While I haven’t actually been on any formal dates, I did meet this really great girl from the land of Oz who I spent a good 4 days with in Nice who will be living in the same region as me until October. Although, I swear that every time I go out with friends we always do daty things. With Nina, the Aussie, we went to Museums, walked through the park, ate regional nicoise food together over a bottle of wine and through rocks on the beach. What a good date I am! My cousin here told me that he is going to introduce me to French Girls so I can fall in love with one of them, marry em and reinvigorate the French blood. Purify it so to speak = ) I also met a really beautiful girl from france at an Interdenominational christian community called Taize who also will be living an hour away all year. She is studying to be a judge. You would really like Taize a lot. It is a place for young people to go to participate in christian community living. It is staffed by near 100 brothers who themselves are mixed denominations. There was everything from polish reformed, to Romanian orthodox, to catholic to Lutheran. There was over 3000 people there and we would gather 3 times a day for prayer services. During the prayer services you mostly sing, but they also leave aside 10 minutes of silence time. The music is precious. It is more along the lines of hymns and chants versus contemporary praise, but you repeat a line over and over until you come to own it and communicate with it. You can check out some of there music at www.taize.com . As a PS since I am thinking of it, you should apply for a job at the chaplains office. They need an assistant there and I couldn’t think of anyone better than you. I personally would love to spend my whole day working with Karen, Charlie and Holly, but alas, I am in France. It is so crazy to think that school is starting here in a week. After being able to check my emails for the first time in near 4 weeks I was able to read all the emails from PDT guys preparing for the oncoming year. I am sad that I am not able to be there at Willamette. I miss all my friends. I miss the community there. We really have it good don’t we? It is so hard to think that I have an entire year before I go back to WU. It is defineltey going to be a year of transitions. I would love to see you over in San Fransisco. We can hit the city together and have a real night on the town with dinner, theater and a little caberet. That would be fun! We can go on a date (although from what you write I doubt that you will have any need of more dates) or even a double if your aunt and uncle want to come along. March is just so far away… I have an ocean and almost the entire continental united states between me and Febuary. My time here in France has definetly been good. I am currently on a 3 hour train from Paris to Bordeaux. I saw off my Grandfather this morning who is on a flight right now back to the US. He has been here for the past 5 weeks. For this past week and ahalf I have been with him and my grandma. I have really been blessed with a good family! Last night I went and watched one of my cousins’ husband perform a comedy sketch in a theater at montmarte. We were just outside one of the locations where the film Amelie was shot. I am excited for school to start in Nantes. I will finally be able to unpack my clothes and put them in drawers. Living out of a rucksack can be trying. I also will be able to meet new people other than my family and be in an environment where I have the opportunity to speak only French. My aunt (well, not so nearly close in relation as that, but a good equivalent) in Nantes has also promised to let me in free to her art classes. Maybe I will come home an artist! Now all I need is an instrument to learn for our band. I have also enlisted one of my cousins to make a list of the good, but cheap food places in the area.