A little frustration...

5:40 p.m.

I just got back from a much need run. Listening to music and burning some energy got my mind off of home, the 8 page French paper I need to write, and my homework. Blah... Things in Grenoble are slowly wearing me out. I am not as excited about France as I was at first. Little things are starting to bother me. For example: Annie. Don't get me wrong, she is a great "host-mom," but I am not crazy about little things that she does. For one, she LOVES to gossip about who is sleeping with who, who is being scandalous with married men, and who is in love with who. I don't really care. She acts like life is a soap opera. It doesn't have to be. Another thing that has been bothering me lately. It is starting to bother me that I can't be more "independent." I want to make my own coffee in the morning. I want to wake myself up in the morning. I don't need to have a babysitter to do these things for me. I am twenty years old. I would never be okay with having a maid. Help every once in awhile is great, but I like to do certain things my own way.

The French as a whole bother me. French fashion in Grenoble is a joke. I just want to scream at the people on the tram every morning, "It wouldn't hurt you to wear some color! You are boring!" Gray, black, and brown are not the only colors that exist on a color palate.

I don't feel as free and as carefree as I do in the U.S. partly because Miranda has warned us over and over and over again to be careful. I find myself being overly cautious, which is not a lot of fun in the grand scheme of things. I want to be able to go for a run without being stared at. Apparently, French women don't think running is cool.

I like my experience here, on the whole, but there are just a few little things that are starting to drive me BONKERS!