Catching up

Hello all! Sorry I’ve been so useless at this whole blogging thing lately. What with exams, trying to figure out my schedule for next semester, planning a week and a half of traveling, and everything in France being on sale, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to sit down and write. Plus, I don’t even know where to start. Plus, I’ve noticed that I sometimes blog when I’m trying to procrastinate schoolwork, and I haven’t actually had much of that lately…or at least none that could be procrastinated any longer. So now I’m procrastinating translating this document for someone, and I’ve got a good chunk of time to try to put the last couple weeks into words.

First of all, while I have the time and because I promised I would try to recap…

Paris: The Reader’s Digest Version.

~~On Thursday, we got on a train and headed to Paris. After checking in to the hostel and dropping off bags, went straight to the Ile de la Cité area because that’s where mostly everything is, and because we decided that the boat tour of the Seine would make a good introduction for Flippers. So we decided to do the tour later in the evening so we could see everything lit up, and then wandered around for a while, mostly enjoying the fabulous window displays of Paris, but also doing some touristing and souvenir buying. We ended up eating dinner in this little Italian restaurant where my mom, grandpa, and I had eaten almost 8 years ago the first time I was in Paris. That made me really happy. Then, we did the boat tour, which was cold, windy, and absolutely gorgeous. The Eiffel Tower was glittering for the first ten minutes of the tour, off in the distance (it does that every hour on the hour after dark…a sight to see, let me tell you), and all of the buildings were lit up and wonderful. It was the third time I’ve done that tour, and I don’t think it will ever get old. Anyway, after the tour, we wandered around in search of a good café to get some hot chocolate and ended up in this pretty chic place in the Latin Quarter where a little jazz band was playing. We drank overpriced hot chocolate and enjoyed some good music before heading back to the hostel and falling into bed.
~~Friday morning, we got up bright and early so as to miss the lines at the Eiffel Tower. Success! We hardly even had to wait to buy tickets to climb the first two levels of the tower. On the first level, my camera had a break down, which sent me into a bit of a panic, but we continued to enjoy the tower and the views and the trek up the 700ish stairs. To ease my panic, when we left the Eiffel Tower, we went on a mission to find a camera store to see if they could figure out if the memory card in my camera was totally shot or just minorly challenged. Turns out it was pretty shot, but they were able to save most of the pictures on it…for a price. That being done, we hit the Champs Elysées and were quickly sucked in by the Sephora, which is actually a total make-up superstore, not just Sephora. Two hours and 100 euros later, we headed back to the hostel to get ready for Cabaret. Before the show, we went on a free tour of Montmartre, which was really great. Montmartre is a part of Paris that I’m really kind of fascinated by, but have never really spent much time on. I mean, it was an artist’s haven—home to many great artists, including my favorite painter, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec—and it’s where Amélie was set/filmed. Plus it’s pretty and there are a gazillion sex shops. What more could you ask for? Unfortunately, we had to leave the tour a little early to make it to Cabaret on time, which ended up being totally worth it because it was an amazing show. The dancing and acting were both spectacular, and they actually did a pretty good job of translating the songs into French (good enough that I bought the CD, in fact). Flippers lost a decent amount of the story because he doesn’t understand French, but he enjoyed the whole production enough that it didn’t matter much. After that, it was back to the hostel and bed for us cuz we were exhausted.
~~Saturday we did the early morning thing again to beat the lines at the Musée d’Orsay, which I much prefer to the Louvre. I mean, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Degas, Renoir…need I say more? Plus all the statues and a display of funky and awesome furniture, which Flippers and I thoroughly enjoyed. And the museum store, which we raided quite successfully. After the museum, we went to Luxembourg Gardens and people-watched and ate really disappointing crêpes before stopping off at the Pompidou Center and then going back to Montmartre to eat at the Café Deux Moulins, the café where Amélie was filmed. We had planned on having lunch, but ended up just splitting crème brulée (it was heaven) and tea/coffee. Last but not least, we toured the sex shops, and were disappointed to find that they were all really skeazy and not terribly exciting. I know, I know, what do you expect from sex shops, but I guess we just hoped for more considering it was Paris. Oh well…at least it proved distracting enough that we realized we were going to be late for our train if we didn’t hurry. So we metro’d/ran around Paris like madmen to pick up our bags at the hostel and then get to the train station panting, but just in time. We both crashed out on the train, and then got home, exhausted and gross, but very happy.

