... Because when deciding between procrastination and schoolwork, procrastination always wins.

So, another week full of exciting and less-exciting adventures. First of all, I made it though my week of two tests and a new section in my art history class, although barely. We'll be spending the next four weeks on... Something to the effect of iconology/iconography (there's actually a difference, who'd a thunk?) of Renaissance painting. Sounds like a blast in theory, but in reality, she's hard to follow and has this bad habit of assuming that all the students are in her other class as well... Yeah. That'll be interesting. Academics in general seem to be gearing up a bit, which is pretty terrifying. It's not that a ton of stuff needs to be done so much as what does need to be done is either very poorly explained and thus daunting, or is worth a huge percentage (say... 100) of our grade. Yikes.

So, on Wednesday, Sealia and I had our first cooking class! Getting there was an adventure, as it was pouring rain and windy to boot, so by the time we got there, we were soaked, despite the umbrellas and rain jackets. So, it was with a lady by the name of Mme Mousseron, who's rather adorable. So, we spent about 2 hours with front-row seats at a cooking show. We helped out a bit, but (at least I) did a lot of sitting and watching. We made: gratin aux endives, truit aux amandes, un "cake" et un "crumble," which was all wonderful, with perhaps the exception of the endives.

"LAAA!"
General immaturity, what can I say?
Also, I'm not sure I realized that fish have rather sharp teeth. And really silly looking tongues.










Grapefruit and kiwi. Do you have any idea how hard it is to cut and peel grapefruit like that? Well, hard!!! Looks pretty, though.











"Look what I made, ma!" Sealia showing off the truit aux amandes.

p.s. MHC, we're onto your scheme. You attract the brightest and most motivated women, then send them away to to foreign countries to "broaden their horizons" and turn them into housewives!!






Le "cake." Really, that's what she called it. It was basically a cheese/veggie loaf of bread which was really good, minus the olives.















Fishies! Mmm... They made fun of me for how I ate it, though, which I would consider a "I'd like to avoid getting fish bones stuck in my throat" manner, but they just thought was funny.














Apple crumble! And a rather satisfied cook :)

















As for the rest of the week... Nothing too eventful until Friday evening, when I headed back t Fitzpatrick's, the Irish pub, to listen to the jam session. Turns out that I got there early and had time to kill before they started, so I ended up just sort of attaching myself to a group of Irish students and hanging out with them for a while. It was a bit awkward, but I was damn proud of myself anyways :) On Saturday I finally went and found a ballet studio and took class! It was a really good class, just the right level, and a lot of fun. It really is interesting how little ballet seems to change around the world, though--same words, same order, even a similar "ballet mistress" attitude. The thing that amuses me, though, is the fact that in English, the words "tendue," "pirouette," "pencher," all sound so beautiful and elegant, whereas in French, it just means, "stretch," "twirl," and "tilt." Much less interesting. Saturday evening found me with a babysitting job, of a 2-year old and a 4-year old, the kids of my friend Lawrence who owns the English bookshop just down the street. It was an eventful evening--Finding Nemo, then train tracks (I love those things!), then paper-towel confetti, then books (written in French, and read outloud in English... Let's just say it wasn't pretty), and then bedtime, which took some persuasion. Whew.

Monday was a rather excellent day, overall, including such things as massive grocery shopping trips, cooking a really good dinner for myself (I CAN COOK!) and then having my first Irish fiddle lesson, from one of the guys who played at the pub. It was a good lesson, overall, but, as first lessons are wont to be, a bit disorganized and an overload of information. Ah well. At any rate, I have a good number of bad habits that need fixing toute suite, including some of the most basic elements, which is frustrating. Oh well. And... So starts another week. Oh, and random important information--I will most definitely be coming home for Christmas break, which is about between Dec. 18 and Jan. 20, so put that on your calendars!