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!