I Suppose I Should Post Something Significant

So now that my blog is all frenchified I guess I can begin. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Gillian. I'm currently sixteen years old, though I'll be seventeen for the entirety of my year abroad. I've always had a passion for language, whether it's incessantly fixing my friends grammar (though you'll have to excuse mine, it's difficult to type on an iPad and it changes the weirdest things) or taking way too many years of foreign language in high school. I've taken five years of French now and one year of Spanish, but I'll also be taking a Spanish class while in France (crazy, I know), and I'd like to become fluent in more than three languages. I haven't decided which ones yet. I'm extremely clumsy on land, and usually stick to sports like water polo (5 years) or swimming (I've been swimming since I was very young, but never liked swimming competitively) and I also scuba dive where the water's warm. I'm going to try my hand at windsurfing while in France if I can, and maybe find a new talent (or perhaps something I fail miserably at!). I work at a coffee shop in Sunriver, Oregon that I love, but aside from that I don't do too much here. I love the beach and hate the snow, I'd pick white chocolate over dark, I can't see anything without my contacts, and I drink my tea with unhealthy amounts of sugar. Now that I've revealed my deepest darkest secrets (but really, you could probably get me to tell them pretty easily) I'll get started on things pertinent to my year abroad. I've had to fill out an ungodly amount of paperwork to apply for my visa, and now I'm going to the French consulate in San Francisco on the 25th to be interviewed. There, they will either approve or deny the visa that is necessary for me to get my plane ticket. Though there's pretty much zero chance of them denying it, I'm definitely still nervous. It's one of those things where I'll just feel better once I get it, even though everything points to it turning out fine. I'm unbelievably ready to hop on a plane to France! While I'm there, I'll be living with three different host families. I've met the entirety of my first, they're so nice and encouraging! The daughter of that family will be coming on exchange to Eugene to I won't see her much, if at all. I'm trying to be able to meet her when she arrives because she is landing the 15th of August and I'll be taking off on the 27th. I've already skyped with this family, and I'm positive that living with them will be great. I've also talked with the mom of my second host family a bit. She seems really nice and very funny. I think I'll get to know her more once I arrive. My third family I know the least of--I've only become friends with my host sister and talked to her a bit. She will be in the year above me in school, but she seems lively and fun. I don't doubt that my exchange will be full of awesome people like these! I'm going to miss my friends in the US, but I also hope to make a bunch of friends in France. I'll be staying in touch over Facebook with everyone. I'm also planning on sending a ridiculous amount of postcards, so watch out! To all of the teachers that I emailed this link to--prepare yourselves. I'll be armed with a pen, some postcards, and mediocre French to help me find some stamps. So I think I've exhausted all of the subjects I wanted to touch on initially, so I suppose I'll end it here. Let's hope I can manage to figure out how to post pictures while in France so my blog isn't entirely text! I expect to post next after my visit to the consulate on the 25th with some words about how that went. So keep checking back! A bientôt!