As always, sorry for the long delays between posting, but I will brief you on some highlights of the last few weeks. My friends had some fun parties, including a return to childhood party at my friend Justine's glorious old French apartment, which found me trying to outsing the French lyrics to all the Disney movies. (I'm sorry, some things just are sacred, and I maintain that Robin Williams' genie performance in Aladdin is one of them.)

Last weekend, I went on a "sortie vélo" (bike trip), organized by the guy who runs the association sportive here. He told me it would be chill, and that there were a lot of people coming even on the super heavy slow rental bikes. Since this was to be my first real bike trip after breaking my wrist, I was somewhat reassured. nevertheless, I got all dolled up in my spandex, and headed out with my French bike (named Louis Philippe). So I get to the meeting point, a little late at 9:40am, but after a night of partying, what can you do. So it's me, Christian, the head of the sports assoc, and one other thirty-something guy, who both are all decked out in their real winter spandex stuff. So we wait a bit, but no one else shows up, and so we head out to meet two other French guys, teachers at the school who are meeting us at a park. I was a little nervous, biking only with spry Frenchmen and not having biked in a long time, but my energy legs carried me through, and I even wished the pace was a little faster. (I also wished it were less freezing, as my leg warmers are not full length. My legs were very pink afterwards). It was a lovely, short ride(2.5 hours, child's play) , and we went up the river and through some nice parks. True to my nature, I got a flat as we went over a few kilometers of gravel, but I had the stuff to fix it and I like to think the Frenchmen were impressed.

Afterwards I rushed to the Museum of Contemporary Art, where my friend Luiza was speaking in a conference on the art of Robert Morris. She was amazing, naturally, and the museum was really cool and full of crazy and controversial art which is always fun when experienced in a group of friends and after a couple plastic cups of wine which we enjoyed at the end of conference party.

Other than that, life was good, classes are going very well, I feel like I am much more at ease at the front of the classroom, and genuinely love teaching. Post to follow about Thanksgiving!