Lyon - November 15, 2004

So, there I was, 15,000 feet above the New York Channel. Tornadoes were dropping down from the sky all around our plane, churning up huge waves in the water below. The plane lurched, dropped like a stone - and vaporized on impact, leaving all of us (miraculously) unharmed. I swam to shore with the others at that point, but it wasn't long before I set off again. My sister had disappeared during the War, and all I had left was the frayed red ribbon from her hair, to find her by. As I walked through the train to begin my search, I met up with a group of senior citizens in the dining car who were reenacting "Waking Ned Devine," and I remember thinking "my nouvelles are going to be interesting, this week," just before I woke up. Sigh.

In real news, my hotmail account now has 250 MB, 1% full. So, you can now send me photos. (Actually, I don't know if that really counts as real news either. Oh well).

I suppose I should start this week's update with the stories of what everyone else in my group did for vacation. William stayed home, waiting for a scholarship letter that never arrived. Joanna and Ali went to Ireland, where they were supposed to meet up with Tree. They waited around at the airport for her plane, then for the next plane, but she never arrived. They later got an e-mail saying that she'd missed her flight, and so had decided to stay in England. They recounted all of this on Monday - when she didn't show up for class. The director of our program got a worried call from her host mom, asking where she was. On Tuesday, she still hadn't arrived, and we were all getting worried, but luckily she got in that night: she'd missed her plane again. (Shakes head in disbelief). Oh, and the half dozen students who went to Italy met Jude Law and Keith Ledger on the set of their new movie, 'Casinova,' in Venice (an event that might appear surprising to those of my readers who do not live in Los Angeles).

I've signed up for my winter quarter classes: French Culture & Oral Fluency (so I don't lose everything I've learned), Biology 1, Biology 3, and Organic Chemistry 1. Fun, fun, fun. I'm hoping to take Ocean Ecosystems too, but I can't sign up until later.

The weather here is freezing: high of 5, low of 2 today (Celsius). I think there's a psychological advantage to Fahrenheit, because the temperatures always sound higher. All the outdoor plants had to be taken inside. Plus, the wind is strong enough to regularly blow open the locked windows. And the furnace in our house is broken. What's the weather like where you all are?

I met with the students of Café International (a bunch of other foreign students), on Thursday to play cards. I ended up playing rummy with some Germans, but I had a horrible time because their rules are very slightly different from those I've played, and I kept forgetting. I left as soon as I finally won a game.

I went to the Lumière institute/museum, which wasn't really worth the money, except now I can say that I saw the first movie camera. In other movie news, I just discovered that John Travolta wears a UC Santa Cruz t-shirt in 'Pulp Fiction.' Oh, and I watched 'The Party,' starring Peter Sellers - as an Indian. That was rather amusing, even in French. Roxanna, Annick, and the kids left for the weekend to some town I've forgotten the name of (Exlevent? Exident? - something like that), so I spent most of the weekend reading and watching TV. I also saw my second real movie, in a theater, since arriving in Lyon: 'Hero,' a film alternately incredible, beautiful, profound, and earth-shatteringly stupid. Crouching Tiger was better.

That's all for now. Au revoir.