Preface

I'm starting this blog to keep my friends and family updated on my life in Pau, France over the next three and a half months. Provided I have the discipline and memory to continue posting, there will be pictures, detailed tidbits of news, and French phrases that y'all can incorporate into your everyday speech to confuse and frighten your neighbors. And possibly some juicy celebrity gossip and daily ratings of the fierceness of my hair.

My flight to Paris from Newark, New Jersey leaves at 9:30 p.m. tonight, with anticipated arrival at 11:05 a.m. Paris time. Weather forecast is around 74 degrees and partly cloudy the WHOLE week I'm there--score. I'll spend 4 nights in Paris and then take the bus (with the study abroad group) to Pau. I'll be leaving December 18.


After a year of applications, saving, spending, booking, packing and repacking, I'm finally ready to go. I've taken French classes since 7th grade, but as it now my minor in college and I've reached senior year without any practical application for the language, my main goal with this trip is to improve my speaking and listening abilities. At the time the idea occurred to study abroad, I was just tired of life in Colorado and wanted a temporary change, a way out for a while. I wanted something to look forward to. Now, however, I'm hoping the trip will give me some bigger ideas regarding what to do when I graduate from Metro in May.

I will truly miss everyone in the U.S. My Skype name is lizdom28 if you can catch me on that...