Lights out!

Tuesday night we were struck with a mysterious power outage which seemed to spread as far was we could see from our porch.  Since I'm the scaredy cat in the Hamilton pair, I launched into our knick knack box for candles.  Kyle on the other hand was enjoying being outside; it seems people were either celebrating the black out or screaming in terror.  By no explanation we can find, the night sky was filled with hundreds of voices.  For me, I was totally creeped out and double checked that our door was locked...bunch of lunatics hollering when the lights go out...it's weird.  Kyle resolved that we should watch a movie to distract my ever-paranoid mind. Just as the intro credits began, power was restored and therefore life as we know it was restored...

...or so we thought.  Even though the lights and heat kicked in and we no longer had to worry about what to do with our perishable goods in the mini-fridge, we were left without internet.  Surely it'd be back Wednesday morning...someone would fix it.  Alas, the great flaw of French modern society~if the French are on holiday, you can expect nothing to get taken care of.  For instance, in the summer of 2003 there was an incredible heatwave which struck Europe.  It resulted in the deaths of 14,802 French citizens~most of whom were elderly.  Why were the elderly so poorly taken care of?  Simple, July and August are holiday months for basically the whole country.  Thus feeble older people weren't equipped to respond to the unseasonal high temperatures and were left to fend for themselves and ultimately perish.  Let me say again...14,802!!!  Similarly (though not even remotely tragic), the past two weeks have been a ski vacation in our region.  Many families have abandoned work and home to hit the slopes with the kids and enjoy a national holiday.  They take it seriously; it's the same length as Christmas vacation.  So for the foreign kids left at the university dorms (mostly Americans, Chinese, and Indians), there is little hope of us resuming our geeky loisirs until the French return from their travels...

Kyle loves technology, but not as much as me, you see.  But he still loves technology...always and forever.

This has led to the great awakening.  Kyle and I are human beings again.  Though we love our facebook, gmail, headline news, food network, etc, we have filled the last couple of days with some meaning activities.  Yesterday Kyle baked like a fiend while I set my heart on terminating my dependency on Anna Karenina (I really can't quit a book until I've read every page).  We also had our friend Yang over for dinner.  She's the coolest girl, and hopefully she'll move to the U.S. to do her PhD at Tech and be our friend for life.  We had a delicious shepherd's pie and then some Godiva hot chocolate for dessert (thanks Bradley & Kelly!).  It was a delightful evening.

Day two with no internet, Kyle and I went on our first jog of 2010.  We ran through a park we like nearby.  While taking a minute to catch our breath, Kyle befriended a baker at a boulangerie who happened to be looking out his opened window as we were passing by.  It was such a nice day that all sorts of people were out and about strolling on the streets.  The last leg of our jog was through the enormous cemetery down the road.  It felt good to get moving again; I almost forgot how much I enjoy running with Kyle.

Satellite view of the cemetery...very big and kind of looks like a parking lot from space...

For the evening, we are heading off to a game night at our friends' house.  It may be a very nice thing to have lost the internet for a few days while Kyle and I are on vacation...on to a new book and perhaps a little half-marathon training!

Road trip!

Last weekend Kyle and I set out on our first road trip.  Thankfully we could go with our buddy Chandler right before he moves back to the good ole U.S. of A.  It's always restorative to get quality time with a friend from home every now and again; every few months makes it really nice.  We soon anticipate to have a visitor from Ethiopia.  Hopefully the Brits will invade soon (though, not actually British hopefully we'll see some Birmingham friends in the next month or so).  The Hamiltons will also arrive for our second road trip in April.  It all should be good fun, and it gives us plenty to look forward to.

Friday afternoon Kyle rented a car from our train station and we set out for Tubingen, Germany (location of Unterwegs~the German Globalscope).  They had just had their end of the year/semester dinner so we missed out on seeing the ministry in action.  But it was the perfect time to get away for a weekend.  Chandler gave us a nice walking tour of the city while enjoying ice cream cones.  It's definitely a lovely little town.  Next we shopped groceries to make dinner.  Chandler cooked and we just talked with him and Tyler for a bit.

