i love les soldes!

Hello tout le monde! Happy Saturday! Bon samedi!

Not too much happening today.... going to lounge and have a lazy Saturday.... make some materials for school, talk to family, and stay out of the cold weather! Granted, -2 C is only like 27 F, so it isn't thhhaaat bad, but I got used to the 50 degree weather!!! Isn't it spring yet? I was supposed to tutor this afternoon, but apparently Corinne's family is all sick with a nasty bug, so I'm staying out of there. Helen is in Lyon today, so she might come visit me if she has nothing else to do this afternoon. They went to see a movie this morning... but I didn't really know if I was tutoring until I got the final word from Corinne earlier...and I just "can't be arsed" to go out into the cold (funny expression Hannah uses when she doesn't really want to do something). They were going to see Au-dela, or the Hereafter, as it was called in the US. My dad and Steph and I saw the movie poster for it all over the place (with Matt Damon) and never could figure out what movie it was in English. Now I know!

I was more active yesterday... so that's probably more interesting than the weather and my plans to do nothing;)

Friday, I woke up and went grocery shopping.... and I mean serious grocery shopping. I even took along my cart so I could bring home heavy things like laundry detergent (still hopeful about my potential washing machine.... did I tell you I got an email saying they are reviewing my request?), canned veggies (must get my "veg" in as the Brits say), and juice... all good and heavy things when packed together in one bag. All went well doing the actual shopping, except while I was in the detergent aisle, I was a little overwhelmed and asked a nice old woman what kind she used. She sold me on a brand that I have since seen several commercials for... so must be good haha.

The only downside to being able to buy heavy things and easily transport them in my cart....was having to carry those heavy things up my 5 flights of stairs. I need a pulley system.

After shopping for food, I got ready and met Hannah downtown to get another look at some January sales (after first stupidly forgetting my wallet and having to run back home and up my 5 flights of stairs to go get it.... good thing I did too!). We went from store to store on Rue de Victor Hugo, mostly to get out of the crazy wind! But, I did find an amazing sale item in a reasonably priced store called Pimkie. Leather jackets are all the rage in Lyon these days and so I've sort of had my eye out for one that was nice, but not too expensive. I had almost given up because they were either not in my size or still too expensive even with the sales, but Hannah pointed out a rack with jackets marked down 60% off. A brown leather jacket, that was originally 80 euros was on sale for 32!!! Woo hoo! I tried it on in several sizes, picked the one I wanted and c'est parti! I have a nice brown leather jacket now:) (I have a feeling this rack of brown jackets was so on sale because brown is a much less popular color than black here, but I'd rather have brown anyway!)

After our windy shopping adventure, we went back to my apartment to make dinner, brownies (yumz) and watch some French tv and Steel Magnolias. We both laughed and cried and had a fun girlie night. (I hadn't seen the entire movie in a long time, but there are so many incredibly funny parts! "Miss Truvy, I promise that my personal tragedy will not interfere with my ability to do good hair." hehe) Hannah spent the night (since her buses are so limited) and left a little while ago to get to work on her French paper. Since she's still technically in school, while they're on their year abroad they have to do research and write a long thesis type paper. It kind of makes me miss school, but then I think, wait a minute.... I don't think I miss it that much;)

Anywho- hope you all have a nice weekend! I'll be going to Agnès' house tomorrow for lunch. She's a pedagogical advisor that runs our in-service days and she is inviting us all over to her house in turns. This weekend is mine and I hear she's a fabulous French cook:)

Reste cool:)