Lindsey and Sarah in Dijon: Part deux!

Coucou,

This is a very common, non-formal greeting used here between friends. It's kind of like "hi there" but not quite. It also sounds very cute when the French say it. I can't quite pull off using it so I stick to the safe "salut" for informal situations or the good old stand by of "bon" plus whatever part of the day it is.


So I have not gotten to write too much because I've still been busy. As you all know, Lindsey was here for 2 weeks. It was so awesome having her here and I miss her so much now that she's gone. I think I really showed Lindsey Dijon and Burgundy (minus the cows). We did the Christmas market where we drank vin chaud (all the rage here), the Saturday market, lots of shopping. No, for real, we had lots of traditional food and I probably gained a bunch of weight. She also spent some time teaching English with me and hanging out at "le fac". I think/hope she had a great trip too. (To the right are photos of me lighting Channukah candles, I had guests and everything, and Lindsey, Katie and I in a salon de the in Dijon).



She left last Friday morning bright and early in the morning. And then I headed to Strasbourg for the weekend, which was awesome but also further exhausted me. More on that later...

There have been 4 thesis defenses here in one week so that's been interesting. They are slightly different then ours in the US. They have a larger "jury" or committee then we have and they are almost forced to have a foreigner on the jury. Therefore, most of them must make it so that this foreigner can understand it. All of the defenses were mostly in French, however, 2 out of 4 powerpoints were in English. I think its amazing that "the defender" then can change languages when answering questions; I would already be pretty nervous. All of the defenses went very well and I believe they are now all considered doctors. This lead to lots of celebrations in the form of "pots" or cocktail parties. You'd think that most people would be poted out but with the holiday season there is no shortage. It's a bit crazy. Also, with all of these defenses, the pots and work I have had very little time to exercise and it is driving me a bit crazy. I'm really missing our American culture of having gyms on every corner. Hopefully, I'll get a good dose of exercise in the Alps (don't see how I can't).

I've been managing to keep busy and semi-distract myself from the fact that most people seem to be leaving for home this week and I'm leaving for who knows what. The next two weeks should definitely satisfy my adventurous self (10 days in the Alps, mostly by myself!), hopefully not for too long though. I'm pretty determined to meet ski buddies. And there is something about pride that goes out of the window when you are alone in foreign countries; the rules of your life change and when I'm determined to meet people in foreign countries I'm even more forward then I am at home. Well I should get back to working. I'll try to update some time soon.

Cheerio for now!!!