It's SO PRETTY outside!

You guys.  It snowed.  Life is so good.

I had two classes this morning, one at 8:30 and one at 9:30.  When I woke up, I was grumpy and exhausted on only almost-5 hours of sleep.  Then, I remembered that it was supposed to snow overnight.  However, at 2:30 am, it had not snowed, so I didn't have my hopes up.  Then, I opened the shutters: SNOW EVERYWHERE!  It was a winter wonderland and I could not be more happy.

As a result, most people are WIMPS and aren't going to class today.  However, I require about 7 seconds to walk to my school so I didn't have the excuse.  That meant, though, that I spent the entire day grinning about the snow and yelling a little about how happy I was to the students.  I think they think I'm a little crazy, but they like it, so I'm totally fine being "Zat crazy American assistant 'oo yells all ze time and somtimees dansees."  Totally fine.

I made my students sing today and I recorded it: they had to sing Jingle Bells Batman Smells, etc.  It was a hit!  And then, some people were selling chocolate in the teachers' lounge.  And Rouen has been beautiful lately, snow or otherwise.  Christmas carols on the radio, girls' night planned for tonight: life is Good.

These are the sunsets we've been having lately.  I can't wait to see what it will look like tonight, with the snow covering everything.  I <3 Snow.










And now, some pictures of Lille!

Right when I got off the train, I saw this collège (middle school).  I am pretty sure that it was covered in solar panels, right?  So anyways, that's COOL.

There were some animated animals.  I liked them.

Christmas tree and ferris wheel in the center of Lille!

I loved this family's music.  They were quite lovely.  Also, the little kid in the front wasn't really playing but just kind of danced around with his accordion.  Then he gave me a thumbs up.

I almost bought this sweatshirt for Donnie because I knew he would love it, since he loves everything from H&M, and their clothes are the best.  But I figured he would never forgive me.  :)

Il y avait DU MONDE.  Seriously, most of the time to walk around, it was a complete stand-still.  I think I would have hated it usually (or if I lived in Lille), but I was perfectly content to be surrounded by festive people for a day.

My delicious dinner: Vodka pasta at a "fast food" pasta place.  Yum!

Another EPIC band.  I guess French bands like to dress up in costumes.  I don't mind. :)

Just as it started getting dark, the rest of the world showed up.  It was lovely and crowded and lit up and beautiful.

FIN.