Je suis ici!

Whoo-hoo!

The flight
24 hours of travel is a nightmare even when it all goes smoothly.  Little Daphne held up like a trooper and I think she was less cranky than I was.  French people love dogs, though, and I actually had a lot of conversations with French people because of her, including my seatmate on the plane, who fed her his crackers (but I repaid him by translating between the stewardess and him; he did not speak English).  I also talked to some nice people on the train thanks to Daphne.  She's a great icebreaker, because sometimes she'll just stare at people and wag her tail until they respond.

Adventures in daily life
The salespeople in my town are going to be really good at charades by the time I leave.  Some people seem to find it fun and cute (like the Orange sales girl).  The people at Auchan looked less amused.  Most likely because I forgot to weigh my vegetables.  Whoops.  Then I almost had a heart attack because the register displayed the total in francs, for some reason.  It had euros too, but somehow my mind just focused on the 435.  Luckily, I looked again and figured out that the Euro total was much, much, much less (there are like 6 or 7 francs to a Euro, thank goodness) before I said something stupid.

Most people are nice, and everyone is polite.  I mean, there are jerks everywhere.  But there doesn't seem to be a higher percentage of jerks here like most Americans seem to think.  I don't know why people thought this was helpful, but so many people told me, "oh just wait, French people are so rude and they hate us".  Well, I'm still waiting, because 75% of the people I've dealt with have gone above and beyond to try to help me, and nobody has actually been impolite or rude yet.  I'm not saying it won't happen, but when it does, it means that person specifically is a jerk, not all French people.  This was my experience last time, as well.  There's definitely a reason not to believe stereotypes.  (And hopefully, by my example, I can show that not all Americans are annoying, rude Bush-lovers who don't make an effort to speak French.) 
*this concludes today's rant*

My home
My landlady/colocataire, Marie, is really nice.  She seems to really like Daphne.  She's quite a soft touch when it comes to feeding her - but that's not her fault, Daphne is a champion beggar, especially when saucisson is involved.  I'm going to have my own little saucisson-shaped poodle when our 7 months are up.  Marie picked me up at the train station, which was awesome, and made dinner that night, which was even more awesome.  She also took me on a driving tour of La Couronne and Angouleme yesterday, so that I could find my way around better when I had to do it alone on the bus, which was incredibly helpful.  My other coloc drove me to the grocery store so I knew the way to walk home.  He also fixed my internet.  I am very glad not to live alone.
Rent: 250
Utilities: 20
Having people to hold your hand when you move to a foreign country: priceless.

Pictures of chez moi

The front of the house

The back of the house

The garden

One view of the room - and Daphne!

The other side of the room.  It's HUGE.

Daphne and her will be friends, maybe, eventually...

The Daphne seal of approval!