A Little List

Bonjour!

Today is a wonderful day because, as of today, I have 100 days left in France. That seems like such a small number compared to the 278 days I started with.

I thought it would be fun to share with you a list of all the things I'm looking forward to when I get back to America. Let's begin!

-English (of course.)
-Family
-Cedar family
-Friends
-My kids
-Book stores with English books
-Journals in book stores
-Pedicures
-Miracle Whip
-Baking (in a kitchen I'm comfortable in.)
-Jimmy John's
-Driving (Oh My Goodness, yesss.)
-Hair appointments (I can't wait to color my hair again!)
-Coffee Creamer (Although I'm getting used to black coffee.)
-Shoe shopping
-Reese's (I'm dying. Thank you Zane, Mom, and Vanessa for getting me through this.)
-Dr. Pepper
-Mountains
-Road trips (See: Driving.)
-Magazines (in English.)
-Grocery store baggers
-Stores open on Sundays (Seriously.)
-A normal school schedule
-Sharpies
-Dollars
-Front yards
-Gym membership
-Church on Sunday (and my kids.)
-Spicy food (Jalapeños!)
-Milk (Normal, refrigerated milk.)
-Jamba Juice
-Panda Express

I realize that many of these things are food related and maybe that says something about me, but food is necessary for life and life is better when you can eat the food you love.

As for the others, they are just little things that I realize that I have missed about America. Not really anything big, just small things that I took for granted about the US. Not every country operates the way we do and that's ok (although I think our way is the better way).

In other news, we are on our way to London today. I went to the UK while in high school, but I'm definitely a different person now than I was then. It'll be fun to experience it again. We've got a few exciting things planned, but I'll tell you all about it next week.

I think what I'm most excited for is being in a place were I can finally understand what everyone is saying and not having to ask them to repeat things in English. It will be absolutely refreshing and I'm afraid that I'm not going to want to go back to Poitiers! (Seriously, my countdown is keeping me sane right now.)

This week I got to play in a volleyball tournament with a few other kids from my school. We got fourth place (and I'm not going to say how many teams were there!). We actually played together really well by the end of the night. It was so much fun to compete. Thank you Coach Satty for always encouraging us to talk because here in France, it is so silent on the court except for me (who is yelling everything in English in a gym full of French speakers). It drives me nuts.

Today Joe, Lizette, and I were invited to present our university to the French students at FBS. They are all required to do some sort of study abroad, and I think SUU is a wonderful place for them to go. So hopefully we represented our school well enough to get an foreign student or two.

I know I started the blog with excitement at the prospect of coming home soon, but every time I look at "100 days" I almost sigh. It's been such a great year so far, and I'm not sure I'm ready to leave Europe behind. Thankfully, I've still got time left here, and thankfully I get to go home soon. (So many mixed feelings!)

Here's to the next 100 days.

Je t'embrasse,
Sarah