Dear world,

Dear world and everyone who speaks English,

I MISS YOU!

Right now I am craving contact with family and friends. Access to Facebook on this computer is forbidden. But I can not complain. This place is so beautiful!

The town is really small, but I have made so many new friends! Including some young French professors my age. My brain hurts from thinking in French all the time. The three other people who speak English here and I have all agreed to only talk in French here.

Here is what I have been up to:

-Breaking and entering into my school. I came home at 4 in the morning alone and I tried for an hour to get my key to work in the gate. But it wouldn't work. I had to scqle an 8 foot concrete wall! I guess doing 50 pushups everyday all summer long finally came in handy. It turns out the key was poorly made and they finally gave me a new one.

-No luggage for a week. The airline lost my luggage and I finally got my luggage just a few hours ago. Yay for cleqn clothes!

-Tried to do laundry. So I had only the clothes on my back right? I tried to wash my clothes in the sink. I thought they would dry if I let them dry outside overnight. But it rained. Owning no other clothing, I walked two miles in drenched mildew clothing to buy new clothing.

-Hung out in downtown Paris all night long all by myself. October 2nd. Nuit Blanche. Once a year all the museums in Paris are open for free allll night long! All that artwork was intense. Originally other people were supposed to come with me but for one reason or another everyone went back to their lycees and I stayed behind not wanting to miss something like that.

-Did not get lost! My town is so small that it is impossible to get lost. I live on the very top of the hill with a very bequtiful view of the city. Uphill is home. Down is the river. So if I ever feel slightly confused, all I hqve to do is simply walk uphill.

-Had an article written about me
http://www.courrier-picard.fr/courrier/Actualites/Info-regionale/Une-Americaine-en-Picardie

New statistics:

Days since leaving home = 10ish
Number of times lost = 0
Number of new French friends = too many too count. This week I am scheduled to have dinner with 5...
Number of times to Paris so far: Twice
Tourist attractions visited: Sacre Coeur, Amiens, museums in Paris, war monuments and graveyard in Chateu Thierry
The thing that has surprised me the most so far: How busy I am, everything is such a blur... how people over here don't smile a lot yet how well people respond to it... how patient everyone is with me learning French... how terrified and nervous my French students are of speaking English in front of me - just like I am afraid of speaking French... It's just like you can't be self conscious at all you just have to go for it and learn as you go
My favorite thing so far: Being completely surrounded by non English. NO ONE speqks English in this small cozy town. It is a completely different world.
Least favorite thing so far: Not being able to communicate. Sometimes I will be having a really awesome conversation but then I get completely stuck at the language banguage barrier - especially when I am making new friends and trying to connect with people and something just get lost in translation.

Okay time for bed and I cannot wait to talk with everyone! xoxo cassie