Downtown Tubingen in the dark

Secret Tubingen passage way

The men folk chatting while making dinner

Unlike other trips where the goal is to see landmarks and learn more about the history of a certain location, we just enjoyed the beauty of the Alps this weekend.  Saturday morning we got up early and drove through Germany and Austria to arrive in lovely, little Liechtenstein.  We visited a castle belonging to the king...no entry for unauthorized personnel.  Just a little ways up the mountain on which we found the castle, there was a plethora of snow and a whole ski village filled with (surprisingly) English-speaking ski folks.  I think I'm the only person I know who has never seen ski slopes; it was nice to hear the fellas talk about their snow skiing and boarding experiences.  We ducked out of the snow to have pizza and beers for lunch.

 Forgot to mention the frozen river we played on...

Enjoy this video!

Forbidden Castle entrance

Just up the hill from the castle

Happy group enjoying happy beers at the pizza place

It's snowing!  We like wintery terrain

On the way out of town, I dozed off and miraculously awoke at a dairy farm in Switzerland.  Kyle reserved a place for us in the best little bed and breakfast I've ever been to.  After dropping off our backpacks, we drove down to town to see what we could see.  We ended up at a small lake watching ducks and swans for a while before it got dark and really cold.  We grabbed some food to make sandwiches back at the B&B and to take in the view from our little kitchen.  At our arrival, the lady that owned the B&B invited us to see the baby cows who were less than a week old.  It's astounding how big new born baby cows are.  We got a little education (thanks to Chandler's translation) on dairy cows and such.

Switzerland!

Husband looking majestic on the lake

Our B&B bedroom!

Beer refrigerator

Baby cows and Kyle pulling my leg

Breakfast Sunday morning was insane delish!   We awoke to a table full of bread, jam, butter, coffee, cheese, and milk fresh from the cow.  Our hostess was kind enough to check on us and send her children to make sure everything was alright every now and then.  We were seriously spoiled.

 View out our window

Another view out our window in the morning light

Posing with our B&B sign

Glorious breakfast!

On the road again...

 
On our leisurely drive Sunday morning we came across two beautiful bridges.  We stopped to look at one to find it was nearly as old as America (built in 1789).  Our next destination was Konstanz in Germany.  It's right over the boarder from Switzerland and as we tried navigating our way around, we kept ending up at places to cross back to the land of the Swiss instead of finding reasonable parking in Germany.  Eventually we settled in and began our walking tour of the town.  The weather was amazing; people were out walking everywhere.  It was a good town to stretch our legs and sight see.

 The two bridges

 Built in 1789

Random place where we stopped before leaving Switzerland

 Free from the car!

The car which took us through 5 countries

 Konstanz

Horse (which reminds me that Switzerland was covered with crucifixes with a golden Jesus...what is that about?)

 Germany is wonderful.

Crazy talking bird startled us when he laughed at us in a Konstanz park.

With nowhere definitely left to go we determined to just go where the wind would blow us.  In the Black Forest we spotted castle ruins on the top of a mountain.  I about had a panic attack as Kyle veered ever so carefully up the one lane, two way drive way.  Yikes!  We finally made it to the top of the mountain to find extraordinary views and snow covered castle (not off-limits).  We even managed to scale icy stairs to explore another section of the ruins.  It's hard to imagine how someone could build a huge fortress on such a steep mountain.  I don't even know where we were, but I really enjoyed this stop.

Antenna likely for television reception

When asked to pose in a "cool" way, I heard "cold".

Lookin' good, Kyle!

I wish you could tell how high up we were...

The dangerous job of traversing icy steps

Sunday night we were back in Tubingen.  Kyle made risotto with brats; it was super tasty.  We wound down the weekend watching a movie and just hanging out at Chandler's apartment.  Monday the last leg of the trip meant returning to France where it is rainy and will be rainy all week.  It was nice to escape the gross weather we were having and explore new places with my sweet husband and our buddy Chandler.  Bon voyage, indeed.  Hope you are having a lovely day whatever day it is wherever you may be.  Take care!

Bonnes Vacances

Though we have yet to embark on our weekend adventure, I thought I'd share with you that we are going on our first roadtrip.  Kyle has rented a car, and we'll drive to Tubingen tomorrow to visit Chandler Bear in Germany.  From there we'll be heading to some locations which I'll disclose in my next entry...mystery = blog intrigue.

I haven't much to share today but was in the mood to write a bit before bed.  Today was a miraculous day.  At certain moments during the great Hamilton honeymoon of 2009, I actually believed married life would entail plenty of leisurely time to read, listen to music, and drink coffee.  We made it happen while we were dating and occasionally through the engagement.  Yet now that we live together we hardly find the time to get this quality relaxation together.  Today was different.  We didn't sleep in and the sun was out (which is a miracle in and of itself).  There's always time for the morning devotion, but then we just head in other directions for the rest of  the day.  Kyle had class for a bit, and I took the time to blow dry my hair, do the dishes, and make chex-mix for the trip.  It's easy productive activity for a dormwife...

