I'm Grace Stout and I approve this post.

Okay, I'll admit that my primary motivation in writing this post is that I'm insanely bored, and I feel like I should update this thing every now and again. So, what shall I say?

Still no word on the host family, although I actually had a burst of accomplishment this afternoon and now I think I've got all the paperwork done that I can possibly have done at this point...

Geez, writing it down makes prep sound even duller than it really is. Paperwork *pushes up nerd glasses* and waiting.

I'm under the five week mark now, but still over a month, so official freakout doesn't have to start yet.

Still have left to do: fill out scholarship application, apply for my ISIC, figure out what I'm doing between Paris on Thursday morning and Avignon on Friday afternoon, and...

...crud, go to Italian, which starts in nine minutes.

Eep, and I almost forgot my non-French-related part of the entry. Professor Sarver says that people who keep blogs are narcissists. An amusing accusation if you know me, plus if you're reading this chances are you have a blog too, so...there you have it. Nothing in this paragraph had anything to do with the F-word. No, not THAT kind of F-word, the one that's also the name of a country I refuse to say in this paragraph.

There. The F-word is "France."

This concludes the short little blog entry I really only wrote to kill some time... Ciao, tutti!

Hello, my lovelies!

...and welcome to my blog!

38 days to takeoff. I can hardly believe it myself. But I obsessively count calendar blocks, so I know it's true.

Let me see if I can re-iterate this "hardly believe it" thing. Right now, I'm sitting at home, eating leftover stir-fry out of a tupperware box. My sister Olivia is watching American Gladiator. I'm wearing the first OU t-shirt I dug out of my laundry this morning. None of these things will be possible in less than forty days. That's mildly intimidating.

Perhaps it's the combination of Bobcats Abroad last week (yeah, wow, let's not say any more about that...) and the seven hours of orientation I spent yesterday thinking "hmm...I am mildly freaked out right now."

And no. I'm not scared. Appropriately concerned, yes. Heck, I'm concerned about the whole 'airplane' thing. But don't ask if I'm scared. I'm not.

But even something just as simple as spending a few hours ice skating with Sam and Clare today gave me these profound feelings of the need to savor. To live these next 38 days to their very fullest, and NOT to obsess over March 26th.

Then again, I'll still let myself count those calendar blocks at the end of the day.

I know it's probably not going to be nearly as thrilling to read this blog as it is to be the one writing it, but I do hope some of you find it worthwhile to stick with me. I can't promise I'll be online nearly as often as I am when I'm on campus, but I will keep you folks stateside posted.