Buerre

Today is day one of my four day vacation from classes. The majority of people from school hit the road for elsewhere, but I decided to stick around here. 1.) Because it's bound to add up to a lot of money that I don't need to spend and 2.) I plan to use the time to apply to grad school. (cross your fingers)
Classes have been tough, so I'm welcoming the break away. I was slammed with an exam in every class this week. The election, combined with that made for a really long week.

This morning, I woke up to this terrible screeching sound. Madame's handy man was using a drill to install one of those metal bars that you often see beneath a door. (I think it's job is to hold down carpet so you don't trip.) I kind of wish someone warned me that he was coming or that perhaps he could have put my room at the end of list of tend to's.

I'm kind of blown away by the fact that it's November already. Time has been bizarre because on one hand it feels as though I have been here forever, but hardly at the same time. The other day while I was grabbing something from the fridge, I noticed there was this package of butter. It was a store brand so it was really simple in design. It was one solid color and just said "Buerre" in large letters. It reminded me of when I first started studying French we had a book we had was really colorful and had little drawings of familiar objects with a french word written beneath them to help us learn the vocabulary. I specifically remember one of these sections was food and I made flashcards with things like bananas and milk on them to remember the words. It was just another one of those moments where I stopped and reflected "Yeah, you really are in France right now."
Sometimes I get so frustrated with my French. I know I've made some progress since I've been here, but I'm nowhere near fluent. That's something that's going to take years. People at home ask me all of the time how my French is coming along and when I tell them, they don't believe me. "Yeah, right, Caitlin. You're probably so good by now," when they weren't here to see me stutter my way through my day. This is really, really hard for me. I have always learned more slowly than everyone else and my short term memory is really awful despite being a journalist (that's why I write EVERYTHING down.) Learning this language is the hardest thing I've ever done and I have so far to go. I'll be so proud of myself when it finally happens.

Homesickness has been a funny thing. In the first month, I don't think I had any at all. But, by the end of the second month, I went from a few small pings of it, to a full out homesickness. I think it was Halloween that really brought it on.
It comes in rashes, not lasting terribly long. I've heard that homesickness usually hits people living in a different culture after two months and after nine, the person never wants to leave again. I love France, I am so lucky to be here and I know that I'll have a hard time when it's time to go, especially since I have made some good friends here, so I feel so stupid when I start to feel that way.

Brandon sent me some movies and a postcard in the mail recently! Copies of two of my favorite movies "School of Rock" and "The Science of Sleep" arrived earlier this week. I was exciting to receive some mail from home.

Frank invited me to come to DC for Obama's inauguration in January and I really want to go! I've got so much stuff to figure out.