Whew…and that’s just the Reader’s Digest version…let’s just say it was a packed three days. And now, the Reader’s Digest version of the last two weeks…

~~Sales. In France in January, everything goes on sale. It’s government regulated or something that for two weeks, all the stores have to put their stuff on sale, and shopping is madness, but it’s possible to get some really good deals. I’m not a huge shopper, and I was kind of all shopped out after having Flippers here, but I have taken advantage of the sales to buy a couple fun things for myself, as well as some presents.

~~Exams. I worked pretty hard to finish my 10+ page essay for my Constitutional Law exam. I ended up writing it on environmental protections in the Constitution, which was a topic that I found interesting enough to make researching/writing the essay not completely miserable. I’m just glad it’s over, though. I also had my Portuguese exam…it was what you would expect from a beginning language class. I think I did fine. I still don’t know what my grades are in my classes, but I am at least confident that I didn’t fail any of them. This whole studying in France thing has really pushed me to accept that it’s ok if I’m not a straight-A student forever. I mean, grades are important and I would like to do well, but there’s only so much I can do in a completely unfamiliar system.

~~Trip planning. I’m leaving on Monday for Edinburgh, then going to Amsterdam, and then to Copenhagen. All the planning was pretty last minute, but my friend and I were pretty determined to make it work. And we did. I’m really excited. I don’t think I ever would have made it to Scotland if Katie (I can’t think of a good nickname right now…) hadn’t suggested it, but I think it will be fun anyway, and Copenhagen was a random decision. I think it’s going to be a really interesting little voyage.

~~Scheduling for next semester. Picking classes in this country is no walk in the park. French students don’t really have much choice in the classes they take. They pick their major and sometimes a concentration, and then the university determines what classes they will take and they get a schedule in the mail. Not so much for us. So slowly but surely I picked out classes that looked somewhat interesting and got them to work together time-wise, but then I had to work in my job, which was a huge pain, but I think I figured out something that should work. I came close to quitting, because this whole job is proving to be more difficult and frustrating than it should be, but really like the kids, so I’m going to do my best not to give up.

Um…I think that’s it for now. Thanks for making it through such a long update. I probably won’t be blogging again until I get back from my trip (and then hopefully I wont put it off this song again).

Biz.

Some deep thoughts

I'm in something of a post-break, back to work, exhausted slump at the moment, which is why I haven't gotten around to resuming the Paris trip or blogging in general.  I'm kind of feeling overwhelmed by things getting back underway after the chill break I had.  And a whole new round of homesickness is setting in now that Flippers and his northern New Mexico accent and attitude have left.  

I also had a strangely shocking realization the other day.  Strange in the fact that I felt shocked...the realization itself wasn't really all that strange or shocking in itself.  A bunch of my friends in their various blogs/myspaces/etc have been doing this "wrapping up of 2007" thing.  This is not a practice that is terribly appealing to me personally, because...well, I guess it's just not.  I don't really want to try to get into the why at the moment.  But, as i was reading these little wrap-ups, I was struck by just how much I have been missing in my friends lives over the past few months.  By just how much the rest of the world is continuing to grow and change.  I thought about this a lot before my grandpa died because it was really hard for me to accept that that aspect of my life was continuing without me being there to witness it, but it was always focused on my grandpa.  Now I realized that all sorts of other things are happening without my being there to witness them.

A couple of my friends started new jobs.  My best friend's dad decided to retire and move to Australia and then hasn't quite gotten around to it yet.  And she may or may not have to find a new house.  My little sister turned three.  A whole term worth of pocket shows have gone unseen by me.  My friend played a whore in Threepenny Opera and I didn't get to see it.  One of my cousins is about to have a baby and another got engaged.  People have traveled.  Relationships have come and gone.  Kisses have been shared and stolen.  Huge life decisions have been made.  Small life decisions have been made.  Friendships have bloomed and fizzled out.  Hundreds of hours of gossip have gone un-gossiped.  Some of my friends will be graduating from high school and college in May and will be moving on to new chapters in their lives.  I still have yet to see my old roomie's "new" house and it wont be new anymore by the time I see it.  Bunches of my friends in Oregon are living in new houses and apartments that I haven't gotten to see, and who knows if i will ever get to see them, depending on if they stay in those places or not next year.  One of my friends in NM moved into a new apartment.  A close friend and "sister" of mine was in and out of the hospital with strange health problems and a broken pelvis.  People have gotten piercings and quite possibly tattoos (although I don't know of any off the top of my head) and changed their hair.

