This is Bridgett. She's a french cat. Her and Sheffield like to sleep on my pillow when im not there, sit in the sink when i brush my teeth and claw at my door like little monsters when im sleeping. She's named after bridgett jones.

Today is the start of my third day here in dunkerque and so far it is wonderful. I am down to no more clean clothes and will faire the linge later on today. I haven't had any good news about my bag yet, but am still trying to stay positive and keep my fingers crossed that they will find it. We can put a man on the moon and do tons of "impossible" things but we can't keep track of bags? oh merde.

Virginie is the teacher that Im staying with and she's absolutely great. Her and her friends have been so welcoming to me, it is very touching. I arrived with so little and even before I got here, she had found so much stuff for my apartment. Like a stove. and a fridge...because it didnt even have that. And through all the teachers and friends i am pretty much set. pillows blankets sofas tables chairs dishes towels moroccan poufs! for being so worried about having to furnish my own apartment, i really have yet to do anything for it. i did get to see it yesterday. and its huge. but old. the german assistants from a few years back completely covered the walls and ceiling of the bathroom (which is just the toilet in a little closet...the rest is separate) with pages ripped from fashion magazines. the kitchen is small, the living room huge, and i even have a spare room. for an office. or guests! because they found me a pull out couch. it is not the perfect situation, but it will be perfect for the next 9 months.

all the teachers are very nice, they have planned to help me move in on wednesday afternoon and want to make a little party out of it. they are going to clean it and help me move things and set up.

just in a few days here i feel like my french has improved immensely! i understand much more than i thought i would and can respond and talk just like a normal person for the most part. there are some times when i have no idea how to say it in french, and i just switch to english. They all understand why i am here, to learn french. So they try to speak to me in french as much as possible. but as much as i am a francophile, a lot of them are even bigger anglophiles. so they test out their english on me and we have an agreement to correct eachother if we say anything stupid or wrong. i already taught them about the meaning of the word "tipsy" and what SADD is. And puget sound.