snow? what the hell do we do?!

Hey Northern/Midwestern Americans! Know how we always laugh at the Southern states when they freak out over an inch of snow and massive panic sets in? Apparently the same thing happens in Northern France. I woke up to snow yesterday! Glorious snow! It even picked up a bit to something that resembled an actual snowfall! Of course that didn't last long, and there's probably like two inches max on the ground. However, that was enough to make the French all crazy! All of the schools shut down around 3:30, so that the kids could get on the buses and get home in time. In true French fashion, that served to nothing. The buses were "blocked in" at the station (as they never left that morning), and students had to wait on them for their parents to come. That makes loads of sense. Uh huh. I was like "Grab a shovel!" Seriously, you could shovel the entire parking lot before all the parents could come.

Today, there were no buses, so my classes were mostly empty. Had one class with seven students, and the other had four. (And can I just say that we spent those entire classes speaking in French? You'd think that with so few students we'd do some intense English, but nope! There weren't enough students for me to take a group, so we stayed with the teacher and everything was in French! And it was mostly myself who was the center of attention!) I know of some classes that only had one student! And tomorrow, the buses are also canceled, so I guess there will be almost no one once again. Have they not shoveled the buses out yet? The roads (at least the main ones) are mostly clear. It makes me laugh. I was telling people that I passed my driver's exam in more snow than this! You would have thought I told them I took my test in a whiteout with the looks they gave me!

Of course, the sidewalks are like deathtraps. They are so icy! Claude gave me a ride to my cafe, but I almost fell twice in the short walk to the doors. Once right after I got out of the car and again when I stopped to do the bise with one of M.'s friends. I was so distracted by that I almost didn't see M. when I entered! But luckily, he saw me, so we were able to catch up a bit.

Just so you can see that I am not exaggerating the lack of snowfall, I took some pictures. These were taken long after everyone had been sent home.

Also, these are the totally impractical (I'd never consider wearing them in Chauny) but pretty shoes that I bought in Cheltenham on sale for £7 that's about $10.50. Ellie wanted a picture, so I might as well share it with you as well! You can't really tell to well from the picture, but the color is a very rich royal blue.