I could go on and on coming up with the things that I have heard about in passing or learned via facebook stalking or read in emails or heard on the phone...ok, so I guess I'm not completely out of the loop.  But then there are all the things that I'm sure I know nothing about yet...and that I may or may not even hear about.  And all the small "insignificant" things that you know about your friends when you see or talk to them every day, but that don't come up in the weekly/monthly/etc update that you get from them when you have time to call or e-mail each other.  Discussions about interesting lectures or experiences.  Cuddling in a friends bed gossiping about boys and school and whatever else it is we girls gossip about.

Wow...I'm depressing myself a little bit.  Which is silly.  I really wouldn't give the experience I'm having up for anything.  I mean, I, too, have a new piercing, a new haircut, new gossip, new experiences.  Interesting things happen to me every day and I don't have time to tell people about them all.  Many will go unshared because they get lost in the shuffle.  But that doesn't mean they haven't all changed me at least a little bit.  And in a way, I guess I'm getting on with my life without the direct supervision of a lot of the people that normally play a really important role in my daily life just like the rest of the world is getting on without me.  But I can know that all I want and still feel a little bit like I'm missing out.  And I can appreciate what I have and still wish deep down that I were part of all those other things too, right?  As long as I don't forget to appreciate what I have first.  

Anyway, I've kind of been letting myself drown in the things that I'm missing and in the things that I need to be focusing on/getting done lately, which I know isn't really a good thing, but sometimes it happens.  And sometimes you have to let yourself be in a slump for a little while before you can pick your way out of it.  So I will leave today behind soon and go to bed and accept the fact that I didn't work on my paper or send out those important emails or book that flight or whatever.  And tomorrow I'll make a list and prioritize and all that good stuff and have a cup of piñon coffee and get back on track.

And then maybe I will be able to catch up with the Paris update before I go on another trip.  hehe

Biz.

Whirlwind

I don't even know how I'm going to get to blogging about everything that has happened in the last week, much less when I shall have time to attempt such a feat, considering Flippers is here for two more days and then I have a 10-15 page paper to research and write, a portuguese final to study for, lesson plans to prepare, a trip to plan, and a friend of mine invited me to go skiing with him next weekend.  Oh my.  Also, somewhere in there I have to recover from the craziness that has been the last week.  I'm just a little bit overwhelmed.  

But, I wanted to throw in a little blog here while we have some siesta time before going to the park and Fourvière, the two main lyonnais things that Flippers has yet to see.  Up close at least.  In a nutshell, this past week has been a blast.  The new years party was absolutely fabulous.  I had been all worried because Flo and friends are all about 18, and I didn't really know what to expect, and I didn't want to drag Flippers to a lame party on new years eve in France.  But it turned out to be a great success.  Sleeping Beauty/Prince Philip costumes were way fun, and everyone else's costumes were great as well.  We ate yummy food, danced, had Disney-related conversation, drank champagne, and basically just rang in the new year having a blast.  

After spending the first in bed watching movies and recovering from the festivities and the sardine-like sleeping arrangement in some random bed at the house where the party was, Flippers and I took to exploring and more shopping.  He is a really bad influence on me.  We also saw a Guignol show (lyonnais puppet show...great fun) before blasting off to Paris.  That's a trip I'm going to not try to tackle right now, but I will say that we had a complete blast and it was a packed 3 days.  There are lots of stories to tell, and I will try to get to them soon.

Anyway, we made it back more or less in one piece, although we are both really tired and kind of sore...as are our bank accounts.  It's amazing how easy it is to spend money in a place like Paris.  Really.  But it was all well-worth it.  

I hope you all had wonderful New Years Eve celebrations and I hope the thought of getting back into the post-holiday swing of things isn't too daunting like it is for me.  More soon!!

Biz.

Newness

Wow.  The last few days have been WHIRLWIND for me, so here's a little recap...

