Here in Tours it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Festive strips of lights and small amusement rides have been installed near the center of town. Frosted pine trees line the town square and the weather is becoming much colder. These past three months have gone by faster than I could have imagined. Before I know it, I will be back in New York sitting at the dinner table discussing my many adventures in France.

What are the French thankful for? Surely not the new President Nicolas Sarkozy. For the past week, the French rail lines (also known as SNCF) have been crippled by a nationwide strike. During Sarkozy's campaign, he promised to afford a number of incentives to the citizens employed by SNCF. What happens in France when a politician doesn't follow through with what he has promised? You guessed it. STRIKE.

These past two weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions that I have yet to reflect upon. I just returned from the train station, where I parted ways with my parents. Last week, or more appropriately the past five days, Bucknell en France provided us with a short vacation. This vacation or what I prefer to call an extended weekend was a short break from a workload which was becoming overbearing.

The past two weeks here in France has been what can only be described as a blur. I have finally settled into a somewhat seamless routine and I have stopped gawking at the French street signs as I wander around Tours. I have been trying to blend in more and the dinners with my host family are no longer an hour-long grammar lesson. My classes are going well and the highlight of my education is, undoubtedly, my environmental studies class.

Last week marked the end of my time at the language institute of Tours. After two weeks of intensive language immersion, I was ushered back into the world of a University student. My first week at Francois Rabelais University was definitely a learning experience. While attending the institute, I had grown used to having free time, and I almost felt as if I was still on vacation.

Wow, it's hard to believe I have been in France for over a week. The past seven days have been an enjoyable and exhausting introduction to the French lifestyle. Before coming to France, I had read a number of books on the French culture, lifestyle, and, of course, their food. I can safely say that no book could have prepared me for my first week here in Tours. Minus a suitcase, an open mind and flexibility are the only two things I recommend bringing to France.

After leaving the baggage claim, it finally hit me that I was in France. I looked at my watch and I realized that it was only 5:30 back home, but it was lunch time in Paris. My ears were drowned in shouts of "Bonjour" and "Merci" and I suddenly realized that I should have left my English on the plane. At the customs window, it was difficult to discern what I was being told. Why had I not taken a refresher course in French over the summer?

Where has the summer gone? I just arrived back home from dropping my younger sister off in Ithaca for her first year of college and it has finally set in. Summer is just about over, only a week left to pack, organize, and say goodbye to my family. I depart Aug. 31 for France, and it feels like a ghost town here in upstate New York with all of my friends already back at school.