Russian eyes

Oh la la...les allergies have begun. Yesterday I awoke with a scratchy throat and sneezing, and during my second class of the day, I had a full-on sneeze/nose-blowing attack. Luckily, I always keep key items in my purse such as allergy medicine. Unfortunately, it makes me really tired and I basically passed out right after dinner. Mom is sending me Zyrtec-D (the D is crucial, decongestant) which I hope to receive soon (hint).

I enjoyed our visit to the Tour Eiffel the other day although it was bitingly cold and windy, especially at the very top of the tower. I felt lucky to be up there as the sun was setting, and it's much less scary to be up that high in the daylight for some reason. I will post some pics of that. Since people come from all over the world to Paris/the Eiffel Tower, there are some real characters in there, such as an Italian man who caught a pigeon (who touches pigeons?) and proceeded to shove it in his daughter's face. Then, while waiting in line I spotted an Asian woman wearing one of those masks that the dentists wear when they clean your teeth. Weird.

Classes this week weren't too bad, but I'm starting to get really antsy, like I can't sit still for the last hour of the class. My French writing professor wasn't there yesterday (she's very intense and has a sing-song-y voice and makes fun of people if they don't know the answer to her question) which was nice, we had a very interesting substitute man. I forgot about substitute teachers, and didn't realize that it was strange because we don't have them in college. During that class, I had to sit next to one of the nuns. She smelled like death, although she is probably only 30-40 years old. She has a horrible lisp and was very invasive and took it upon herself to "correct" my papers when we were told to compare answers with our "neighbors." I'll tell you what, I don't know what it is about the French and working with your "neighbor" but I hate it, I always would rather work alone and I don't think it's neccessary to work with a partner on a stupid grammar excercise. Maybe that's why my French professors at Towson always make us work in partners, because that's how the French do things. Bah.

Last night after I got home from class, since Anna's brother is in town for a few days, Louise and I ate dinner just the two of us. I thought it would be awkward but it wasn't, and she made a great meal of salad (endives and corn, usually don't like endives, but the corn really lightened the mood of the salad), baguette, pork, and greatly spiced/cooked vegetables (I think it was potatoes and some sort of squash) with a delicious sweetish sauce, all topped off with delish red wine. Yum and perfect for another freezing day. I then passed out (even though I was supposed to meet up with people to go to the bar, typical Sara).

This morning I awoke at a reasonable hour, Anna was already gone, but Louise was awake, so we ate breakfast together. I really didn't feel like speaking French this morning through my extremely congested nose, but whatever. It's just kind of a lot to have to speak in a foreign tongue first thing in the morning. I had my usual tartine (baguette, butter/jam) and a yogurt (the yogurt here is out of control amazing), and Louise, oddly enough (but I'm not surprised) put some oatmeal (at least it looked like oatmeal, dry oats) in a bowl then proceeded to drown it in milk...no heating, no congealing...just floating oats...Anyway, we had a conversation about my allergies, and then she told me that I have Russian eyes which are mysterious...