Life...it happens.

I know, I know. I'm terrible at blogging. Plenty of you have pointed that out to me in angry emails and phone calls. I'm really sorry, but the thing is, I have focus issues AND I procrastinate AND i'm living in France...so I don't always get things done in a timely manner. Hmm. I'm living in France. I think I'm finally starting  to get use to this. I feel like its my freshman year in college again--I've had to learn how to balance schoolwork, eating, exercising, and having a social life all over. After coaching first-year students on how do this for the past two years (I was an RA), I feel like a huge hypocrite right now. There's just so much going on!! For example, today was beautiful. All I wanted to do was sit by the lake and eat a baguette,...but instead I had to finish my statistics homework and go to the grocery store. Tonight I realllllly want to watch a French movie with my friends, but first I have to watch some distance learning videos for my heat transfer class. Blah. Maybe I will master time management skills (for a second time) by May.

I decided that I am going to take it easy for a few weeks and just enjoy Metz (in other words...my bank account is bottoming out faster than I expected). Metz is small, but I really enjoy how relaxed it makes me feel. I love the European attitude towards relaxation...you can never have too much of it. I also decided that I am going to really crack down and focus on improving my French. I have been meeting with a guy named Mathieu for about a month now to practice speaking. I work on French, and he practices English. I have really enjoyed working with him, but I can still try harder then I am. The past few weeks, I have made my friends speak to me in French, but I have been responding in English because it makes me realllly nervous to talk around them. I can't explain why-it's just one of those weird fears. I think it's time for that to change. It's time for a lot of things to change. That's what I like most about being so far away from home. When I'm alone, I have to be the one to acknowledge when something if off or when I am on track, and when something isn't right, I have to be the one to fix it. Independence is awesome.