and at night, the fog rolls in

not like san francisco fog (i would imagine; i've never been to california). instead, mist covers the front lawn, transforming my temporary home to even more of a fairy-tale land. now i'm living in the headless horseman instead of beauty and the beast. hmm, i'm probably not living in beauty and the beast, because there is no beast. just me in france. singing bonjour to everyone i meet.

what was the point of this again?

you should see the mist out front. it seeps in from the forest, obscuring vision and creating an altogether ethereal glow. i should really take some pictures.

last night we hoseted an american/french cultural exchange bbq (perhaps more accurately titled, "petra invites all the cute, single french boys she knows to meet cute, single american girls in strasbourg for three months). maybe half a dozen french boys showed up. university students, studying political science, law, pharmacy... maybe others. we had it at the interaction park, which first was set up with many different activities. before our guests arrived, we had fun on the human bungee race thing. you know, where you strap onto a giant bungee cord, then run against an opponent, trying to stick a velcro glove farther on the line. then, of course, the bungee snaps back, and you are rocked pretty bad. on your head. or my head, at least. i must have done that thing twenty times.

anywho, our party was lots and lots of fun. we ate, we drank, we danced. oh, how we danced. as you may know, i'm pretty white, so i'm not exactly a "good" dancer. but there's a girl here from venezuela who gave us all dance lessons tuesday night. man oh man, do i know how to shake it now. just kidding, i still probably look like a fool. but a fool who knows how to rumba.

the french boys were fun. one of them commented to me, "when we walked in, it felt like we were being attacked by sharks". which made me laugh. petra should have warned them beforehand. hehe.

one of them looked a lot like roger federer. maybe that's the stereotypical european look. which is fine by me.

anywho, we got some numbers and will probably be in touch soon. all in all, a great evening.

tonight we had another campfire barbeque, like last week. again, we ate like kings. seriously, they cook the best food i've ever eaten. grilled feta, grilled chicken, awesome cucumber salad. i had to pace myself tonight; i didn't want to gorge myself like i did last time. i could get used to this life.

more than anything, i love seeing our group relaxing around the campfire. something about the atmosphere; so laid back, so relaxed. i think it will be my most cherished memory. i'm a cheap date.

tomorrow we're going to visit the european parliment. the afternoon is french culture and civ class. saturday is a visit to the kroenburg brewery. should be a good time.

on an unrelated note, we had some fantastic news here tonight. one of the girls who is here has been under a lot of duress lately. her fiance was in a terrible accident, and had been in a coma the last week. she's been taking it really hard, with good reason. tonight, as we were all sitting around the campfire, she got a call saying he had woken up. oh, what relief! it was a very good night.

well, this entry was a little boring. sorry for the lack of pictures. there are many good pictures from the last couple nights, but i didn't get any on my camera. and i'm going to bed.

bonne nuit!
-katie