Everyone, I have good news: I am still alive and well! I apologize for the lack of updates, and I want to thank anyone who is still around to read this after the past month of my near-absence from the Internet. Your support is appreciated.
There are a couple of reasons why I haven’t updated. First of all, to be perfectly honest, I just haven’t been feeling that motivated to write posts or make videos recently. The truth is that this blogging thing is a lot of work, and I was starting to feel like it was just kind of sucking energy out of me. I wasn’t really sure anymore why I was doing it, or how exactly I was supposed to be benefiting from it. And I was feeling confused about a lot of the things I’d shared here, and what the point of it all was.
I had shared a lot of ambitious goals and dreams, but I was beginning to realize that I had changed, and that I didn’t necessarily want to continue pursuing all those goals. And I didn’t want to feel guilty about that. I didn’t think I should feel guilty about it. I was beginning to think that perhaps sharing goals and chronicling my pursuit of them was just not the sort of thing I should really be doing here. I’m too fluid, too volatile, too much of a free spirit for that sort of thing. I don’t want to be held down by anyone– not even by myself. I want to inspire people, but I want to do it in the way that’s right for me. I know I have to be true to myself above anything else.
Another thing that bothered me is that I seemed to have somehow established myself as specializing in language learning, and that wasn’t really what I wanted. Obviously I do like languages and have spent a lot of time learning them, but I have never intended for this blog to be all about languages. Somehow though, I got some exposure in that field, which led people to ask me lots of questions about languages, which led me to write more about languages. After a while, I started to feel a bit annoyed when people seemed to be interested in nothing but this topic. My apologies to those of you who are here for that, but I am not a language-learning expert, and I don’t intend to be one. In fact, I don’t intend to be an expert in anything– because as I said, I am too volatile. I never know when my interest in one thing is going to give way to an interest in something else.
Case in point: For the past month or so, I’ve done almost no language learning at all. For the past couple of weeks especially, I’ve had no interest in it whatsoever. Why? Well… because I’ve started learning to play the ukulele.
Yup, the ukulele. Now, if you’re laughing because you think the ukulele is just a cute little instrument for children (or maybe you’re just laughing at the randomness of my announcement, which is understandable), please watch this video immediately:
You’re not laughing anymore, are you? 
I had been intrigued by the ukulele for some time (it’s small and portable, it’s inexpensive, I like the sound of it, and it’s not as difficult as the guitar), but when I saw the above video, I was like, “That’s it– I’m getting a ukulele.” And so I did! Three weeks ago, I went to a music store in Paris and asked them to show me the best ukulele they had for someone starting out. I walked out with this guy:
Yes, I said "this guy". Secretly, I call him Joseph.
It only cost me 95 euros, and it sounds quite nice. You’ll just have to take my word for that at the moment, since I don’t quite feel ready to post a video of myself playing it… yet. 
But for now, all I want to say is that I’ve been completely obsessed with this thing ever since I got it. Completely. Obsessed. It’s been kind of hard to care about updating this blog (which people think is about languages) when all I want to do is play “Puff the Magic Dragon” on my ukulele. (Come on, don’t laugh– it’s a great song!)
I thought I enjoyed playing the piano… And I do. And I still play it. But I feel like the ukulele is my instrument. To fall back on the language analogy, playing the piano feels like speaking French, while playing the ukulele feels like speaking Japanese. French is a lovely language, but Japanese is my language. It’s the same kind of thing. I don’t know why I never thought of trying out another instrument before, but I think this was what I needed to really get into music.
A few days after I got my ukulele, I went with my host family to their second home (yeah, um… they’re rich French people) in Eygalières, a tiny little town near Avignon.
So I spent a week in this place…
With no Internet…
And played my ukulele outside in the sun. It was lovely. 
After that, I went to London for three days (without my ukulele, so those are the only days I haven’t played it since I got it.) I could have done without the cold and the rain, but other than that I really liked London a lot! I was actually a little surprised to find that I liked it more than I thought I would, and I wouldn’t even mind living there if it weren’t for the weather. I found the city had the sort of atmosphere that seemed to “fit” well with me. I also got to meet fellow blogger David Mansaray, who is just as cool in person as he is online! David, if you’re reading this, thanks again for taking the time to show me around your city.
So basically, I guess I’ve just been having a little too much fun living life to bother taking the time to write about it. But worry not, oh loyal fans, I won’t be disappearing for good! I do plan on continuing to update, but you will probably see some changes happening around this site, and updates might continue to be sparse for a while as I try to figure out exactly what direction I want to go in with all of this. If you have any ideas about that, by the way, I’m open to hearing them, so please let me know!
In the meantime, I’m going back to practicing my ukulele.
