Reflecting

The calendar tells me that, as much as I hate admitting it or thinking about it, I am almost halfway through my journey here!  I realized this after a major triumph at the dinner table tonight:  the entire time (about forty-five minutes) I was completely engaged and fully understood the conversation, minus a few words here and there.  This also includes taking an active role in the conversation and not just sitting back and listening, and not requiring too much vocab help either!  

The conversation somehow drifted from San Francisco, to whether I prefer bars or nightclubs, to the food I am going to miss when I go back to the U.S. (nutella crepes!).  This might not seem like a big deal, but one of my main goals for this adventure was to be able to carry on basic day-to-day conversations in French and tonight confirmed to me that I am actually on my way!  

Here's a few elements of my life in the U.S. that I miss while I'm here:

• Access to information: as many of you may know, I am a current events junkie and I love being able to find out information if it's something I'm curious about.  I'm sure there's just as many sources of information here..but I either can't read them well enough to grasp the concepts, or I don't know of them!  Also, even though I check washingtonpost.com and cnn.com daily, I still feel totally out of touch with the media.  Through my major at school and my general interests, I am usually fully immersed in the media so being here is tough in that aspect!
• Communication: this goes along with access to information: I love being able to text/call my friends and family whenever I feel like it, which is something I totally took for granted before being here.  Once I get back to the U.S, my parents sure will be glad that I have an unlimited plan because I will be a text messaging fiend!
• D.C.: I just miss it!  Especially with exciting things like a new administration, the National Kite Festival coming up, the Cherry Blossoms, etc.  I never knew just how much I loved D.C. until I was here.  
• Caffeine: as Betsy learned this weekend, ordering the same thing 3 times could leave you with 3 different types of coffee.  Also, my addiction (diet coke) is extremely overpriced here.  On the plus side, French coffee is quite good even if it's not something I'd like to down with as much frequency as Dunkin Donuts.  Also..caffeine isn't exactly good for me, so skipping it is possibly a good thing. 

This week has been pretty calm thusfar.  Tomorrow I hope to finally make it to the Musee Marmottan, which is the Monet Museum.  It is also a friend's 21st birthday so tomorrow night should be fun.  Thanks for all of the comments everyone and hopefully I will stop being lazy and take some new pictures tomorrow!