family and not understanding a word they are saying. Oh well, there's nothing I can do at this point except hope they speak just a teeeeny bit of english. That would be greaaaat.

I guess that's all for now, so make sure you all leave comments on my incredibly exciting entries. And I'll try to put a lot of pictures. ;-)

Au revoir!