The Sono

On Friday night, my friends and I - desperate to forget the heavy-handed French police crackdown of the evening before - went to 'Sono,' a large venue fifteen minutes away from our dorm. We had a fabulous and enthusiastic evening. Here are a few pictures:

From left to right: Yacine (Morocco), random French guy, me, Rachel (England), Rishi (India), Tarek (Tunisia)


Isabelle (Sweden), Rishi, Tarek, me, Yacine, Maria and Lina (Sweden), Sophie (France), Matthias (Germany), Alexia (S. Africa)


It was so cold on our walk back - at most 20 degrees (Fahrenheit, I still haven't mastered Celsius).


Oh, I forgot to mention my basketball game Thursday night, before the Beaujolais celebration. My team and I were absolutely mauled by our opponents; the refs called perhaps one in five fouls. A couple of our players had to restrain our coach; Monsieur DeValuez resembles Bobby Knight in more than appearance. Nevertheless, we were able to come from behind and tie the game right before the last buzzer. Excited for overtime, we watched in stunned silence as the refs blew a final whistle and started packing up - apparently the concept of overtime, along with most other standards of fair-play and generally accepted norms of athletic competition, doesn't exist in their rulebook. Another bizarre twist: after a shooting foul, the first free-throw is worth two points (thankfully then, there's no second foul shot; otherwise that would be a remarkably easy four-point play).