Criminals run rampant in Dijon!!!

Not really, it would make a change in the headlines though. In reality, the only criminals here are the ones that occasionally steal bikes and I was the victim of that crime last week. It is demoralizing and makes me feel used inside. Not really, but I am very sad. And it really sucks. I didn't ride it and when I returned in the evening I noticed that it wasn't in the hallway of my apartment, yet the other bikes were still there. At first I thought I was crazy and left it somewhere but did a quick rethink and realized that was not the case. It sucks because now I have no choice but to walk or take the bus. I also really enjoyed going on bike rides. Whoever did this is very mean!! Enough, complaining about my bike.

Not much else super exciting has been going on. This week, I commence a month of more craziness and I'm sure after that I'll be searching for boredom again. I've had plenty of birthday parties and nights seeing movies and hanging out over the past few weeks which make my life seem interesting to me, but just normal to everyone else. I suppose one fun thing about this month was 'les soldes' but they just mean my neighborhood is busier during shopping hours. I tried my best not to profit from the sales I'm trying to economize. I only did a tiny bit. Some of the prices are really quite incredible. Other times, the whole thing seems overrated.

The weather has been pretty nice lately which has allowed for nice outdoor excursions on the weekends. During one trip, we took pictures to prove that I actually have French friends since all of the pictures I post on here are pretty much taken by or of other foreigners. I've also been experimenting with baking and recently introduced the 'cookie cake' to France.


Well, I just realized that I forgot to publish this. I don't know if it is finished but it is a little recap of life here in January.

Ciao!!

Thank god for John Stewart and Stephen Colbert!

The past few days have been relatively uneventful. Last week, I filtered samples. Marion and Kevin returned on Thursday and we went out for a last dinner together in France. They finally had the opportunity to eat French escargot and Kevin had the audacity to say that it wasn't as good as escargot he ate in Aspen. Then they left the next morning (another goodbye) and I taught an English class.

Friday night we commenced our goodbye Anna celebration with some yummy Minnesota wild rice soup and Minnesota Port. Saturday, I relaxed, did yoga, "fait des soldes" (the expression used only for shopping during the months of January or July when everything in France is on sale) with Anna. For the evening, I joined people from the University to wish my friend, Olivier, from the university a happy birthday and then I went to a grand Pizza and wine party called a Crémaillèur (house warming party, in picture above). This doubled as Anna's final going away party.

Sunday, I introduced the idea of the cookie cake to the French (we put a little too much butter in it, but I've decided that I've never put enough and that may be the source of my previous blunders; must find a middle ground). People actually kind of liked the cookie cake too!!! So we did that for Olivier's actual birthday.

The rest of the week was normal: coming to the university, working, fighting my computer, trying to catch-up on election gossip. Thank god the Daily Show is back so that I can actually get hard news and let me tell you, I learned a lot about the world. (Just kidding dad, I read the New York Times and other Liberal propaganda regularly, don't you worry.) Many people here ask me what I think about French politics so I thought I needed to become a pro, it is more difficult without my family here to guide me, but I think I'm managing. We've talked about our crazy election system in most of my English classes lately (it was the students request). I will not express any political views on this blog now that I know its open to the world, but lets just say that thank god John Stewart and Colbert are braving it without their writers.

I've been doing lots of yoga to recuperate my knee. I would like to add that a combination of the yoga and antsiness, which forced me to go running at 5 am the other morning, which magically healed my knee. It really is a miracle and now I'm going running tonight. Tomorrow, I'm going on a field trip about soil science and I'm really looking forward to it.

Ok. Well I should work but I will write again, even if nothing exciting happens.

Ci vediamo!!!

Happy New Year!!!!

So nothing super interesting happened over the past 2 weeks but I have some cool pictures to post!! The first is of me eating yogurt on top of one of the mountains in Chamonix!!!

While nothing super interesting has happened, I'll post a small recap for those people who like to read about my life. I was in Chamonix (aka Mont Blanc), the epitome of ski resort village (they actually designed Vail and some of those places after it). I had a really great time. It was so open; like nothing I've ever seen and you could ski almost anywhere. They had the most snow they've had for Christmas in 30 years so that was pretty great!!! At first I was nervous about skiing alone but by the second day I almost came to prefer it. There was something so liberating about being up there alone and being able to do whatever I wanted. This video is of the wierdest Christmas parade ever in Chamonix.

After Chamonix, I took the train to Mirabel and checked into the hotel I shared with my friend Marion and her boyfriend Kevin. I immediately took advantage of the fact that I had a warm shower that was in my room and tried to do the same from the TV but it took a day for me to discover how it worked. (It was pretty exciting when I did though!!) Marion and Kevin arrived after a long trip and we all went out and got some pizza and beer. It was so nice after being forced into the demi-pension thing at my hostel and eating rich French dinners every night; I'm just not cut out for those! I only did about half a day of skiing in Mirabel due to the fact that I did a little something to my knee my last day in Chamonix and instead I tried to explore a little bit of the town we were staying in. Unfortunately, aside from a ger (yes the Mongolian house tent) there was not a whole lot there for me to see for free. It was quite a change from being in Chamonix and being able to hike to places like the mer de glace but I was with Marion and 2 of her and Kevin's friends from Germany so it was a different kind of fun.

After the Alps excursion, we drove back to Dijon and proceeded to leave the next day to do my field work. Marion and Kevin came with plenty of goodies including microwave popcorn, sample bottles, filters and the icing on the cake, a peristaltic pump!!! This last item was quite magical and made sampling seem relatively easy. All of the lakes were frozen over which presented a small problem but it could have been worse. Kevin was forced by the local farmer (who called Kevin Mr. Big Arms) to pull both Marion and I (the farmer thought it would be funnier to make Marion come on the boat too) across the lake and the three of us formed an icebreaker!!!

Until next time....