I've been offered (and have accepted) a position as chaperone of Palo Alto's Neighbors Abroad sponsored high school trip to Albi, France. I'm going to France! Yay! I will chaperone approximately a half dozen French language students to Albi, stay in Albi for a few days to make sure they're settled in with their host families, then have an almost three week vacation in France before retrieving the students, chaperoning them to Lyon and Paris for a few days, and back home again. Sigh. La vie, c'est terrible, n'est-ce pas?

The best part (besides the fact that they're paying for my flight and some of my lodging) is that I have enough frequent flyer miles saved up that I can fly my mom out to join me for the interim period. She's turning 60 this year, and I've been wanting to take her to France for, well, forever. So this is pretty exciting.

Another pretty damn fabulous part is that Albi is the home of the Toulouse-Lautrec museum. He's one of my all-time favorites. Sigh.

Plus, I'll be in France for my birthday, which is La Jour de la Bastille. Which means I get to see fireworks on my birthday.

P.S. Happy New Year, everybody!
Can you tell I'm ridiculously excited about this? Even though I have a sore throat and PMS, I'm still excited.

So, if any of my friends want to go to France between late June and mid-July, that's where I'll be. (Of course, if any of my friends want to come to California, that's where I'll be the rest of the time.)