So here I am.

OK. It was brought to my attention that a ton of people that I'm related to are on blogger now, so I guess this is the best way to keep in touch with them. So here I am. Woo!

I've officially passed the halfway point of my sejour in France. It's been a crazy ride, one that I'm sure I'll never be able to forget, and certainly one that I never want to forget. The world is a very big place, and it feels more open to me now than it ever has before!

Today is Halloween! In France, that truly doesn't mean much. There is no trick-or-treating here, and little kids don't have parties at school... there's no wild consumption of ridiculous amounts of sugar (or at least no more than usual)... only the college age kids seem to care about Halloween. There will be many parties at the various bars tonight, all of the costume required. But even the idea of Halloween costumes are different here! In the States, Halloween is a chance for everyone to dress up as something goofy, funny, or provocative and not feel ridiculous. Here, people actually dress up as things that are in the realm of scariness. Witches, vampires, ghosts... all of these things!

Tomorrow is the real holiday. All-Saint's Day (Tous Saints). All of the banks and stores will be closed, as well as the university. And of course, this also means that we have Friday off from classes too (thank goodness!). My plans for the long weekend? Tomorrow night I'm boarding a night train and Friday morning I'll wake up in the French Riviera. I've booked a youth hostel in Nice for the weekend, and plan to spend beaucoup de temps on the beach, soaking up the sun and beautiful weather. Also, there is a bus from my youth hostel to Monaco that costs only 2€, so I might head to the casinos at some point.

The south of France is absolutely stunning in the autumn. As I ride my bike to school in the morning, I have a wonderful view of the Pyrenées mountains as the sun rises behind them. Nothing I've ever seen can compare to this!

In terms of food, my eyes have been opened to many new and wonderful things. Goat cheese, for instance, when drizzled with honey and baked, then eaten with cranberries... wow. The cafeteria on campus always has something interesting... once it was horse meat, a couple weeks ago we ate kangaroo... basically the French will take anything and make it taste incredible.

That's all I got for today. I'll try to update again sometime next week.

Paix.