Omg. Who would have believed it, I'm still alive! I am feeling SO much better this week! My host parents are leaving tomorrow morning for the weekend, so I'm effectively spending it by myself. Kinda. Tomorrow afternoon me and the girls are going out to see a movie and do some shopping!! Fun stuff. I'm missing some American things (McDonalds anyone? and walmart?) not to mention my family and friends of course. It has been sunnier the last few days which has been nice, and a little warmer too. However, I don't expect it to last long. I went to a couple bookstores the other day and that was nice too. I'm still somewhat anxiously waiting to come home, but in the meantime I'm perfectly content to be here and work on my French, see new places, and do some new things. (Not to mention eat lots of things I've never eaten before in my LIFE). The down side is come the end of the semester I'll have TONS of homework to do. I'll have something like 4 papers of widely varying lengths to write plus exams. Fun stuff. Kevin (our director here) says come about Thanksgiving is when students start to get really depressed and frustrated with the culture, French, homework, etc. And in my head I'm like: "fantastic. I get to be depressed for my birthday!" But Kevin says those who make the best of it come out strong and wanting to stay and those who don't can only think about getting on the plane back home. I'm hoping to sincerely come out for the best, but even if I thought about staying the rest of the year I'm not, and I definitely am not going to change my mind. Especially with the economy being so bad worldwide, I'm going to want to be home with a job. Maybe I can come out as a little mix of both?