Salut tout le monde, sorry for the delay in posting.
Italy was glorious, Erin, Michele (Erin's mom) and I had a wonderful time exploring the very pedestrian city, soaking up the architecture, the art, the warmer weather, the food, and trying desperately not to butcher the melodious language of Dante.
You can see some photos of a delicious pizza, the river, which is surrounded by beautiful buildings, including the Duomo with Brunelleschi's famous dome. We climbed up the inside, and it was truly amazing to think this was built without the use of scaffolding. You can also see the old city walls, and the tower of Pisa (it really does lean!).
We took a bus tour the last full day in the city, which took us to San Gimignano, a beautiful little town full of medieval towers, Siena (sadly wrong time of year for the huge famous horse race), a wine estate in the Chianti region, and finally Pisa. All of it was spectacular, and made me promise to return. Next time I think I will go with Nathalie, whose family is Italian, and speaks the language like a native...

Since then, I have been chilling in and around Lyon, catching up on lesson planning and grading the first test I gave (many very good grades and some very bad ones...hmmm), and entertaining some friends from my Grenoble days who came to visit from Belgium. There's always a lot going on here, and it has been a very fun couple of weeks. I found the organic market on Saturday, which is a hike (up a big hill!) to get to, but definitely worth it. Tonight we are going to a friend's apartment for a Disney themed party, and I am excited to hear all the songs I remember from childhood, this time sung in French. à bientôt,
Charlotte
ps. Just finalized my vacation plans, and will be home from dec 21 to january 11, so let me know what your plans are, and I hope to see all of you!