So naive and blissful on our honeymoon...hey kids, life is right around the corner waiting to hold you up for all your time

As luck would have it, our internet was out when Kyle returned.  There was nothing left to do but put on a pot of coffee and read for a couple of hours.  And just to spice things up, I put on Modest Mussorgsky.  Some how Kyle was raised never having heard Night on the Bare Mountain; though I can't recall any specific show, I know it must have been in cartoons.  It's like the the William Tell Overture or the Anvil Chorus from Il Travore....perhaps I should check to see if he know those.

Voila..."Night on Bald Mountain" from Fantasia~why the name of the song is different, I do not know...

The perfect afternoon lasted until 3:30 when Kyle volunteered to help our friends bring home some new couches.  Alas, nothing good lasts forever.  Maybe we'll be more intentional about it after enjoying today so much.  

In case you were wondering about my resolutions, I'm on page 648 w/ AK, no progress with my potential essay (though now I'm thinking about writing about research on the lost tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel...), and had some quality tae bo time for a couple of hours yesterday with Billy Blanks.  In my aerobics research on youtube, I came across a scandalous dance aerobics routine with Jane Leeves (aka Daphne Moon Krane from Frasier).  Also, did you know their were dance aerobics competition for men in the 1980s?  Talk about incredible pop culture that I missed out on because I was probably watching the Popples with KHud.  In a rare moment of blogging self-control, I decided not to embed videos of these things in this entry (I did; however, shamelessly post the link to the male dance aerobics competition on my facebook wall in case you're dying to know).  

Hope you are well wherever you may be.  I'll be back with pictures of KHam, Chandler, and me soon.  Any chance of getting Chad and Chrissy back to Metz to show Kyle that BB08 interns really are the cooler than his lame-o Freshterns?  Seriously, if you know Chad or Chrissy or both Newtons, or if you are Chad or Chrissy, come to France.  It'd be fun. A bientot folks.

I must be out or I'd answer the phone...

Where could I be?  Believe it or not, I'm not home.  I wish I could have George Costanza sing for an outgoing message on voice mail for my blog.  When I think about being MIA, this little ditty always comes to mind.  It makes me think that perhaps my family or friends won't wonder what's become of me because they enjoy a charming little tune sung by a strange man...

You too can enjoy George's answering machine!

Sadly I haven't been doing anything more interesting than George does on any given episode of Seinfeld.  Last week I taught class on Monday and had a training day with fellow English teaching assistants on Tuesday.  Somewhere along the way, I developed a nasty headache with terrible sinus pressure.  To make the matter more amusing, it lasted for days and brought it's good friend nausea along with it.  So I missed school on Thursday and Friday...when I had all sorts of cool Valentine's day activities planned.  Plus I had promised my classes a few exciting rounds of the Hokey Pokey and The Music Man; singing and dancing and making cards.  On top of all that, I figured I'd have some cute anecdotes to share with you about how "Roses are red, violets are blue..." confuses French students since "rose" means pink and "violet" means purple in their language.  Alas, ski vacation has begun, and I won't have any student art or school stories until March.

Just a few of the unused Valentine's hearts meant for my school children

The silly thing about missing school on Friday for being sick is that the buses weren't even running to my Marly school (it's a smaller neighborhood in the the Metz area).  The roads were too icy, and I wouldn't have been able to get there anyhow.  Bad luck to be sick on a day I wouldn't have had to work.  One more complaint~I missed my two Bible study groups last week.  I realized how much I depend on these groups to keep me going throughout the week or month.  It's just good to be around other believers and talk about God.

Alright...done with mopey talk and on to bigger brighter topics.  Last Tuesday before being stuck at home for a few days, I had lunch with some of the girls who teach here, too.  Every time there is a training day, I always plan on eating out because it's much simpler than trying to find somewhere I can eat a packed lunch where I won't freeze to death.  One time we had a half day training session. I ended up at the train station eating a sandwich in the cold because it was the only place I could sit and avoid being harassed by our abundant pigeon population.  Anyways, this is all just to say that talking to Michelle and Jamie at lunch was nice.  They are both in planning stages for weddings down the road, and it's exciting to here about.  Kyle and I have been married 8 1/2 months~it's strange because the wedding feels like forever ago, but I feel like I'm learning brand new things about my husband everyday.  I like being a newlywed.

