One month to go !

Bonjour!

Wow time is flying by! I officially have a month left until I see my family in Germany and I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. It's almost been 4 months that I've been here and it feels as if just yesterday I was on a plane all nervous and scared to be living alone in a whole new culture. 

Looking back at who I was on the plane makes me realize how much I have changed now. Not in a bad way of course, but I have become so much more knowledgeable of the world around me and I see my life in a whole different way. I am so much more thankful and positive now, because here in France, especially at the beginning, tiny things would make me extremely happy. Even being able to complete a sentence in french would make my day at the beginning! I've become a stronger, more responsible, mature, grown up girl in a short 4 months. AND I'm now fluent in three languages!! Being an exchange student was the best decision I have ever made in my life, but it was also the hardest. Things are much easier now, but at the beginning things were extremely difficult at times. Being so far away from home, all alone, in a different culture, forcibly changes you. And I am thankful for the new outlook I have on life and myself now.

Anyways, I have been very busy as usual these past weeks. France has a new president! These last two weeks France has been extremely busy with elections. The new presidents name is Francois Hollande. He is from the socialist party and he won with 51% against the old president, Nicolas Sarkozy. Some french people are excited, while others say France is doomed. It's been interesting hearing many different opinions! French politics oddly interest me a lot these days.

These past two weeks I was on vacation, and this last Monday I started school again. Vacation was awesome! The first week, my beautiful friend Courtney came to visit me. While she was here we went to Monaco, Cannes, Ville Franche, and we explored Nice. We did some shopping and we ate out at some lovely restaurants. It was great seeing her after two months! 

                                  Mika, Mariana, Timour and I on the way to the zoo.

During the last week of vacation, I took a train up to Toulon with Mariana and stayed with some friends from AFS. It was extremely fun! We went to the zoo, we cooked, stayed up late, watched movies, and talked. I also went wine tasting and to a rugby game with Mariana. It was my first rugby game and it was crazy! So loud and so much emotion filled the crowd! I had a lovely vacation, and now I only have a month left until I see my family! I'm excited to see my family and travel some of Europe, but I'm very sad I'll be having to say goodbye here soon. This experience has been life changing so far, and it's sad to see how fast it's going by. 

Au Revoir !!