A Bientôt!

Well, this is it!

I've spent this whole Monday running around doing some last-minute shopping and trying to see what items will *officially* make the journey with me to Croissant-and-Baguette Land! I've had to nix the strawberry Nesquick, but a bottle of French's American Mustard will accompany me.

In a few hours, I will head over to Miami International Airport with my 70-pound suitcase, replete carry-on baggage and humongous purse and board an airplane that will make a lengthy nine-hour beeline for Paris!

I still cannot believe this day has finally come...it just all seems so surreal at this point. I will be leaving one life that I have in one city and soon trade it for the other I have established in a different place.

I will miss my American friends and my family the most (and possibly Cuban cuisine). Last year, I was homesick for the entire month of October. I particularly felt the significant lack of family around Thanksgiving Day and, oddly enough, New Year's Day; Christmas wasn't too bad for me, really.

Yet now, in my 4-month absence from Dijon, I have experienced a different type of homesickness. I can't quite put my finger on it, either. I'm just happy to be returning to a place where I felt so at peace.

I just hope that I manage to get some proper shut eye (it's just a little past midnight for me) because I KNOW that I will not sleep on that plane. I never have been able to.

A très bientôt,

Barb the French Bean