5 pages away from departure.

I'm going to take a brief break from my Renaissance Final paper to update this sucker. Sofar I have 6 pages written (so 2-4 pages left there). Beyond that, I have a little under a page left of my French final, then I'll be home free. Mostly. I still need to print out and mail the letters for the libraries, but that won't be a problem. C'est facile.

As of today, there are only 8 days left until Cait and I leave for France. Very surreal, as I have been counting down since there were oh, 190 days or something. I'm crazy, what can I say. I talked to Mike briefly today, apparently he googled my host family and Cait and I will be living in essentially the center of historic Avignon. Mind you, I'm pretty sure everything in France is historic compared to the United States, but whatever.

I'm so happy that he's excited that I'm coming. I can't wait to meet him again. I mean, I met him when I was eight, bien sûr, but that really doesn't count. Especially since I spoke *zero* French. In planning my study-aboad/summer in France, I never even remotely imagined it'd turn out this well. Honestly, I expected to spend more time with Marie-Hélène and Gérard compared to Mike, Jean-Pierre and Maïté, like the last time I was there.

I sent Marie, Delphine and Mike all emails saying I was coming, fully expecting to spend amounts of time with them in that order, since I knew Marie, then Delphine better. I definitely never expected to talk to Mike as much as I do and definitely didn't expect him to be so excited about my coming to visit. I've gone from hoping I'd get to see him while I'm there, to having him pick me up at the airport in Marseille, going to see several concerts with him in Marseille/Montpellier, and then, after I'm done with my research/our trip to Italy, spending a month and a half either hanging out in Miramas or Eyragues or voyaging around Europe. I'm so excited. It's very cool for me, because he's kind of turning into a big-brother type person, which I've always kind of wanted. Example, today he told me he wanted to introduce me to one of his friends who lives in Avignon, in case I have any problems, because his friend could be there faster than he could. Probably unnecessary as we have Christophe, but still very cool. I think that knowing he's nearby has definitely made me a lot less nervous about picking up and moving to a foreign country for 5 months.

Anyways, I should probably finish this stupid final. After tomorrow, I never want to think about Edmund Spenser or The Faerie Queene again... or at least for awhile. I also have my interview tomorrow w/ Dr. Duvert to be the 200-level French tutor next year... I had the one for the 100-level w/ Prof. Moretti-Coski last night, so hopefully one of them pans out. We'll see!

Alrighty... here I go. Back to the Protestant Elect.