Update

To everyone reading this,

I regret to inform you that I may not be updating as regularly as I had originally intended, and even then, there will most likely not be any pictures.  I will give you the rundown, though, if only to understand my predicament.

Friday morning I arrived in London Heathrow and took the Tube instead of a taxi to St. Pancras (sorry, but I'm not spending 80+ pounds sterling for a cab ride).  I made it to the station and onto the train about 5 minutes before it left.  Upon arriving in Paris, I experienced the wonderful sensation of being rusty enough with a language that I could not communicate effectively as possible.  As a result, I missed my original train out of Gare de Lyons (I found out with only 20 minutes to make it there that I needed to take the Paris metro two stops over and take a train from there, rather than from Gare du Nord, where my first train had arrived).  I "exchanged" my ticket for one leaving Saturday morning (exchanged being a relative term, because I had to pay 70 Euro extra for my trouble >.<) and with the sudden loss of that extra money (and the realization that I did not have access to internet, phone, or text messaging from my phone), I barely made it to Gare de Lyons, and made the decision to wait the time in the station 'til my train left that next morning.  A mistake on my part.

Around 2330 Paris time I made the mistake of falling asleep.  I literally could not stay awake anymore.  I couldn't have been asleep long, but when I woke up I did not see my backpack (which I had wrapped the strap of that through my purse and through one of the handles of my suitcase) was MIA.  Inside my backpack was my laptop, glasses, chargers, outlet converter, cell phone (which was actually cut out of my purse), books to read and use for basic piano lessons, and the black shirt (y'all know the one.  The black one cut wonderfully low) and white undershirt that I had planned on wearing to meet the family.

Long story short, with my broken French I managed to report the theft.  I received help from a stranger who had not seen the theft itself, but had seen the perpetrators throw something out that turned out to be my glasses case.  I filed a report with the Paris Police, and sadly made my way back to the Station where I waited for only two hours (the time at the police station coming closer to 5) for my train.  Through luck I managed to get in a car of the train with some very nice people , and made it to Italy with no more unfortunate incidents.

The family is incredibly nice (I'm writing this from their computer), and Italy is gorgeous.  They keep asking if I would be willing to stay longer than the original three months (no more than six months total, Katja, je te promets), though while the offer is nice, I'm not sure if I will accept.  I need to get other things accomplished too.  I will be receiving a cell phone soon that I will mostly use for keeping in contact with the family, but if anyone really wants the number I can give it to them under the promise they use it sparingly.

I love you all, and I felt that you should know what had happened.  Hope things are better back in the States.