almost jumping

It seems like recently a lot of people have been debating whether or not they are really, truly happy here. Watching other people struggle has really made me question how I feel about where I am right now. I remember back in France, I told myself for the first three months that I was SO HAPPY! I LOVED FRANCE! But really, looking back, I was having fun, but I was lonely and wasn't really feeling fantastic emotionally. So what now? I had a rough couple of weeks surrounding my birthday, filled with stuggles emotionally, physically, and educationally. But then I went away for Thanksgiving, I came back, and I felt so overjoyed. I saw one friend walk into my hall and I was so glad to see him, then another door opened and I saw another girl, and my closest friend here ran up the stairs. And I sat and talked to these kids for two hours, gushing over our weekends and all the things we did and bought and all the homework we still have to do. I am happy here, how could I not be with these people around me? I love that I live with my friends, they drive me INSANE sometimes, but I really feel glad to be in the place that I am, surrounded by so many people who love me so much. When I'm in pain, I have 50 arms reaching out to hug me.

This doesn't stop me from missing my Seattle friends, or my France friends for that matter... I've sincerely neglected some of them, some people who mean the world to me. I'm working on it.

Last night was crazy. I camped out in a friend's room for hours, watching the election returns with three other kids. I was doing my homework as the results rolled in, so I managed to be social and productive at the same time. We had this huge map on his wall with all the states, on the states were written the numbers of the districts that were swing districts, these numbers were written on in the color that they were leaning. We circled them in the color of the party that actually won them. And we shaded in the states as Senate positions were won.

This is such an exciting day to be an American. Let's recap:
The House of Representatives is now ran by the Democrats! AND the new House Speaker is Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to hold that position.
The Senate could potentially belong to the democrats... it all depends on Virginia. And we won't know that result for months and months.
But even if we don't get it, we still can be exceedingly pleased that only Democrats won new seats, no new seats were won at all by the Republicans.
To top that off, Rumsfeld is scared of Democrats, so he resigned.

Nice work America, you are looking better with each passing moment.

update: the dems have the senate!!! fuck yeah!!!!! i can be proud to be an american again!!