UPDATE

Clearly I wasn't as good as documenting the "process" as I thought I would be. The process has been extremely complicated. Specifically, the visa process. But everything is fine now! I have my visa (thank god) and I am set to leave on September 11th - 9 days from today. I am extremely excited and nervous and scared and happy and anxious and thrilled and terrified.

In other words: I can't wait!!!!

There are still a couple things left to figure out before I go, primarily my phone situation and the small detail of packing my life away for a year. But I'm not worried about it. My main concern now is not forgetting anything important, saying goodbye to everyone I can in 9 days, and NOT forgetting every word of french I've ever learned.

Which reminds me! My host family called me last week to wish me a Happy Birthday which was just the sweetest thing ever. It was also slightly unnerving since I could hardly understand anything they said, but I'm sure it will all come rushing back to me once I'm there. I don't have a choice, really.

As of now, I will be leaving in 9 days. Paper work is finally squared away. I stop into Amsterdam first, and arrive in Marseille Sunday afternoon. I'll be switching my iPhone to an international plan so that I can make emergency calls home if need be, but as far as people reaching me immediately...I haven't figured that out quite yet. My American phone will be on airplane mode while I'm in France...which means that I can only use it when I have WiFi readily available. When I do, I can make calls using the Skype app and a few dollars. I'll probably get a french phone when I get there so I can call my host family and future french friends. Perhaps I'll just give people that number if they absolutely need to reach me. Ehh...I'll figure it out later.

FYI: Time difference from LA to Toulon is 9 hours ahead. Keep it in mind :)

I will post again closer to my departure date and from then on be sure to update regularly so that friends and family can have a way to know what's going on with me in France (without me having to write a million e-mails all saying the same thing ;] ).

ALSO - in case you don't know me at all...I absolutely LOVE getting mail! So please, even though we have modern technology and you can just as easily IM, Facebook, Skype, iChat, whatever me...please send me a letter every once in a while, it will be guaranteed to make my day :) E-mail me for my address if you're interested.