This weekend Kyle and I finally had our friends Michael and Lauren over for dinner.  Sadly I have no pictures to show for it.  I realized I've gotten to the point that I'm motivated a lot of the time to take pictures only because I want to post them on facebook or my blog...kind of sad and definitely a way to scare off friends.  I just imagine me saying, "Can I take a picture?  Can't wait to blog about what a good time we are having!"  Too dorky for sure.  Anywho, Kyle prepared sausage pepper grits with biscuits and stewed apples for dessert.  It was the first time we had had it since we left the states.  Time seemed to fly; we hung out and talked until late, and it was just really nice.  We just kept the quality time rolling on Sunday afternoon with our friend Cole.  He had us over for coffee after church and talked about music and travels.  Turns out we attended the same Sufjan Stevens concert at the Fox back in the Fall of 2006.  He hooked us up with some Ryan Adams (never heard the Suicide Handbook before...so good!) and Josh Ritter on a thumb drive before we left.  You can guess what Kyle and I have been listening to for the past couple of days...

A cute coffee picture for Valentine's day

The Valentine's day part of Sunday snuck up on Kyle and me.  Since I was down and out for the better part of the week, we both just didn't get our plans thought out.  Kyle proposed an all-American dinner for the evening.  Thus we had cheeseburgers and fries and then some chocolate ice cream.  Kyle gave in to my request for some romantic Fred & Ginger time (that's Astaire & Rogers, if you don't know the last names).  We watched Swing Time which is perhaps their funniest movie (and now Kyle's favorite). 

 Back in the day with my Valentine~my Swing Time poster can be seen in the background...no faces for Fred & Ginger...

 Big burgers, big bowl of fries, and tiny French beers~It can't all be perfect...

As I have two weeks vacation, I have made some resolutions with my free time.  My first is to complete Anna Karenina; which I have been reading for months.  I've read a good many books which are classics and very very long texts (Gone With The Wind and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Atlas Shrugged to name a few).  It's sad to say that I'm not a die hard Tolstoy fan, and his writing doesn't leave me coming back for more.  I am committed to finish, and I do have a stack of books I'm dying to read so I will complete this book while on vacation.  Just for accountability sake, I'm on page 584 out of 754.  Check on me if you like.

 My constant (and heavy) companion... I don't think the translation of my book is very good (some books may be better in their original version)

My second vacation resolution is to write at least one (if not more) meaningful entries on my other blog.  Topic to be determined by what reading I do this week.  Again for accountability, I have intentions to write entries on the institution of marriage & theocracies (though not in the same entry...).

My other blog...that's right, kids, working part-time in France affords me plenty of time to write 2 blogs!

The last resolution is a good one.  I have found relief for my desire to work out though I despise runs in the frigid surroundings.  I've discovered aerobic videos on youtube, but really I have some friends in Spain to thank for the inspiration.  I spotted a picture on facebook in which my friends at En Vivo were working it to an aerobics video.  Then I recalled that KHud used to get fit with Billy Blanks videos back when she was an undergrad.  Thus I enrolled in Billy Blanks Boot Camp on youtube.  Holy moly...I'm used to a good cardiovascular work out, but I'm not big on strength training.  This work out had both.  I can hardly move today, but it's a good kind of self-inflicted immobility.  Tomorrow I may even have the strength to do it again.  This will definitely tide me over until the ground thaws and I can take my Adidas for a jog in some reasonable above-freezing weather.

Cooler than Anna Karenina

Since I have no student art to share, I'll end with some sweet somethings I received from Miss Foo.  I hope she doesn't mind too much that I posted these for all the world to see...

Lovely roses which I believe Miss Foo drew with her Wacom tablet...

From left to right: Miss Foo, me, and KHud in Sailor Scout form...moon scepter elimination, anybody?

Hopefully I won't go so long without writing again...these entries get long and weird when I neglect recording what we've been up to.  Hope you are well wherever you are.  Later!

Aslan must be coming....

