Halfway done or halfway over?

So on my facebook profile I have several different countdowns leading up to the important events in my life. Tomorrow is my Palestine midterm. Three days and some change until both the Scrubs season premiere and the release of the French version of Harry Potter et les reliques de la mort. In eight days I'll be going to Norway (more on that in a bit). Nothing really exciting happens (except my unplanned weekend trips) but in 28 days my first "devoir" paper is due in Palestine. I've got two more papers due over the next fourteen days, then the next big thing is the start of final exams on December 14th. The point of all of this is the next number: In 60 days, I'm coming home. Exactly two months until I'm on an airplane heading back to the states, just in time for Christmas. Some days its a feeling of...I can't wait to be home, when am I going to be back somewhere where I'm actually comfortable. Not that I'm uncomfortable here, it is just so much work every single day. Yesterday my family had guests over for Sunday dinner. I hadn't been downstairs before the meal started, because I was studying for my grammar midterm that I had this morning. That meant that I hadn't spoken French at all that morning, and the catch is, it normally takes me about a half hour to warm up and actually get comfortable talking. As a result, I basically sat there, answered in very simple phrases when I was spoken to, and followed the conversation as well as I could. It was pretty embarrassing, I'm sure they thought I was an idiot. It will be quite a bit of a relief to be home, where I don't have to work so hard just to have a simple conversation. On top of that, I feel like I'm...I don't know not intruding, but not exactly finding my place in this home. My family is wonderful, but they don't really have a family room, someplace to just hang out. They have the kitchen, but the stools get put up on the table if you're not eating. They have their fancy parlor, but the doors stay shut. Upstairs there is a couch, but there is no outlet for my laptop when I need to work on my computer. As a result I'm spending a ton of time in my room. But I don't know where else to go, other than staying at school longer. I might start doing that. Then today, when I got home I put some water on to boil to make my lunch. I had just put the pasta in when my host mother came in and I think told me that she was going to clean as soon as I was done because Jean-Noel was coming home for lunch and she was running behind. Basically, I was in her way. Then instead of grabbing my salad and dressing and fruit from the fridge, I just went upstairs to stay out of her way and she told me that she thinks I should start eating at the university restaurant more often because its a more balanced meal. I tried to explain that this was kind of the exception, then told her about my family's halloween party last night and the costumes that my folks had worn, and how nice it was to have gotten to talk to them all online...to which she told me that it'd been really loud, and that I'd probably kept Aurlien awake. I feel like everything I'm doing all of the sudden is making her angry, and I have no idea how to fix it!

But, the good news is there is a break in site. A week from tomorrow I will be starting my "Grand Norwegian Adventure". Here's the plan:
Tuesday (30th)
After class I'm hustling down to the train station and hopping on the 6:45 train to Paris. That'll put me in the city at a little before 9, so I'll just head straight to the hostel that I booked for the night.

Wednesday (31st)
I'm going to see what time the metro starts running, and if its not this early I'm going to take a taxi to the airport because my plane leaves from Paris at 7:00 in the morning. Crazy early, I know, but then I'll have time to enjoy the sights in Wonderful Copenhagen. I touch down just before 9:00 in the morning, and then have the whole day to wander around the city, seeing what there is to see. Sometime within the next week I'm going to plan out and print off a self-guided walking tour so I make sure I don't miss anything. Then at 5:00 that night I'm going to hop on a boat that'll take me from Copenhagen up to Oslo, Norway!

Thursday (1st)
The boat lands at 9:00 in the morning, and the first thing I am going to do is hop on the bus and go out to the museum peninsula! Its a whole little part of the town that boasts almost a dozen different museums, including the Folkemuseum, which is the oldest open air museum in the world (which, in case you're wondering, is the same type of museum as the one I worked in this summer!). I have the entire day to spend wandering around museums, then that night I have a room booked at a hostel in the center of the city.

Friday (2nd)
Here I'll have time to finish up whatever museums I didn't see the day before, and also take a tour of the main parts of town. I was really looking at the bus tours, but I'm having a hard time finding anything that runs in the wintertime! My only deadline will be to be at the station by 4:07, when my train leaves Oslo for Bergen. I'll get into Bergen (after seeing some of the magnificent country!) at 10:30 that night, and my friend Chelsea is going to pick me up at the station!

Saturday (3rd)
I've got all day Saturday to spend with Chelsea, seeing her school and the sights in Bergen. Not sure what she's got planned, but I'm sure it'll be fun!

Sunday (4th)
Sunday mornign my flight leaves at 9:15 from Bergen back to Paris (with a stopover in Copenhagen). I am scheduled to arrive back in Paris at 1:15, then at 5:00 I'll take the train back to Nantes, and my host mom has already said that she'll pick me up at the airport. I think its going to be a crazy but really fun handful of days!!!