at least we can outrun her!

Dear blog,

Sorry for the hiatus. We've done a lot in this last week, but we've been of thinking of you the whole time.

As we type, Alie is watching the presidential debates in a dark room with one candle lit... a metaphor for what's happening in our country? Meanwhile, Jane keeps coming in the room saying overly witty things to try to get a shout out in the blog (which worked, I guess). Sean is sitting in the dark looking for a seashell. Black mold is growing in three separate locations in our apartment and slowly shortening our life span, so please, excuse us if this blog post isn't especially cohesive.

After a long night of no sleep, fourteen pots of coffee, two (okay... three) boxes of Mikados, and some occasional youtube clips (Bonquiqui, of course), we managed to make it to the last day of our two-week intensive French course. We start our real classes next week, and Marina is taking a class called "Literature of Extreme Solitude"... typical.

We threw a little housewarming party last weekend, and to prepare for the shindig, we bought 

a bunch of candles and a red tablecloth (to replace the odd, African-themed one we had before) for some decor. Before the guests arrived, the four of us were sitting around our lovely new red tablecloth, in dim candle light, drinking wine, in evening attire - and then we all realized that we were, in fact, sitting around a red tablecloth, in dim candle light, drinking wine, in evening attire. Thank god the guests arrived soon after this, because shit was about to get awkward.

The party was fun but we learned a few valuable lessons. 1. Make sure you have enough ashtrays. If not, people will be a little too resourceful, and you might wake up with a cigarette butt in your ear. 2. If you own a trundle, do not invite everyone at the party to sleep in it, because you might end up with a little too much company. 3. French people come in dozens. Use sparingly. 

So far, this has been a weekend of picnicking. To celebrate the end of classes, we had a little impromptu picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower (just a day in the life). We met a woman who told us about a crazy man she met from Texas (holla) who convinced her that bananas are proof of God. Think about that for a while. Today, we had picnic part deux at Jardin du Luxembourg. No particularly funny anecdotes, but I guess it was nice.

We realize that this blog has been mainly weird, embarrassing details of our lives, all of which could have happened just as easily in New York. But now that we have a lot less class time, we plan to do a lot more French things with French people in France (except next weekend when we go to Oktoberfest - whoo Cabo '08!) and then write about them.. in French?

ttfn,