Christmas eve was a great success.  We went to mass which was a little bit more family oriented than your average Christmas Eve mass, although a fair number of kids were still getting pretty restless about halfway through.  After mass, we had a little pre-dinner apertif and snackies, until Florence's sister showed up, and then we started dinner, which was really light, but really yummy.  Apparently, when Florence was growing up, they really didn't do much in the way of a special dinner on Christmas Eve, but Lionel's family always had a big blowout kind of dinner, so they have reached a sort of compromise between the two.  To start off, we had eggnog à la Terra and Dia, taiwanese salad à la Wei-Ching, this creamy avocado thing à la Lionel, and shrimp.  Then we had smoked salmon and, for the very french (I haven't gotten this french yet), foie gras.  Dessert was a bûche de Noël, which is a (generally chocolate) cake in the shape of a log that is a necessity at Noël in France.  We also had biscochitos à la New Mexico, snow cake à la Taiwan, and lemon tart that Florence's sister is apparently quite famous for.  Delicious and highly multicultural little dinner.  

Dinner/chatting/drinking wine lasted until about 12:30, at which point, everyone put their little shoes and/or slippers under the tree and went to bed.  I, being the little kid that I am at heart, was awake at 7am ready to go enjoy the fabulousness that is presents on Christmas morning.  I made myself stay in bed until I heard the real kids get up and start being awake and whatnot before joining in the festivities.  I haven't really done Christmas morning with a little kids in quite a while, and I was amazed at how giddy they get.  Christmas here is much more low-key in terms of presents than some of the Christmases I celebrated in my childhood, but Mathias was really just having a blast with everything.  I even got him to sit down and do the Cars puzzles that I got him with me.  In terms of presents, I got a couple little things, which was nice because I really don't need anymore stuff...especially after seeing the luggage that Dia hauled out of my apartment this morning, but more on that in a minute.  Florence got me a red and green scarf (which is less christmasy than it sounds), Wei-Ching got me a bracelet, the gave me and Wei-Ching matching mugs, and Dia gave me this funky thing to hang pictures in my room.  Now I need to print out more pictures!  Woo.

Anyway, the rest of Christmas day consisted of watching xmas movies with Dia, making pancakes, and then having dinner with a bunch of the other Oregon students who weren't traveling for the break.  I was really glad to do that.  I've kind of fallen out of touch with a lot of Oregon people, which is a bummer.  I really just don't have classes with most of them, and so I end up hanging out with the people I do have classes with, because it's easier to make plans and such.  But I really do like the other Oregon people, and it was nice to spend an evening eating yummy food, drinking wine, and chatting away about all kinds of good stuff.  

If you think that was the whirlwind part of my week, I'll have you know the madness is just beginning.  Since Christmas, I took Dia around Lyon and we went on a mission to find cute brown boots, which Dia was more successful at than me, but I was ok with that.  Then, my friend Molly cut my hair and I now have bangs and the rest of my hair is more layery and fun.  It is weird to have bangs, because I haven't had them in ages, but it's kind of fun.  On the way back from Molly's, I found a wonderfully cheap pair of brown boots, and also found the fabric store and bought red fabric for a Prince Charming cape.

Then, Detective Nikky Flippers flew in from New Mexico, and it's been a blast ever since.  Especially because he came bearing presents.  Namely, FRONTIER TORTILLAS!!!! (which I threatened to leave him at the airport if he forgot).  But also lots of gum, red chile, black beans, and Buffet's piñon candy, which I wanted to share with my host familia, who are all quite fond of piñon.  He also brought tons of pink satiny fabric, a blonde wig, and a tiara to turn me into princess Aurora.  YES!!!!

Anyway, he, Dia, and I squished into my little bedroom and hung out and watched movies.  And this morning, Dia unpacked and repacked her luggage, which was quite an adventure, and then we saw her off at the train station.  From there, Flipper's and I took the metro to Hôtel de Ville and did the tour of the shopping district of Lyon.  We were mostly in search of stuff for the Sleeping Beauty/Prince Charming costumes, but all we really ended up getting for that was some eye shadow.  We also came home with a blow dryer for me (because I hadn't bough one yet as I never blow-dry my hair, but now that I have bangs, I actually have to put a little effort into doing my hair...ugh), a shirt and a rhinestone-encrusted bowtie for Flippers, and a wonderful pair of green boots for me, which are pretty much exactly what I've been wanting, and only cost 15 euro, so probably the best buy ever.  Oh, and we also bought a comb and hair cutting scissors because Flippers decided that he trusted me to play with/cut his hair, which I just finished.  It was fun!  

