::headdesk::

So, um, I haven't updated since October? My bad. I have never been good at journaling in any form. So to bring people up to speed with my life since October, I'll give a bit of a summary, and then probably spend the next couple of days describing my Winter Vacation.
In recent months, I have:

• Visited some castles in the Loire river valley. We saw Chambourd, and visited Tours (the city. heee. We went on a tour of Tours), a former abbey, a vineyard, and Amboise, which is where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last years. da Vinci's manor was pretty cool to visit, but definitely not worth the nine euros we payed to get in. Also, French strangers now have pictures of me acting like a complete idiot on a mock-up of da Vinci's helicopter design. Overall, trip was fun, but we seriously considered smacking the Mediterranean students who wouldn't freaking shut up on the five hour bus ride.
• Had a very makeshift Thanksgiving. At the last moment, we decided to make chicken, mashed potatoes, teriyaki green beans, and what I could have sworn were cranberries, but were actually sour cherries. And some sparkling wine. Which totally exploded all over the table. We lost about half the bottle, but it was definitely a humorous moment. Once I got over the fact I had wine all over myself. I also learned that drinking a third of a bottle of wine all on my own is really, really dumb. Won't repeat that experience again.
• Spent ridiculous amounts of time in class. I mean, seriously--15 hours of straight, unmitigated French a week, plus two 2-hour classes once a week, also taught in French. I've started mixing English and French together, especially in regards to verbs. Though I am getting better at expressing myself in French. At least, regular day-to-day French. It's still really hard to discuss abstract topics, or things I don't even know about in English.
  
• Learned several creative ways to prepare noodles in the microwave. Like, mix regular spaghetti sauce and this type of spreadable cheese they sell here in a bowl with noodles, and it's like gourmet spaghetti. So incredibly tasty.
• Done lots and lots of laundry by hand. It's expensive to use the washing machine here, about four euros to wash and dry one load. And since we have a sheet exchange every 15 days for our bedding, I don't have anything huge that needs to be washed

In other news, it snowed today! Just a dusting, but the red tile roofs look really charming with the slight layer of snow. As much as I wish I weren't back in class just yet, it is really nice to see everyone again. The fact I've made some really good friends is the ONLY reason I didn't go home after this semester. I haven't had a bad time, but I really thing one semester would have been sufficient. I'm more a homebody than I realised.

To look forward towards in the next post: Christmas vacation! and *shock!* *le gasp!* PICTURES. I have lots. Just need to organise them and put them up on photobucket or somesuch.