Winter has started to subside a little.  It's so odd; just last Monday and Tuesday there was snow everywhere to the point where some schools were closed and buses stopped running (sadly, not any that permitted me a highly coveted snow day from school).  It's a veritable arctic tundra one minute only to be overthrown by glorious sunshine and warmth on Wednesday (by warmth, I mean above 0 degrees Celsius).  The nicer weather lasted through this weekend, and Kyle and I took a delightful stroll downtown.  Metz can be very pedestrian friendly so long as the weather permits.  However, it's been raining or snowing since November, so this was likely our first promenade since we lived in Atlanta.  Since we live out in the 'burbs, it's a good 2.5 to 3 miles to the downtown area where all the shops, restaurants, churches, and parks are.  Typically, we completely depend on the buses, but we are going to kick that habit as soon as the weather makes a commitment to do good.

Since the weather cannot be relied upon, Kyle insisted on buying me some new boots.  I brought some with me which are perfect for keeping my feet warm on the cold days but are irreparably ill-equipped for wet weather (suede was a bad choice!).  In my stubbornness, I insisted on keeping my old boots through winter out of wishful and unreasonable hopes that the sun would return full time by means of my pleas with God.  I'd much rather use our money for good things~like eating at restaurants or taking trips.  Plus, I don't even like boots all that much (with the great exception of my cowboy boots~a Christmas gift from Kyle a couple of years ago).  Give me a heel, flat, or flip flop any day over a boot... Girls of my height only wear the knee high boots with pointy heels to look more grown-up and taller anyways.  I'd rather embrace being as short and young looking in cute shoes.

My lame old boots surrounded by ice and snow....I'm sure Jack Frost nipping at my toes at this moment was less than appreciated.

Kyle eventually won out.  Whether he cares that my feet aren't soggy at the end of each day or that my lack of motivation to walk with the grocery store (due to my wimpy shoes) started to bother him, he convinced me that it was high time for some sensible footwear.  Thankfully the big government mandated sales last all of January and half of February, Kyle picked out a pair with me which were 50% off.  They'll definitely get me through the rest of French winter...

Behold...cowboy-inspired studded, gray boots

Any trip downtown is not complete without a visit to the Marche Couvert (indoor market).  I ought to take more pictures of it, but I got an excellent shot of Kyle...

KHam and the big cheese

In other news, we're looking into a half-marathon in Metz in the end of April.  It would mean starting to train asap figuring out how to enter it.  Training would be simple because we have two tracks literally right outside our dorm.  It's all very contingent on weather...  I'm used to running in the mild winters of Georgia (*sigh*)  Perhaps I can master snow jogging.

The lay of the land

On a final note, I wanted to share the things that made me most happy this week.  The flower shop around the corner had a terrific deal of which my husband took advantage.  Euro 1,80 (about $2.50) for a bouquet of pink tulips for Valentine's day (and 3 year anniversary of when we started dating)!  I love that we get to enjoy nice things and be proud of not wasting tons of money on the finer things.  We are thrifty for sure, and living in France has only made us more keen to find deals.  

My workspace is much cheerier with mes fleurs-de-Leah (if you will...)

The second thing which brought me much joy occurred at school on Friday.  Typically, I'm the one intercepting notes much to the chagrin of my little students.  It just is so distracting; when I was their age I had way more tact in note passing.  My friends and I were even stealthy enough to have notebooks dedicated strictly to social topics; it appeared to our clueless teachers we were devoting a lot of attention to note-taking.  I marvel at what I could have learned when I was consumed with writing my friends notes about perfume, cats, candy, boys, music, and who knows what else in those spiral notebooks. Alas, this is all to say that Friday something quite spectacular happened.  I was the recipient of a note passed from one of my 4th graders named Aurelie.  She wrote 2 sentences (of which I'll share 1).  It made my day and now has it's place of honor on my bulletin board.  

Perfect English~ my name has no accent aigu and even has the "h" at the end.  The backdrop is an illustration by Miss Foo.

Hope you are having a lovely Sunday wherever you are (or a lovely any day depending on when you read this).  For any of my friends who have inquired about skype time, I'm very sorry I've not been around my computer as much.  I look forward to talking to my stateside friends soon.  Later!

LOST Brunch and such

Despite living in the future, relative to our friends and family in the United States, we must enjoy all television a day after Americans thanks to all the lovely folks who post videos online.  I admit that I am a t.v. junkie, which makes living overseas without a television just a little bit more of an adventure.  Among my favorite series is Lost.  I was late to the Lost fad as I was for the sensational Harry Potter era.  In the case of JK Rowling's books, I only began reading them after the first 6 books had been written and released.  Those several months living in anticipation for the 7th book were very difficult; I can't fathom how the faithful friends who were hooked from book one persevered all those years.

