un jour avec mes amis. // a day with my friends.

today was lovely. i got to wake up semi-late, i took a warm shower was able to eat something i actually liked for lunch (salad!). the bordenave house is always full, i've learned. camille's friend, marine, apparently slept over (guess i didn't catch that yesterday...) and after she left, mathilde came home from her sleepover. her friend, lilou (and her parents and another family) stayed for lunch. they brought their dog, wilson, over to play with the max, the bordenave's dog. after lunch, i went with the kids to the park and we walked the dogs. i was able to take lots of pictures of french architecture, which was great! they aren't that artistic, but hey, you get the idea.

after coming home, camille, mathilde, and mathilde's friend, lilou, watched me check my email and go on facebook. that was slightly awkward, but i figured they couldn't understand much. when i got on facebook, so many of the people from camille's school had added me! i didn't even remember talking to half of them! i confirmed their friendships anyhow, and went online to see if anyone was on. you wouldn't believe how many people i got to talk to! i talked to niki, tad, raquel, sarah and devon (all of which are here in france) and i got to talk to my mom and brother (yesterday...), megan, josh and kendall too. plus, one of the girls from camille's class started talking to me as well. i spent the entire day on chatting and joking around with my french sisters. it was actually pretty great.

i still feel very homesick, but now that i've been here for almost a week, the family has grown on me and i think i've grown on them. the sisters talk so much more around me and i help them with their english homework and play online games and board games with them -- it's pretty neat. and, today, camille posed "i love ma correspondante" on facebook. it felt good knowing that she likes having me here. i think that this is what this experience is supposed to be about; bridging cultures through language and an appreciation for global communication. i'm so lucky that i have the vocabulary i do in french, because communicating is so much easier with it. my family definitely appreciates my efforts in speaking and relating to their everyday life. i can't thank my parents enough for giving me the opportunity to come here -- it's really hard being away from my family and friends, but it's going to be like this in college, so it's good that i'm experiencing this now.

tomorrow, i'm headed off to paris -- it'll be wonderful seeing my friends and finally being with madame z. i haven't seen her at all! anyhow, i'm so happy that i was able to spend the day with my friends, even if it was only through the internet! :)

i miss you guys! lots of love!
xoxo,
jyothi