I LIVE IN FRANCE

I live in a house in France now. How weird is that to say?! It's pretty exciting though....I love it. And everything has been so easy! A large part of me feels like this whole experience just sortof came upon me. This whole relaxed approach that I've been taking has resulted in quite a shocking comeuppance. But really truly everything has worked out so well....almost too well, but I'm not going to start complaining now! All the travel has been super easy....I haven't gotten stuck on ANY forms of transportation!! This is very exciting for me, especially with my Paris record thus far. Plus, we got through two metro checkpoints completely unscathed. Things started to get REAL though on the train from Toulouse. Driving through really, the middle of nowhere, I was freaking out just a wee bit. Approaching my stop was a little intense. I realized that I was approaching my new life and it was a little like WOAHHHH slow down. But there was no turning back.

And I'm so glad there wasn't!! Right from the start, things were, once again, super great. I was attempting to get off the train, with my bazillion pounds of luggage, when my landlord all of a sudden was like 'Emily?' And then everything was great. We walked around the corner from the station to the house, which was awesomely convenient. Then he let me get all settled in and showered, and then we went over the rent, bank accounts, government housing assistance, grocery stores, bus passes, and everything else you can think about. then That was a little overwhelming. But I very much hope that I got it all down...

I think I did. And then I left to wander around. The town is amazing! I'm very capable of living here, I belieI kept getting goosebumps after walking around almost every corner. I'm in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains, and you can see them in the distance when you're up on top of the hill. The river goes through the valley and the cathedral is on top of the hill on the far side. Everything is in walking distance and there's a ton of things going on! It's way bigger than I thought it would be, so very pleasantly surprised. Not only that, there's a fabric store around the corner. I'm making curtains.

Old town - I don't know what it's called yet. But my gosh it's pretty.

The cathedral! In the sunset!!

The town center

The view from the top of the hill

If you could hear the birds in these trees....it was amazing.

Back up the hill.

Um I live here.

Tomorrow, I'm going to get my life figured out (open a bank account, send in my immigration information, and my application for housing assistance) with the lovely Bolivian girl who is living down the hall from me in the house. I just really don't want to get arrested for the lack of some random form, or owe the French government a million billion Euros.