Well I’m off to England tomorrow bright and early at 8 am. I may be able to post over vacation but I may not, so most likely I won’t post anything until I get back, probably Jan 7.

I’m the only person in the internat right now, it’s a little weird. We’ve had a number of sunny days here recently, including today.

My mom sent me two boxes of Chewy granola bars, so that’s awesome. I thought about taking them with me on vacation but then I might have to share so instead I’ll take the Nutrigrains. She also sent me a biography of Marie Antoinette (the one that led to the Sofia Coppolla movie), and some Finding Nemo chapstick.

So, this is hilarious. Especially the one about dryers in public bathrooms. If I were in the US I’d go out and find Letters from a Nut because I haven’t laughed that hard in a while.

If you do find your way to the above, the page on Canadian Franglais (not the real kind) is really funny too (and is how I found my way to the letters). Here, the lessons in Franglais.

There are many family members at my house now, and one dog. The other is at the vet having an operation on his shoulder. I guess that’s what you get for fighting non-stop. They’re so lucky to have each other.

I was totally unaware of this until Slate pointed it out to me. (Granted, I’m usually unaware of most music-related things–in spite of having a category named as such.)

So then I discovered this one and this bizarreness.

Well, whatever, I guess it is a song worth covering.

A) There is a very tempting stack of presents sitting across from me. I’m not supposed to open them till next Saturday. At least there’s no family to accuse me of being over-zealous when I pick them up and peer at them curiously. One totally minor plus of being away for Christmas. I can’t decide if I’m going to be sad yet or not that I’m not at home. I know I woudn’t rather travel hours and hours to get there and re-adjust only to have to return two weeks later. But it doesn’t exactly feel like Christmas. Also vacations tend to stress me out.

B) Daily crap-shoots here:
1) Will the shower be hot? (Today’s answer: absolutely not)
2) Will the sun come out (Today’s answer: still up in the air)

C) I’m discovering I really, really enjoy the Golden Globes and the Oscars, discovering mostly because I can’t see most of the movies that will be up this year.

Sadly I have not seen La Science Des R?™ves, 21 Grams, or a million other French movies. I miss Netflix.

Sorry for the lack of posts. Not much is going on right now. We did Michael Jackson’s Thriller in class this morning, which was pretty amusing. I think I’m showing Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown to some 3emes on Monday, and I forgot how awesome it is. Xmas break is in a little over a week. I leave for England on the 24th.

I swiped a picture from S of us on Saturday:

From left to right, S, Veronika, me, S’s French friend, and R

R, S, and I got back from Strasbourg a little less than 12 hours ago. We met up with S’s French friend and my German friend (Veronika), but I don’t actually have any pictures of these people. I just have many pictures of lights. And here they are.

A big Jules-Verne-esque carousel

Chestnuts roasting

Inside the cathedral

I’m taller than everyone, ha. Actually we were perched on one of the cathedral ledges.

Picture #1 of the street leading up to the cathedral and the markets, from the cathedral

Picture #2 of the street, from the opposite end. You can tell the sun is setting.

i didn’t get a very good picture of the blue tree. Apparently it has something to do with Romania.

I also didn’t get a very good picture of the canals.

And not to ruin the magicalness of this post, but here’s just another item to add to my list of Internat Mysteries: the air conditioning is currenlty on full blast in the hallway. And the showers have turned back to freezing cold. I think I’m being punished for my three days of perfect showers.

There is a bizarre puddle in front of the kitchen sink tonight. I’m guessing this has something to do with the cutting off of our water this afternoon, but I’m not quite sure why the second would lead to the first and not the other way around.

So, I think they do Christmas better in Lorraine. I’ll try to keep adding evidence for this up until I leave for England on the 23rd, but to start with, I went to Nancy last night for the f?™te de St Nicholas.

There were some really great fireworks, mostly set to Disney music, on the Place Stanislas.

Then today there was a parade, with lots of movie characters.

I don’t really know who the blue chick is but she was cool.

Here’s a pointless 23-second video of parade goings-on.

Then St. Nick showed up.