Today I wearily plopped my butt down in front of the computer to do some more work on my zine. Let me tell you, after hours of HTML editing you begin to feel like you never want to look at another computer ever again. Before I started in on my zine, however, I checked my email and found a message from Kelly, my best friend. At first I was scared, as the subject line was "You have to come home. NOW." And my first thought was "Oh shit, who died?" It�s a totally normal exchange student reaction. Thankfully, though, it really had nothing to do with anything bad. I have to say that it was one of the best emails I�ve received all year. Kel just went on and on about how much she misses me and wants to see my face and hug me and hang out again. She said that life isn�t the same without me. She said that Anne (our viola teacher and good friend) cannot wait to see me either. She told me that she loves me, and is so proud of me and that she is absolutely freaking out because I�m coming home in 13 days!!

I was so happy I laughed out loud and almost cried. Someone out there knows how I feel. God. I cannot wait to go home. These next 13 days feel like they are going to pass slower than frozen molasses in January.

I suppose that ever since I got here going home has become somewhat of an obsession for me. I�ve replayed the moment that I walk into the airport and see everyone thousands of times in my head. I can remember lying in bed in all three of my host families houses totally lost in the tiniest details of that moment. What the weather will be like. What I�ll wear. What everyone�s individual face will look like. What I�ll do before and after. If I�ll cry. Etc, etc, etc�. I can honestly say that there has not been one day here in France that I haven�t thought about going home. And that�s no stretch, I really haven�t.

That�s not to say that I haven�t had a good time, because I have. Still though. I guess I just really love everyone and everything back home a lot.

And now I am 13 days away from going home. For so long it�s been a dream that�s existed so far in the distance that its hardly ever seemed like it would become a reality. Now its here! I�m actually going to see my mom�s face in 13 days! I�m gong to hug my dad and feel his big arms around me! My two best friends will be there and I can hear them screaming �Julie!� already in their Kel and Chena voices.

I�m going crazy about it. I�m just so excited that I can�t sleep. I can�t go five minutes without some odd thought about home popping into my head. I�m really becoming a psycho. My brain doesn�t seem to function normally unless it�s thinking about something home related. Case in point: Last night at a rotary meeting Sarah (the other exchange student in my club) asked me if it was still raining outside, and do you know what I did? I looked at my watch. What the hell? Who looks at their watch to see if the rain has stopped? I�m insane! And then both Sarah and I laughed at our collective insanity for a good ten minutes straight, thus assuring our rotary club that we�ve both totally lost our marbles.

But what can I say? For almost ten months now I�ve wanted nothing more than to see my family, friends, and home. I�m less than two weeks away now and, well, it�s messing with my mind.

It has to be said that I will be sad to say goodbye, I�m not totally inhuman, but once that plane takes off I�m going to be thinking about nothing more than the people waiting for me in Marquette. (And, maybe, just how in the hell I�m going to make it though customs.)

Thirteen days! I can�t wait! Why can�t time just speed up? What am I going to do with 13 days? Oh, right. The same thing I�ve been doing all year. Dream about going home!

So, Kel, trust me. I�m going to be so happy to see you and Chena and my mom and my dad and Jake and Anne and Erin and my house and my room and Lake Superior and, And, AND!!!... I have to stop! If not I might just disappear in a huge explosion of excited sparks! Ahh!!!...!!!

Whew. Thirteen days. Thirteen days. It�s like my mantra. Hey,� hang on! It�s actually only like 12.5 days now! Woo! 12.5! 12.5 days! 3000 hours! 180,000 minutes! And there goes another one!

No more cigarette smoke! No more dubbed movies! No more having no social life! No more gaining weight! No more being treated like a three-year-old! I�m coming home!

Woo! Marquette here I come! I�m coming home!