Anyway, that's the update on life in Lyon lately.  I feel like things have been SO crazy and I can't believe it's almost new years and then before I know it, Flippers will be leaving (sad) and I will be finishing up the last of my classes, and then traveling (hopefully...there may be a small snag in my plans...boo) and then starting new classes and then in less than 2 months, I will be home for a week!  Seriously, I feel like I've been counting my life in relation to that trip home because I need it so badly.  No matter that the trip will go by incredibly fast and then I'll be back here and back to work and school and life.  I feel like I can't even think about anything after that at this point because that's like this light at the end of the tunnel.  Not that anything is wrong or bad or anything.  Things are great, and I'm clearly keeping busy and having a good time, but I need some family/friends/New Mexico therapy that I just can't get anywhere else.

Wow.  Gotta stop now cuz Flippers and I were thinking about going out tonight and it's already almost nine and he's all ready and has fallen asleep and I'm still in my post-shower/hair cutting PJs and neither of us have eaten dinner.  And watching him sleep is kind of making me think a little power nap might be nice before hitting the dance floor.  Hmm...I guess maybe it's a good thing things don't really get hopping here until at least 11...

And, I'm off!  Biz.

Mamacita, donde esta Santa Clause?

That's my favorite Christmas song, after Silent night and the Mariah Carey Christmas CD.  Although, this Christmas remake of Purple Haze is making me smile a lot, too.  I really do just love Christmas music, and especially really weird Christmas music à la Peter C.  No one will get that but my mom, but oh well.  Ok, seriously, if you have iTunes, go into the radio, and in the holiday section you will find "Xmas in Frisko".  Listen to it, and be amazed.  I am now listening to Reggae Days of Christmas.  YES.

Anyway, it's Christmas Eve, and so far it's been an interesting day.  My friend who's visiting fell in the shower this morning while I was at the grocery store, and we almost had to go to the hospital, but she's ok.  In a lot of pain, but not concussiony or anything, thankfully.  After that little craziness,  she bought me a poinsettia as my Christmas present.  There is a flower shop underneath my apartment, and I've passed by this window everyday and looked longingly at the only poinsettia that I've seen in France, and so she decided to buy it for me.  The thing should be made out of solid gold, the amount of money that was paid for it.  I guess we had to pay for it to travel first class to the states.  Which is so strange considering that I am used to cheap poinsettias everywhere I go at Christmastime.  

One very expensive poinsettia later, we made eggnog, and this time I dared to do it with raw eggs.  The concept is kind of terrifying, but it does taste better.  And, if you add rum, that will kill all the bacteria, right?  Of course.  We also made some of the cooked kind because my friend (Mad Buffalo hehe) is a little freaky about raw eggs.  I hope the familia enjoys it.  Also, we made biscochitos last night!!!!!!!!  Best thing ever.  Now if I only had some posole, I would really be happy.  But I am going to just be happy anyway, because I have a fabulous host fam, a fabulous roommate, and a great friend visiting me, and we are going to have a very merry Christmas.  And Mad Buffalo brought the Charlie Brown Christmas special, so we are gonna watch that and make pancakes for breakfast tomorrow.  And maybe go hang out with some of the other study abroad people who are family-less in Lyon for Christmas.  Yay friends!

Well, I should probably finish getting ready to go to mass and have dinner and everything, but I want to say Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope you are all doing fabulously and getting to spend time with the people you love the most.  And eat some delicious Christmasy food for me.  Especially posole and gingerbread cookies if you have them.  Some special Christmas messages:

Mommy:  I'm glad you are getting to have your relaxed Christmas this year.  Also, the pictures absolutely totally made my day (and Mad Buffalo's, as well).  I love you and miss you like crazy and I will call you later.  *MUAH*

Nana:  I miss you SO much!!  I hope the decorations at Manzano are beautiful and you get yummy yummy food.  And I hope my present gets there soon!  I think you are gonna like it a lot!

Daddy:  I know you're not a big Christmas celebrator, but I hope having Sofy around got you in the spirit a little bit.  I love you and miss you!

Sofy:  Big giant Christmas hug from your sis!!!  And since it's dad who's reading this, give her a big hug and kiss for me.

Boe:  Merry Christmas!!!  I love you SO much and I miss you and I hate not getting to see you for Christmas.  HUG!!!!

GG:  You better be taking pictures of luminarias for me!!  You promised!  I love you hun!!!

NapoleOn:  Feliz Navidad, mi amor!!!  I love you so much and I hope you are having fun back home!!!

And a special shout out to Asian Glow:  I hope you made it home safely!!!  Merry Christmas!!  Lyon misses you!

