Did everybody in Europe change their clock back this morning?

I'm over my little freak-out from Friday - I was just so frustrated, having spent the entire day waiting by the phone for someone to call me and tell me what was up....and it never rang. All the flights are pretty much booked from Paris to Tunisia next week (it's les vacances here), so I'm just going to assume I'll be going to Bretagne next week, and that'll be that. Which is cool, because then I will be able to hang out with Yuri & Leah at least one of the nights I'm there.

Last night, I went over to Crystal's house, and we had a girly night that involved Desperate Housewives, wine and blueberry cheesecake. It was really nice to catch up, and we had an interesting conversation about living in France - at many points I felt like I was talking to myself two or three years ago. It wasn't that long ago that I hated living here with a passion, that I wanted nothing more than to move back to the US. I don't know when the tide started turning, but I think it was when I finally felt like I was moving forward. Moving to France was a big step back for me - personally, financially, career-wise. Before moving to Paris, I'd never once felt like my quality of life was better here than it was in the US. But finally around last Christmas, it seemed like we were about to reach the point we were when we'd left the US. After all those years of struggling, the end was in sight - we were going to have a nice house, a decent car, and each of us was only going to have one full-time job. And I think that's when I started to think "Hey, things are finally starting to come together, maybe I can stay here". Crystal has been through a lot of the same, and I really hope that one day the tide will turn for her as well. It's not something you can force, but hopefully it will happen over time as it did with me. But I guess the whole point of this is - for those of you who didn't immediately *heart* France, please don't give up hope. It took me five years, and I know that's a long time, but it's proof that it's still possible! Things really can get better, even if right now it feels like it never will.

I also need to give a shout-out to Leesa, who is so great at organizing all of these big blogger get-togethers. The Big Finn was in town, along with Mrs TBF, and a bunch of us met up at Starbucks on Saturday. I was tired, but had a great time talking with everyone, including Jasmin, Mira & Animesh. And I am secretly relieved no one forced me to bust out my rusty Finnish in public, lol. As a side note, I highly recommend checking out the Starbucks at Opera (blvd des Capucines) - that is one fancy building. (Picture taken from Nomoa.fr)