Madelaine: Summer bucket list

- Get over my fear of speaking French to native speakers. I’m my own worst critic.

- Get to know my host family well and go out of my way to get to know them.

- Update this blog regularly.

- Take pictures of myself with friends! That is the one thing I regret about the last time I went to France, I didn’t want to seem like a tourist so I didn’t take them as much.

- Go for some bike rides around Montpellier, since it costs about 2 Euros to rent a bike for a day and the city is pretty bike-friendly.

- Do an outdoorsy activity that I normally wouldn’t do.

- Go to the beach as often as I can.

- Read an extra book on the side.

- Journal and write down ideas.

- See if I can find my books for my fall French classes somewhere so I don’t have to pay a bazillion dollars in shipping.

- Get over the whole “bisous” thing.

- Keep up with classwork… bonne chance.

- Arrange to go out with people in the program, don’t rely on other people to make the effort.

- Keep track of my finances in cash, don’t spend frivolously or impulsively because the exchange rate is very deceiving. Keep a registry? Yeah right.

- Get in better shape. I don’t know how I’ll do this since my France laziness will probably take over me. But hopefully just transportation and eating habits in general will have an effect on me. The last time I was in France I lost 10 pounds (probably just water weight) in 2 weeks. There’s something in the butter.

- DO. NOT. SMOKE. Waste of money, and I’ll feel terrible and won’t be able to run when I get back home.

- Try to drink only during meals when I first get there. Jet lag + booze = hot mess.

- Travel to Switzerland, Germany, Italy, or Spain. I know we are not technically supposed to travel during the program but if I can plan out my “skip” days accordingly I will. For $300 I can get a Eurail pass, since I won’t be traveling that many days.

- Don’t hesitate, just do. Ask questions, take an extra long lunch break, skip class if there’s an “educational” opportunity to be had elsewhere. Allow myself to feel really awkward and then write about it later so I can laugh. Do things that will make for good stories, because trying hard to play it cool is not a story that I want to tell people.

- Cheese.

- Sneak back a bag of dried lavender. That stuff grows like weeds.

- Postcards.

- Don’t forget to buy little gifts for family.

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