Ok, if you didn't make it on that list, it's certainly not out of lack of love.  There's enough Terra-love to go around.  So to everyone else who is amazing and has kept up with this little blog, thank you and Merry Christmas!!!

Biz.

Can't say I didn't try

I tried les cuisses de grenouille yesterday.  For those of you that know me, you know I'm not a huge fan of strange foods, and that I'm a vegetarian, but when in Rome, right?  There are two things that everyone says should be tried as long as you are living in Frogs-legs-a-gogo-land: frogs legs and escargot.  Well, I can now cross frogs legs of my list and say that I'm not missing too much.  I still haven't gotten up the nerve to confront escargot.  I'm not a big texture-phobe, but I can't imagine the texture of a slug is something I'm going to enjoy.  Anyway, back to the frogs legs.  I went out to dinner last night with my colleagues from one of the elementary schools I work at.  We went to a restaurant in Perrouges, which is a little medieval village about 40 minutes from Lyon.  I went there when I was staying with the Roys three years ago, and really enjoyed it.  Last night, though, we didn't see much but the restaurant because it was dark and foggy and cold.  It was a nice little restaurant, but there wasn't much on the menu that was veg-friendly, so I ended up just ordering a salad with salmon and cheesy potatoes (luckily gratin dauphinois is a specialty in the region).  Four of the other teachers ordered frogs legs, though, and insisted that I try them, so I did.  In the end, not bad...a little tough or dry or something, but tastes more or less like something between chicken and fish.  Maybe it's because I haven't had meat other than fish in 5+ years, but I really wasn't impressed, even though everyone else who was eating them were all gaga over how good they were.  To each their own, I guess.  Luckily, the gratin was super delicious.  I love cheese and I love potatoes, and the two together equal a happy Terra.

To completely change the subject, I am officially on vacation!!  Yay!!  I had portuguese this morning, but after I finished my translation test (which I don't feel as good about as I did the grammar test, but I'm hoping the prof will go easy on me considering I am not a native french speaker, so translating from portuguese to french is kind of tough for me), I was done until January 11th.  woohoo.  I'm starting to get really excited about Christmas.  I spent yesterday dressing up my presents.  I LOVE wrapping presents.  I made fancy ribbony bows with Papillotes, which are these lyonnais chocolate candies that people here are obsessed with, and candy canes (which I was hella excited to find yesterday, because this certainly is not the states, and they do not have boxes and boxes of candy canes in a million different forms and flavors in every store).  They are so pretty!  It's a relatively simple set of presents, only for the host fam, Wei-Ching, and my friend Dia, but they certainly look pretty, so that's what really matters.  I also found an "alternative Christmas" station on iTunes radio, so I'm listening to weird Christmas songs, which makes me really happy, especially since I didn't think to bring my own fabulous Christmas mixes with me, and I love weird versions of Christmas songs.  Basically, my room feels quite Christmasy right now.  I hung candy canes on my ficus, and the presents are all arranged around it, and then I have two drawings of Christmas trees from the kiddos hanging on the wall, and then funky Christmas music playing...that's the spirit!

And I have all the ingredients for biscochitos in my kitchen and the family recipe in my email inbox, so Dia and Wei-CHing and I can make them for Christmas.  YAY!!!!  Happy Happy Joy Joy.

Ooh!  And I'm really excited because I was talking to Barbara, the director of the Penn program today, and I mentioned the New Years party and the dressing up in costumes and whatnot, and that lead to making things, which led to her telling me about a fabric store that is more or less like JoAnn Fabrics or other american fabric stores.  Which is AMAZING because I really heart fabric stores.  I'm not all that crafty when it comes to sewing but, I one of my favorite things ever is to buy fabric scraps and make headbands or belts or whatever out of them.  And, I was thinking it would be cool to find some green sparkly material to spice up our costumes.  And maybe, depending on how brave I'm feeling and if I find a store that sells them, I might try to make some fairy wings.   So that is going to be my project for the week.  Should be fun. 

