Packin' Up

Well, departure is two (one and a half, really) days away. YAHOOOO IT'S REALLY HAPPENING!!!

But unfortunately there is one very important task left to complete before I can get on a plane and fly far, far away.
Yes, that's right. The time has come for me to begin packing.

My brother is already gone at college, so I am basically just taking over his room and using it to lay out all of my stuff. And by "laying out my stuff" I mean "hurling all of my clothes in a pile on his bed." I actually cannot believe how many articles of clothing I own. Now I just have to figure out what gets to come along.

~The Task Before Me~

make this

fit into this

And that's just clothes! I also have to fit books and cameras and shoes in there. 

Oh, and also it's like one million bajillion degrees outside with 120% humidity.

This should be fun.

Nora

VISAAAAAH

I finally got my visa for France! Yip dee do.
My parents and I have been working on it all summer. The preparations you have to do for the application are insane: we gathered records of EVERYTHING. Literally- academic, medical, financial, residential, familial, animal, vegetable, mineral.
We ended up having to road trip to Chicago to go to the office of the French Consulate in person. Vis-à-vis* for a vis-a. Ha. Ha. Ha.

This is us in Chicago:

Hanging out by the cool bean sculpture in Millenium Park

The nice part of the whole going-to-Chicago thing was that I got to spend a great day in the city with my parents, and we had a whole lot of fun. God, I feel like a dork for saying that. 

It arrived in the mail a few days ago. It's amazing that we did all that work and spent all that time and all that money for a little page in my passport with some pretty stamps and the MOST horrendous picture I have ever seen of myself.

There it is! In all its glory. I covered up the picture of me because it actually looks like mug shot.

So now I can legally go to France. Thank you France, for allowing me to come to your country.

It's only 13 days away! Waaaahahaaaa.

The end.

Love, Nora

*"face-to face"

Good Bye, Daddy

Today I said good bye to my dad (he's going to work in Seattle from now through October, so he'll be gone when I leave for France). It will be close to a year before I see him again. It's hard to imagine.

This is the first of many big, sloppy good byes I'll have to make to the people who are most important to me. In many ways, I think it will be a huge relief to finally get on a plane and fly away from everyone, to have all the good byes over with.

That's my dad.

I put a picture up to make this blog more interesting to look at. I think I write too much.

I got an email from my host mother in very broken english yesterday. I will share my favorite quotes:
"We have prepared the Nora's bedroom, near Maîwenn's one." (Maîwenn is my host sister)
"[The room is] not very large one but we have much place in our house."
"She and Maîwenn 'll go to school by scolar bus ."

I don't mean to sound like I'm making fun of her. On the contrary, she's doing a good job of getting her point across. It's just so cute. I wonder what my French sounds like to them. More broken than hers, I'm sure.

Anyways. I found out that my family actually lives 5 km outside of Redon, in the country. There are about 50 neighboring families, though, and I'll have a bike if I want to go into to town or something. I'm sure it's very beautiful and I can't wait.

It's funny, I originally thought (before I knew my host family) that I would be really disappointed if I got a family that lived in a more rural setting. But I am actually so thrilled with my placement, and the fact that I can already tell that I will love my family makes it even better. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I. Can't. Wait.

The summer is flying by (where the hell did July go??), and I'm experiencing waves of alternating panic and excitement, depending on the day. A lot more excitement than panic, I think.

Going to France has been this far-off, abstract idea of mine for the past year. But here I am: it's July 27th, and 36 days stand between me and my departure.

Holy cow, this is really happening...

YEEHAW


Nora

REDON

Hello hello.
It's been awhile, but now I'm finally writing on here again, and will try to do so more regularly as my imminent departure approaches.

I have some very exciting news:
I found out who my host family is! And in turn, where I'm living and going to school.
My host sister contacted me by email this week, and I've also been corresponding with my host mom (or dad, not really sure actually). It seems that they got my email address and contacted me, but all the paperwork nonsense hasn't actually been processed yet so I still haven't gotten the official host family notification from AFS. Because of this, I don't know a whole lot about them, except for that they seem like really lovely people. But I don't think they know that I haven't gotten official info on them, so I think it would be strange to ask them something like, "excuse, me but exactly who are you?"
I do know that they are my host family for sure, but beyond that....well we'll just have to wait and see.

They live in Redon, a town of around 10,000 (the size of Stillwater, approximately) in the southern part of the western region of Brittany. Redon is on the intersection of two rivers. I've been exploring it on Google Street View and it looks like the most charming, beautiful French town you could imagine. I urge you to look it up.

My school is Lycée Beaumont ("Beaumont High School"). It has around 1,800 students- about the size of (or a little bigger than) Southwest. I'll be taking Spanish, literature, and some social sciences or economics.

I've enrolled myself in a weekly French class for the next few weeks before I leave, and I feel like it's really helping me. I'm actually starting to prepare to go. I can't believe it.

I'll write again soon, I have much to say, but I want to keep this short.


Here's a picture of Redon I found online:




(trés beau, non?)

Nora

Hello again.

More than two months have passed since my last post...
Now there are only four months remaining until I leave. Holy cow.

My life has been crazy busy this past month. I've been assistant/co-directing a production of Macbeth for my school's student-run theater program which opens on Tuesday. It's been a huge learning experience: overall very positive, but not devoid of stress and insanity. I also took part in a plant sale sponsored by AFS this month. It's the only fundraiser that the program sponsors and helps organize for students, and it was really successful. I received over 15 orders, which doesn't sound like a lot, but resulted in my porch filling up with 131 plants (which actually looked really cool). I'm so grateful to the people who contributed, it's really going to make a big difference.


(This is a thank-you card I made for the people who participated in the plant sale.)

I'm going to my first Pre-Departure Orientation this afternoon in Eden Prairie. I'm looking forward to finding out all sorts of information and details about my upcoming adventure.

I check my email about four times a day to see if they've sent me my host family assignment... No luck yet, but I'll keep you posted.

Have a good Sunday! It's beautiful and warm and summery here. There are only 16 days left of school.

Nora

Wow.

While I was sitting at a coffee shop with my mom last night we realized that six months from today is the day I leave for France.

Oh my.

This makes me incredibly excited and also a little freaked out (but freaked out in the best possible way).

That is all. It is even grosser here than it was two days ago when I was complaining about the grossness.

Nora