It's raining, it's pouring

The past week has been relatively uneventful. As long as I avoid financial institutions, grocery stores, housing assistance offices, police officers and educational facilities everything goes well. I went to Lyon on Sunday morning to meet Sarah - 7:13am trains are brutal, FYI. However, she got the really rotten deal... Air France lost her luggage! (They tried to console her with a little toiletry bag with a razor (no shaving cream), a toothbrush and toothpaste, and a men's XXL white t-shirt.) While she filled out endless paperwork in Paris I wandered Lyon and was sitting in a random church's Mass when my phone vibrated - "I'm here!" I rushed back to the station and we collided in an embrace that would've dazed Ray Lewis. The train back to Grenoble was punctuated by total silence and sound sleep. Sarah napped a little more back at campus, and then we had a delicious dinner of "raclette" (sp?) at Loic and Megan's. There was a central pot on the table that heated little pie plates with handles - you dropped thick slices of cheese in the pie-plate, waited for them to sizzle and then poured out the gooey cheese on potatoes, various meats and broccoli. Yum.

Air France graciously gave Sarah a 100 euro allowance for "essential" clothing... I'm not sure how classically European black knee-high boots qualify as an essential item, but luckily they only say "shoes" on the receipt. We contemplated hopping over to Italy for a couple days but I think lounging in Grenoble will be a bit more relaxing. On verra.

I received my first grade yesterday - a 10 (out of 20) on homework. Ouch. I think I lost points because I turned it in on yellow legal paper, not the crisp graph/notebook paper the French adore. Grr. A '10' is a 'B' back at ASU - I need to get a 13 or higher for an A. Off to the store to search for les papiers corrects...