Two really great days

I have had two amazing days. Because of this surprising social life, it is currently 5 am and I need to go to sleep, but I know myself, and if I don't write about it now, I will never get around to it. And these are two days I want to remember.

Yesterday was the English language assistants training day #4. We had classes all day, a vaguely bad lunch, but at least we got to talk about our classes and pick up some tips. After training, we went to O'Callaghan's for a beer, and then on to my favorite (and only I've been to so far) Indian restaurant, which is near my home. The dude there knows me now, as it's where we went for my birthday. He says he likes me because I always bring an inappropriate number of people with me. On my birthday, there were 9 of us. Last night, 14. No warning, no reservation. Surprise! They deal with it remarkably well.

Then I had the assistants over to my apartment, and part of the group stayed til 1:30 or so when I kicked them out, and then I had a lovely Skype™ with Gram and Donnie.

Today, I slept til 1:30. Rawr. Then I putzed around, and went ice skating at 3:30. It was AMAZING. Free ice skating rink, outside, open the rest of December. You literally get to skate around outside the Hotel de Ville and you can see the Cathedral in the background. I was skating around with my friends, looking at the Cathedral, catching little kids who ran into me (er, I might have run into them too, sometimes) -- and I couldn't believe how lucky I was, and am. Truly, whatever force or energy or chance placed me here in Rouen with these amazing people -- I am the luckiest pup in the world.

We split up for dinner, but then met up for a rock opera that our friend was crewing. It was PHENOMENAL. Mind blowing, confusing at times, but overall incredibly successful and I was so glad to have gone. The lead singer reminded me of Mikey, Ryan D.S., and Johnny Depp all rolled into one. I wish anyone but two of you out there knew who all three of these people were because... it is the only way I can describe him. So good. EDIT: I found the site for the group. You should watch some of the videos to get a sense for what we saw last night. "Run to the IT" is a good sample of their style, their projections, etc. Get ready to be amazed, and to wait a long time for the videos to load.

Then we went to La Boite à Bière and had some delicious beers and wonderful company, and then said goodbye to each other multiple times, continuing to talk for an hour after each goodbye, not leaving with any success. Eventually, we parted ways. It has been a glorious, social, pleasant two days. And there are beautiful Christmas lights up everywhere. Rouen is getting into the Christmas spirit and I could not be any happier about it.

OK. Done and done. Good night.