the countdown begins...

Well, actually the countdown officially began almost seven weeks ago. Back in November, it hit me that I'd be leaving in just a few, short weeks, and now it really hasn't sunk in that I'm leaving in just three short days. I really don't think I'm going to realize what's happening until I'm actually in Bordeaux, but until then, I'm doing the best I can with coping with all of these different emotions.

I have to say I've never done anything like this before. The longest I've ever been away from home is one month, and that time I was still in Canada. My summers working at Camp Cedarwood were longer-- 2 1/2 months-- but that doesn't really count, since I came home almost every weekend to spend the night. So, it's a very strange feeling to know that I'm leaving everything and especially every one I know for almost 5 months in order to experience life in a different country, culture and completely different language. While I have some ideas about what to expect while I'm there, I really don't know a lot of what's going to happen. Being someone who likes to plan out life and who doesn't especially like to "expect the unexpected", I think that this experience of living overseas will actually be really good for me (even though part of me says that I'm nuts for doing something like this!).

The past week has been very emotional, to the point that I can feel tears coming on at any given moment without warning. I know that leaving will be hard; I love my family and friends and actually don't think I appreciate them enough. Thank God that I have a few friends in Bordeaux already, otherwise I think I'd be even more homesick than I'm sure I'm going to be! There are 3 other girls from the UofW on the same exchange program as me. Two of the girls are already there, since they decided to go for the whole year. The other girl is going around the same time as I am. Having a few fellow Winnipeggers there will hopefully make it a little easier to transition. I also have one friend, Laura, whom I got to know really well when she was here in Winnipeg on the same exchange program last year. She even ended up living with Sarah and me for 4 months during the summer (she just didn't want to leave Winnipeg to back to France!). I'm so glad that I have a good friend who's going to be picking me up at the airport and who'll show me around her city like I showed her around mine. I'm especially glad that I'm already friends with a native French speaker so that I can practise the language without wondering if I'm speaking it right. I also hope to make more friends, although I've never tried to make friends by only speaking French before, so I guess we'll see how that goes!

Just to give you an idea of what my schedule for the first couple days of my trip is like, here's a rough outline, although really the only thing set in stone is my flight, and really even that is liable to change! On Monday, the 7th, I depart from Winnipeg at 10:45am, and after 2 layovers (in Toronto and Paris) and about 12 hours of flying, I arrive in Bordeaux at 2:30pm the following day. From there, Laura will pick me up and take me to campus I think, where I'll wait for a couple of hours until Michelle gets out of class to meet me. Michelle is one of the other girls from Winnipeg who's there right now. Kristin is the other one, but she's actually back in Winnipeg for the holidays, and she's been kind enough to let me stay in her room for a couple of nights until I get my room situation all sorted out. Anyway, Michelle has the key to Kristin's room, so I can throw all of my luggage in there and then do something for a little while until I'm too exhausted to think anymore (that's what I assume will happen; I've never actually had jet leg before!) and I'll go to bed. After that, I have no idea what'll happen. I'll keep you all posted though. Hey, I just made a pun without even intending to! Hehe aren't you all going to miss me?

I'm going to try to update this blog at least once a week, so you can check back regularly if you want to see what I'm up to over in France. Like I've said before, I won't be doing mass email updates, so if you want to know what's going on in my life for the next 5 months, this will be the place to find out. Not that I won't reply to emails if you send me one out of the blue though...

Well, that's about all I have to say for this post. I have to finish packing today (even though I'm pretty much done) and then I'm supposed to go skating with Sarah (my roommate, for those of you who don't know). I've wanted to go skating for awhile now, and this is my last chance! Thanks for reading this far and I'll let you all know when I get to Bordeaux safe and sound!

À bientôt! (That's French for "see you later", or in this case it works as "talk to you later"). Bye!