Homelessness Tends to Creep Up on You

Just a little note: Second semester apparently I will not be staying with my current host family as they only signed up to have me for this semester and not the full academic year. I'm 88% certain that the year students were told that they'd have their families for the year, but apparently my family was the exception, much to my surprise. It'll get figured out, but come January I'll have a new family and plenty of new stories. Hopefully less faux pas. Hopefully less spilling of the water across the dining table.

A bulleted list of things to take note of:

• The cups here are tiny. They're probably about 1/4th the size of the cups we drink from at home. You're constantly refilling your class. Or at least us Americans are. Apparently they're less thirsty here.
• People don't clean up their dog's poop. It's on the sidewalk... people step in it... something needs to be done.
• So many kinds of cheese. A cheese for everyday of the year. Most of the cheese I've had here is delicious.
• Transportation here is the greatest thing ever. It's so easy. Subways, tram ways, bus systems. The only form of transportation that doesn't seem to work well enough is the automobile. Or rather, the way people drive. Their cars are uncannily fancy! (Nearly) Everyone has a really nice one. Also, there are some people here driving Fords. What is that? (Cars here: Renault, Citroën, Pugeot, BMW, Volkswagen, uh... that's all I can think of. Look 'em up!)
• Kids misbehave here. Mainly teenagers running amuck, but I'm sure most of their antics wouldn't fly in the U.S. Or at least in suburban areas. Maybe it's the city...
• Cell phones here = bricks. Remember those Nokias? Still in action over here! Everyone's phone is large and in charge.

That's it for now, folks!