Countdown to France: T minus 23 days

This blog was created to document my time in France, and yet, in spite of this I find myself updating it while I am still in America. So I'm cheating a bit, I'm thumbing my nose at convention, I'm maneuvering around the system - a common practice in France according to a book I have recently been assigned. Therefore, I'm merely facing culture shock dead on by accustoming myself to common French practices.

Admittedly, these pre-departure updates are perhaps more self-contradictory and less rebellious than I would like to imagine. In my opinion, self-contradiction has earned itself a very negative connotation, so to lessen the hypocrisy of my present updates (and all future updates until I arrive in France), I am going to slap an official label on them to lend them some credibility. They will from here on out be called "Countdown to France: T minus _____ days." Yes, there is a subtitle. It's common knowledge that any official title must have a subtitle to clarify and legitimize, otherwise it would be child's play and taken seriously by only those who know no better.

After that extremely long and excusatory introduction, I am finally getting to the true purpose of my post. I received an email several weeks ago written by my host mother introducing the family. She begins the letter with a brief description of where the family originates, her husband's profession, and that she is a mère au foyer, or a house wife. This is no wonder considering her next statement that they have 8 children, 4 boys and 4 girls. Yes, eight children ranging in age from 26 to 12. This caught me off guard - all my friends who have studied abroad had host families consisting of usually a single mother with a fully grown child. Rarely have I heard of multiple children, let alone eight.

I'm thrilled to live with such a large family, and cannot begin to imagine what life will be like. I grew up in a family of four: my two parents and my "little" brother. The closest I have ever come to experiencing large families is Thanksgiving at my aunt's house. My extended family is rather large, but my aunt's is even larger, and when she hosts Thanksgiving the noise and numbers have a tendency to astound and even overwhelm new additions to the family.

I don't see my limited exposure to large families as any greater a challenge than complete submersion in a foreign culture. So much will be different, what is one more thing? Right? Well, I guess we'll see in 23 days.