In contrast, I had watched a couple of episodes of Lost my last year of college with my next door neighbor Taylor.  By that point we were already half-way through season 3, and nothing made sense (but I remember liking Mr. Eko).  Perhaps this is akin to seeing a Harry Potter movie before picking up a book... Anywho, last March I watched the pilot episode with my family on dvd.  I was instantly hooked.  From that point on, Miss Foo and I made it our life's ambition to complete watching seasons 1-4 on dvd as well as catch up on season 5 via the internet before season 5's finale in May.  Every free moment was devoted to it; despite working 3 jobs, planning a wedding, and at some point in there training for a half-marathon, Miss Foo and I succeeded.  We lost countless hours of sleep just to see what happened next.  Poor Kyle was a bit bewildered with my new obsession.  However, it wasn't long before I persuaded him to jump on board with Lost (and also Harry Potter).  Today I feel the satisfaction I felt the day that The Deathly Hallows was released (although no costumes for the Lost premier)...

Miss Foo and I are dressed as which two Harry Potter characters?  Can you tell?

To kick the season off, Kyle and I invited our friend Peter over for brunch and Lost.  Kyle prepared bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits for round 1 with cinnamon rolls and coffee for dessert.  He's good, isn't he?  Well, because we depend on the internet we returned to our best resources for television.  Unfortunately we got confused about the Ben Linus narrated recap of all Lost events as the first episode.  This led to a very confusing viewing of part II of the premier episode.  We questioned, "How did Hurley know Jacob was dead?" and "Where did they get Juliet's body" or "Who are those dead people in the foot that fake John is pulling around?".  It also led to a very un-climactic revelation that fake Locke is indeed the smoke monster as Ben revealed when he called him (obviously) a "monster".

After brunch was over and we were left scratching our heads, I turned to the blogosphere to see if I could gain a little understanding of what we had just seen.  Suddenly, I come across character's names like Boone, Desmond, and Charlie, thinking, I didn't see any of those people in the episode I watched.... what gives?  Well, it took going to the source, ABC.com, to learn that there were in fact 3 episodes that I believe aired last night in the U.S.  I also discovered a new blessing; perhaps it's our Georgia Tech server, but we're able to watch video on ABC's website (unlike Fox & NBC).  This is happy news because we'll be able to watch the whole new season in high definition with the occasional commercial.  All in all, I thought the premier was very good and I'm happy with the direction they took.  Thank goodness Sayid is not dead, but I figured I'd wear my super french black t-shirt and jeans today to mourn Juliet and Jacob.  One complaint~couldn't we exchange Arzt with Shannon, please?

In light of the new season, I thought I'd share the LOST dance commercial.  It's so good.  Also, because I'm just an internet video junkie now, I thought I'd share some other happy dance videos I've enjoyed watching....

Creepy dance....

No good segue... Rush breaking it down to Poker Face

My favorite routine from last season of So You Think You Can Dance~thanks Nappytabs!

Miss Foo told me about this one the other day. I wish I could tap...

Any good dance video suggestions?  I felt an urge to include a Fred Astaire clip too, but I decided against it for the sake of not making this post too long.  If you like tap too, google Fred Astaire videos for a delightful sight.

In other news, life is fairly normal here.  I can't believe it feels normal.  Kyle and I hit Ikea yesterday to have an afternoon date.  He bought me a coke and 2 hotdogs as well as some really excellent things to organize my work life better.  Kyle didn't fail to pick out a few things for the kitchen; if he keeps making sushi and cinnamon rolls, how can I refuse to give him any tool he asks for?  

Roll out, KHam!

A perfect spicy salmon maki!

The weather in Metz has been disgusting.  Each week it snows for a couple of days, melts entirely, rains, get clear skies for about 30 minutes only to revert back to freezing temperatures and more snow.  On the bright side, my students love it, and it's a treat to watch them go wild at recess.  Also, I wearing out all the clothes I brought with me because I wear multiple shirts each day to keep warm.  It means I can throw out my sad wardrobe sans guilt before attempting to pack my bags sometime later this year.  I can pack the really good stuff (like Christmas market mugs and my students' artwork). On the horizon, I have a winter holiday in a little over a week.  Kyle and I may try to visit Germany again (seriously, we can't get enough) and Luxembourg.  I'll keep you posted... Later!