Sorry about the wait. I've been super busy with school work and mid-terms are still going on for me.

But I gotta say that I cannot wait to get back to the states. The atmosphere has been a bit sour in my home stay for the past week or so, and I cannot figure out why. At this point I am very much looking forward to getting into my new apartment in August and not having to answer to anybody.

If anybody is looking to study abroad here, please be aware of a few things about host-families. While the home-stay is the cheapest and probably the most convenient option for the program I'm in, it does have its drawbacks. For instance, most of the people I've spoken to who stay with host families have a curfew. Mine happens to be 10:00 pm, which is fine during the week, but if you want to go out and hang out with friends on the weekends it gets really cumbersome. I can't tell you how many times I've had to turn down invitations to go out and do something because of my curfew. And it's not that I don't understand why the curfew exists, my host-dad has to leave for work really early in the morning and they can't have me coming home and making a ton of noise really late. But it gets very annoying. I've been able to sleep over at friends' apartments sometimes, but it's not always possible.

And the showers. You can't keep the water running the whole time you're in the shower. And the part that really gets me is that they don't want you to stay in the shower for more than 30 minutes. But if you're like me, you tend to like to wash your face and brush your teeth and stuff during shower-time. And since my hair is thicker than most peoples' rinsing out shampoo and conditioner takes a lot of time. However, I have to say that if I had lived in an apartment I probably would not have been as likely to try bathing after a shower, which is a really nice perk in a home stay.

A friend of mine said that a person she knew had tried a home stay. He got to the house fine and his new host-parents handed him a booklet of rules that he was supposed to follow. He took one look at the booklet and walked back out the door. And most of the rules she mentioned, I found, were exactly like the ones I'm expected to follow. Fortunately my host-parents had had a little more tact about it.

And I don't know about anybody else's host-parents, but mine tend to treat me like a child, but that could very well be my own fault.

However, living with a host-family can be very very rewarding. And I think that my host-family has been particularly generous. But, honestly, I am very much looking forward to not having to answer to anybody and living the way I want to.

I miss you, Texas!