On a less exciting note, I really have managed to get sick again.  It took all the energy I could muster to get up and go to my portuguese class this morning, and I still can't breathe through my nose and I'm all coughy and whatnot.  What the heck?  I don't get sick that often, and this is the third time since I got here in September.  I am not so much ok with this plan.  And the fact that it is currently -1˚C (30˚F) out, probably doesn't help at all.  Seriously, I think I actually feel the cold here more than I ever did back home, even if the temperatures are similar.  I definitely remember last year in the giant snow-dump of 2006, that I was able to be outside in a sweater and a coat and jeans and gloves and was more or less comfortable.  Chilly when the snow got under my clothes or if it was windy, but here I'm chilled to the bone all the time.  Even in two long-sleeve shirts and my peacoat and leggings under my pants and a chunky scarf and gloves, etc.  WTF?!?!

Speaking of being cold, I think I'm gonna go eat me some hot soup cuz I never ate lunch and I'm cold.

Biz.

bye bye

Well, my first semester in Lyon is quickly coming to an end, and that means that all the semester people are getting ready to leave.  Almost all of the Oregon people are here for the whole year, but most of the Penn and an bunch of the UC students are only doing the semester, and I've found myself spending a lot more time with Penn and UC people than with the rest of the Oregon group for some reason.  That means that a big chunk of my friends are heading out in the next few days.  Sad much?

Last week, I went to dinner with a bunch of the Penn people at a Paul Bocuse restaurant.  Paul Bocuse is a really well-known chef here in Lyon.  There are a lot of boulangerie/patisseries that carry his name, four bistros, and one really fancy restaurant/culinary school.  We were actually supposed to have our Thanksgiving dinner at the school, but there was a problem with the reservation and we ended up elsewhere.  I was a bit disappointed with that because Florence kept telling me how fancy and amazing the food is (not to mention incredibly expensive).  Not that we didn't have a really delicious dinner.  Anyway, we ended up at one of the bistros because they wanted to do kind of a blowout fancy schmancy dinner before leaving town, and I got to join them, which was really nice.  Delicious!  A good way to say goodbye to Lyon, I think.  Or in my case, to say goodbye to new friends.  I've also had a couple more outings with various Penn people who are getting ready to head out, and it's quite sad to say goodbye to them.  I think my friend Jenn is quite convinced to work on coming back for spring break, though, which would be quite exciting.

I can't even imagine leaving right now, despite the strong desire I've had lately to be home.  It would be really nice to be with my family for Christmas, but even with all the stuff I've been going through, I'm definitely not ready to say goodbye to this place.  There are so many things I haven't done yet, and I can't wait for Lyon in the springtime, when it starts to get warmer to leave the comfort of my bed and get a bike and ride around and hang out at the park and hang out on café terraces and just wander.  Plus, I can't imagine saying goodbye to Wei-Ching or the Babots or Florence or any of the other great people I've met since being here.  I'm definitely of the opinion that one semester is not nearly enough time to really get to know a place.  At least not for me.  

In that same line of thought, I am really looking forward to the next few weeks here (even without all my friends who are going home, or the others who are traveling for the holidays).  I am excited for my friend, Dia, to come stay with me.  I'm really excited to celebrate Christmas with the Babots and to have the French Christmas experience.  And to add my own little New Mexico flair to Christmas by making biscochitos and egg nog.  And then my friend is coming from New Mexico, which I seriously cannot wait for....and not just because he's bringing Frontier tortillas, although that in itself is pretty exciting.  I'm really looking forward to showing him around town and taking him out on the town and going to Paris and seeing Cabaret.  SO much to fit into his 9 days here.  Plus, we are going to a New Year's Eve party that Flo's freind is throwing, which is Disney themed!!  That is SO cool.  Detective Nikky Flippers (I heart nicknames) and I are going to go as characters from Peter Pan.  Naturally, I wanted to go as Sleeping Beauty, but that costume would be a lot of work, and Peter Pan is easy and fun.  Although I might have to fight him for Tinker Bell.  Hehehe.  I love that I found people in Lyon who throw theme parties...it's like being back in Eugene and going to theater parties.  Plus costumes lead to great photos, and great photos are fabulous.  

Um...other than all that, it's still too cold to do anything and I think I'm sick again (what is this?  I do not get sick this often!), which is a bummer.  So I've been trying to find a balance between going out with friends and getting rest so that I don't spend Christmas couching up a lung or not being able to breathe.  So far, so good, and I'm feeling a lot better today than I have the past couple of days.  Good thing I got the box from my mom, though, because I definitely needed the emergen-c.  I seriously love whoever invented the stuff.

Well...speaking of trying to see friends, I'm going to a movie with Flo and Claudine, so I've got to get moving.  

Biz!!