2 Days

Actually, this countdown is off since I'm not coming home Sunday like everyone else.. but whatever. It's not that big of a deal.

This morning, I got up super early (well, for being summer I'd consider 6am early) and after we were ready, my host mom and I went to the aérodrome to meet up with the hot air balloon pilot. There were two other people going up with us; 5 in the basket total. We drove to another nearby town to take off so that the wind would push us in a nice direction. It took about an hour to get setup and get ourselves up in the air. Once we were up, it was really easygoing, though. The basket didn't swing around at all, and we took the balloon up and down to different altitudes and it was great. The wind pushed us toward Cambrai, so we got to see the edge of Arras and then some smaller towns, as well as a ton of countryside. The fields here are like picture perfect. They're what North Dakota pretends it has; the colors are bright greens and golds and a mixture of the two, and they look like quilted squares from above. I took a million pictures. haha. One funny thing I need to point out is that when we turn on the flame, it makes a loud noise that makes every dog in town start barking and every cow and horse and deer and every other animal run away from us. It was really interesting to see that lol. Around nine, we came down in a dirt field and since the wind had picked up, we landed sideways. That was really fun, to be honest. The basket tipped over and we all held on to the handles inside. The light people were in back and the heavier people were in front so that when we fell on top of each other, no one got squished.

When I came back home, I took a shower and got ready for the day (since I really didn't do much this morning) and then got on my suitcases and boxes. Romane came over again and my host mom left for work with me in charge. They were not allowed to go down to the big yard without me, so they nagged on me from one til four to go with them. It drove me insaneeeee! I tried to give them something else to do and keep them busy, but nothing lasted more than five minutes. I painted Romane's nails and Pierre read a little, but ahhh! It was so hard to get my shit together with them telling me to do things faster or do it later or trying to help and putting things all over the place. When my host mom came home, I was pretty much done, so we went to get some stuff for my parents. Then we came back and Anne was there to pick up Romane and Simon was there along with all the kids. We all talked for a while and Romane and Pierre took me into the other room for a 'private meeting' and told me how much they are going to miss me and how glad they were that I came. Then it was time to go, and I said goodbye to Anne, Romane, Lilian, and Lou-Marie. Claire showed up at that point and she stayed with Simon, Lola, and Marius a little longer. When they left, the took Pierre with to drop him off at a birthday party. I said goodbye to everyone and then they were gone. Saying goodbye is getting a lot easier. After my going away party, things have started just kind of drifting past me. I've said goodbye over a hundred times and it doesn't even hurt much anymore. I knowww I'm going to come back one day and see a bunch of these people (or I hope so), I just don't know how soon that can be. I can't worry about that, though, because if I do, I will just make this a lot harder on myself. I'm also REALLY happy to see my family back home again! And my friends, too :)! I talked to my mom and Bryce the other night and that really made me excited to return. Unfortunately I have three days of transition time, and that is going to kind of suck. I wish I could just go right from my host family to my real family. I don't need a reflection meeting and fill out a survey in Paris; I'll reflect on my own.

Anyway, tomorrow morning my train leaves at 8:35AM. I am going out one last time tonight and I'ma make the most of it! Fanny gets in at 10PM tonight, too, so I'm excited to see her again! I'm gonna make the very most of the time I've got left; I can sulk during those next three days!

SEEEE YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!
AHHH<3333!

LOVE YOU!
-Miranda

Word of the Day: décoller = take off