snow is so much better than rain

It's snowing in Chauny! Legit snow! Here's evidence:

It looks like it might even be starting to stick to the ground! I know it's not going to last though, because it's supposed to rain tonight. Boo! I prefer walking in snow to walking in rain.

Thursday, we went to our cafe for glasses of the Beaujolais Nouveau. I swear, the server almost did the bise with me. He came over, and I reached out my hand since we always shake hands with the servers and owners, but he was definitely leaning down until he saw my hand! Natasha also noticed this, so it was not in my head! Okay...

Then, we had a great dinner conversation with the surveillants. S. was telling us how he just passed his firefighter exams, so he is now allowed to go into burning buildings and all that jazz. And he had the most hilarious impression of going on a call and entering a burning building. But unfortunately (for him anyway), there aren't many fires in his town. So C. offered to go set fire to something. They then proceeded to discuss that best types of building to set on fire. Umm... okay... But the saddest part of dinner was learning that S. gave a free concert with his band in town, and I missed it. Now, I've seen S. play his guitar but never with his band, so I got him to fill me in on all the details and what songs they sang. He said there were so many students there cheering him on and calling his name. He said it was nerve-racking. This was the most talkative S. has been in a long time.

I had some issues with some students on Friday. It's a class of three students, two of which I had last year. Well, I saw the one, and he said "Hello" to me and then disappeared. I found the other two with the rest of their classmates and friends. I asked if they were coming or not, and they just sort of looked at each other, and everyone started laughing, so I just said "whatever" and left. Their teacher was not too thrilled. Claude got all protective and asked if his students were ever like that. I assured him that they weren't.

In my other class, C. came in to talk to my students. While talking to my class, he kept making faces at me and laughing. If you know C. and his mannerisms, that is not at all unusual. It's just him. Every time we have dinner together, we pretty much spend the whole time seeing who can get the other to laugh more. But still... in my class?? Come on!

Yesterday, Natasha and I went to St. Quentin to do some window shopping. Or, at least that was the plan. I needed to buy eye shadow, so that was the one thing I was planning to buy. Let's see... I bought a really cute purple tank top dress shirt for 10 euros on sale from Cache-Cache, a hair straightener at Monoprix (my last one died in Aix), a gorgeous long white knit scarf with pockets for your hand from Etam, and a cute sweater shirt/dress from some cheapo store. So much for not spending money. At least everything (besides the straightener) was really cheap. Natasha also found some great things.

While shopping in St. Quentin, I was having reactions to the weather that definitely involved me showing that I was definitely a foreigner. We went into one store while it was sunny, and we walked out five minutes later and it was raining! I pretty much shouted "Oh! Come on!" in English. Yeah. Then, when we came out of Etam, it was snowing! I pretty much squeed with delight and shouted "Yay! It's snowing!" If any of you remember from last year, snow in my area is uncommon. And snow without any rain is even less common. This was actual snow! Nice big fluffy snowflakes! I texted M. who lives in Chauny, and even he didn't believe it was real snow until I assured him it was, because it wasn't even snowing in Chauny which is like 15 miles from St. Q. Natasha and I were on Cloud 9.

Then, we continued our awesome day at our cafe. Maria made us an awesome dinner, and we watched old music videos on youtube. It was a lot of fun! Reliving the days of Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Ricky Martin, Spice Girls, etc. Nice! Our girls' nights are always lots of fun. We weren't planning on going out, but then we decided to because we were all in such great moods. Such a good night!