ouai ouai

oh hey guys.
well let me first apologize for my slack on updating. i share a computer with three other people so i never want to hog the computer for very long. (and as you all know, a true statement takes time.)

so the long and short of it is that ici en france they play feist and of montreal on the radio, american accents are sex-ee, eating with your hands is a okay, the shops in montpellier are too damn expensive, the bread and the cheese and the wine are... well you know, the montpellier bikes for rent have neon orange bikeshare stripes, its hot as balls all afternoon, the public transport is clean and efficient and its a good thing above all because the driving is homicidal, people have GREAT HAIR, there are a trillion other etrangers (many dutch), everything is just the slightest bit different than back home, there's always someone sitting outside a cafe, nobody smiles to themselves, everyone makes eye contact when making a toast, etc etc etc.

my parents were here this weekend and i went with them to avignon (dig deep into your memory of 10th grade european history) and to other towns in provence. we saw one town called fontaine du vaucluse wherein the sorgue river derives itself from seemingly nowhere underneath this canyon of sorts. it was beautiful and it reminded my parents and i of letchworth state park. then last night my "host mom"/"host friend" florence (who is as charming, loquacious, and welcoming as a foreign students dream host) made us all dinner here in montpellier, and as we ate she told us about how her son's father left when the baby was ten days old, how he survived leukemia at age four, how she loves students and never wants to go to sleep once she starts reading a book, and hearing alll this made me feel so incredibly in awe of her and just the drama of everyday life. then of all feelings it was homesickness that crept up a little.

i miss the comfort of all of you, my favorite people, but more than any one person i just miss the comfort of knowing the language, of understanding every (or almost every) joke i hear and thinking about the subtext of everything instead of just focusing on the words themselves. i play this game alot where i listen to a pair of native speakers speaking french, guess what it is they're saying, and then ask someone to tell me in english. most of the time i end up projecting my feelings onto the words i don't catch (i.e. i thought two girls were talking about how scary it can be to walk alone at night and which routes they take; turns out they were talking about one of their masters theses.) but everyday is a new little adventure, and i'm lucky because i'm learning so, so, so much.

anyway, i have a stack of postcards for errbody but i need to buy some stamps! i need to learn the word for stamps! ugh, forget it, i'm coming home, this is too much.

alright so you can all call me on my french cell: 033 06 30 56 50 52. remember i'm six hours in the future. let me know how things are in the new world.