thoughts

So, it turns out there are some downsides to my new hobby, jogging.  Namely that you are very exposed to the elements.  For example, running into the wind is not a very pleasant experience, nor is running in the rain.  Actually, that might almost be bearable if it weren't terribly blustery or pouring.  To add insult to injury...or maybe injury to insult, while running in the wind it is not uncommon to get flying debris in your eye, and that sucks a lot.  Plus I feel like people, especially french ones, give you even stranger looks than they do when they see you running in normal weather.  Lastly, keeping up this new hobby over the smoldering NM summer is a challenge.  I know.  I've tried.  It's a good thing I actually enjoy jogging when I'm able to get over the unpleasantness of the process.  

I'm not sure it's terribly good for the bronchitis or whatever my latest sickness is.  Basically I don't feel all that sick except for the smoker cough plaguing my lungs.

On a completely other train of thought, I learned last night that it's probably a good thing I chose not to go to McGill, because the Quebecois accent is a sound that makes me want to punch babies (please, someone, appreciate the Dane Cook reference and don't think I'm a psycho).  I went to a play with some of the other oregonians.  It was a really interesting play, except that it was set partially in Canada and one of the main characters had this ridiculous accent.  Some of the other actors had the same accent, but hers was especially painful and difficult to understand.  Although more painful than difficult, I think.  Beyond that, it was a four hour play, which meant four whole hours of this accent.  

I complain a lot.  I'm  sorry.  I actually really enjoy jogging and the play was very good.  And life in general is going well.  There was another brazilian night at the marquise on Sunday night, which I ended up going to alone because Katie is sickie.  Actually, a couple of my friends showed up after a while, but they wouldn't dance to the live music because they didn't know the steps, which I tried to teach them cuz it's super easy.  Luckily, while I was standing around awkwardly in the corner, my capoeira teacher showed up and got me to dance with him.  Not only is he a good lead (ie I don't actually have to think about what I'm doing), but he's goofy and will bust into silly dance moves randomly.  I also danced with this guy who was a bad lead and kept changing the steps and running me into people.  It's amazing how big of a difference a guy's dance skillz have on a girl's dancing experience.  

I've also got all my plans set up for my April break that's in a little over a week.  I'm riding with the host fam to Pisa (about a day's drive), hanging out there for a day and seeing the sights, taking a train to Florence and spending a few days with my friend Erin, flying to Brussels, taking a train to Bruges and hanging out there for a couple days with some friends, and then coming back to Lyon...and getting back to work.  Yay traveling!

Ok, need to shower and concentrate for like an hour to finish some homework so that I can go print some stuff out and try to do more homework.  Doing homework has gotten so hard for me!  I'm even more of a master procrastinator than I used to be.  OH!  But exciting news, I FINALLY got my grade for my constitutional law class, and I kicked butt.  My grade was based entirely on a 10-page paper on the topic of my choice, as long as it had to do with constitutional law.  So I wrote mine on environmental protections in the Constitution, mostly focusing on the french Constitution, but also the lack of environmental protection in the U.S. Constitution.  I really didn't know what to expect in terms of a grade, so that was a happy surprise the other day.

And on that note, I should probably get to work on doing well in my classes this semester...

Biz.