I see London, I see France….

Today I’m buying tickets to France. I’m going to visit my friend, John. The weekend of October 7 and 8th, while everyone else is enjoying the French Voyager experience at the Feast of the Hunter’s Moon, I’ll be having a more modern French experience. I sure will miss all the bare bottomed Indians though. If anyone needs my man whistle, it’s in a plastic baggie inside my pack basket. Now that I have Ryan, I won’t need the whistle. Annie has Martin, so she won’t need it either. I think Miranda should have it!

Things have been going well here, but I’ve been getting homesick. I miss Baxter a lot. It seems like everyone here has a dog. The neighbor’s dog is Zack. He’s great and starts wagging his tail when he sees me coming. Still…there’s nothing like getting attacked by Baxter Beast. The difference in time zones is really annoying. It’s fortunate that I don’t have anywhere to be early in the morning, because when Ryan gets off of work it’s 9:30pm here and when Mom gets done at Purdue it’s 11pm here. Hopefully I’ll have internet at home soon and that should make all the difference in the world. It’s been one week since I ordered it, and the telephone company promised that we’d have broadband within 10 days. Of course I don’t know if that’s 10 calendar days or 10 business days. I’m really trying to be patient.

Public transportation is a funny thing here. As a student, I can buy a student travel card for €12. With the travel card, I can get a discount on my bus passes. A monthly buss pass is €78 a month. I’d have to ride 4 busses a day to make having the pass worth while. The bus only gets me about 2/3 of the way to school. To make a long story at least a little shorter…I’m the proud owner of a bike. It’s complete with the little rack on the back to strap my parcels to. I really want a basket for the front. Wouldn’t it be great to put my groceries in the basket? Especially if I had a baguette sticking out of the basket! I’ve promised myself that I will only ride my bike in my neighborhood for the first week. When I get more comfortable in traffic, then I’ll start riding it to class. I have all the safety gear: helmet, front and back flashing lights, and a neon yellow safety vest with lots of reflective stripes. Better to look dumb than dead!

Keep in touch!