Ah Bonjour!!!

Last night a few of Lynda's friends came over and we hung out on the porch drinking wine with cassis, Chartruse, and 'vodka pomme' and eating chips and salsa, peanuts, and sausage. Who knew vodka and apple juice could be a good drink? I met her friends Fattia, Delphine and Julien. They are so cool, we had an awesome time last night. Delphine loves the English language, particularly that of the Irish variety. She spent some time in Ireland a few years ago, and now when she speaks English, it's with a French/Irish accent. Julien also speaks English, and tried to talk to me about the States. He kept talking about Colorado and Colorado Springs, assuming I knew all about it. He was funny. Fattia speaks German and Arabic, and little English. She spoke to me in a mixture of French and German and I understood almost all of it! It really was just a great night.

Next week we are having a barbeque at Lynda's with her friends and my friends. I mentioned last night that I am leaving next Friday night at 10pm to catch my train to Lyon. It was the first time I had said that out loud. For the first time last night, I had serious pangs of sadness when I thought of leaving Grenoble. It hit me after Delphine, Julien and Fattia left last night that I was at home. Just Lynda and me, little apartment in an Alpine French city. It's home. I am going to miss it so much. I bet none of you thought you'd hear me say this (unless you're Big Bro Ry and know better than I do), but six weeks is not long enough. I don't want to leave yet! That's not to say I don't want to come home - I do. But it's going to be sad. I know I'll be back to Grenoble soon. It has become home #3 behind Dayton and Madison.

Today in class we talked about the first underground French story published during WWII. It was fairly interesting, I didn't want to kill myself from boredom, so that's a good sign. Randomly toward the end of the class Mireille was mid-sentence writing something on the white board, when all of a sudden she yells, "AH, BONJOUR!" Everyone in the class was confused - no - stunned. We all looked around at each other and stifled giggles. When she turned back around to face us, she acted as if it was totally normal. It was strange. I need to find a store that sells headphones. Yesterday my left 'earbud' geeked out on me and no longer produces any sound. My music is now very one-sided, and I think my left ear is getting sad, and my right ear is getting deaf.

Angelina and I went to Oasis for lunch today and had some really good Greek-like veggie salads. Delicieux! Tonight some people are talking about going out - I think it's a good idea because I haven't been out in over a week. Weird!

I am leaving tomorrow morning for Brussels, I get back to Grenoble Sunday, and after that I have only five days until I head to the U S of A. Where did this summer go? I'll see you in nine days. A plus tard!