Brocante sur JJ Rousseau

Today was a lovely day! Thanks to the brocante, a big event where people take to the streets and set up booths packed full of all their antique junk/treasures. And it all took place right on my street! The cafes moved their tables out into the road and local musicians played great music all throughout the day.

totally putting this in my kitchen.

Love, Money

I seem to have a lot of men interested that I'm not interested in, probably because I'm not interested. And the ones that I am interested in aren't interested, likely for the same reason. It's like a mobius strip but for sexual attraction.

I went out to a concert at an Irish pub tonight and seemed to be remarkably well liked by the male population and relatively disliked by one French woman who I thought was very pretty. She imitated me and made fun of my accent to the guys around her thinking I couldn't understand. This made me sad, but fortunately the guys around her didn't seem impressed with her efforts.

Back in my apartment I receive not one but two loving and lengthy text messages from various French men! The accent must not be so bad. Also I took my resume' around town today and, with a trembling hand and probably horrific French because I was so shy, placed it in the hands of some very unimpressed looking proprietors. -Then I discovered via B it had some grave mistakes, so I cried, reprinted the thing, and made the rounds a second time apologizing and asking if I could leave the new one. "Désolé, c'était ma première fois que j'ai tapé un CV en Française!!"

baby steps.

The Bat of the Casemates

After missing my train due to the inability to wrap my brain around the 24 hour clock, I spent another day in Luxembourg. A wonderful day, I might add! We wandered through the old district of Grund, sipped peach ice tea under an old flower covered trellis, and ventured into the famous Casemates - The 17 kilomteres of tunnels that remain from the immense fortress built way back in the times or yore. During both World Wars, the Casemates functioned as shelters and provided space for up to 35,000 people during air raids and shelling. Definitely no place for claustrophobics, as it's hard not to get dizzy in some of the tinier and darker tunnels.

Anna and I both agreed that the best part of the adventure was wriggling through some probably not-meant-to-be-surpassable corridors and awaking an angry and fluttering bat, sending us both squealing and scrambling back the way we came. Then, lost, and unable to find the exit, we squeezed through a grate and climbed the walls of the fortress like the warriors before us to escape the casemates.

Luxembourg is in incredibly beautiful city. Modern, clean, and very very green. While every blade of grass in Dijon was cobbelstoned over centuries ago, Luxembourg, though larger, still manages trees, fields, donkeys, chickens and sheep not far from the city center. Loved it.

I've also started reading Harry Potter! IN FRENCH! I delved into on the train and was happy to discover that not only do I like Harry Potter, but I also speak French. Woo!

Grund

spooky

Casemates, exterior

Luxembourg and the Morning After

Luxembourg

Trier

I am absolutely too old to go out dancing and drinking with 17 year olds. Last night was only the second time in my life I've drunk so much that I a) puked and b) had a hangover the next morning, but I don't plan on doing it again. Ever. There are healthier ways of getting wrinkles.

In other news I am in Luxembourg! Visiting with the beautiful Finnish fille, Anna. Yesterday we hopped on train to Trier, Germany, and spent the day wondering around. Suddenly I feel so international! But none of these border crossings earned me a stamp in my passport. And I felt painfully inadequate unable to say even the simplest phrases in German.

Dancing on a Boat

I changed my hair for the first time in 20 years and it changed my appearance quite dramatically. I dealt with the shock by following a group a French guys through town in the dead of night to a canal, (I had no idea there was water in Dijon) and onto a boat where there just so happened to be a roaring 20's party. Uh, rad.

So I danced and shimmied and swung my new sweat soaked bangs back and forth until the wee hours of the morning. A handsome Frenchie with an embarrassing name walked me home and kissed me at my door. Pas mal, pas mal de tout.