Le salsa et la pluie

So I now realize that I signed up for a semester in one of the rainiest places. Ever.  In the 8 days I've been here, there have probably only been 1 or 2 actual sunny days.  Other than that, it has been cloudy and/or rainy.  And I've heard that, while Strasbourg is certainly milder than Boston during the winter (which only made me further rue the day that I decided to bring all of my heavy wool sweaters), it rains.  A lot.  Joy to the world.  Because I am definitely one of those people that can become easily afflicted with seasonal affective disorder.  This could make for a very interesting semester.  It has been really chilly today (I would be shocked if it got any warmer than the upper 50s or VERY lower 60s), and I don't think the rain has stopped all day.  It's sort of a bone-chilling cold, too, because of the rain, and it's just one of those days when you want to curl up on your couch with a blanket, a book, and a cup of hot chocolate or tea in front of a roaring fireplace.  But sadly, I have no fireplace. 

 It's been a really low-key day; I woke up at 10 after a late night out (see below for details), watched some episodes of The Office, and had a nice, leisurely breakfast.  Then, after running a few errands, Jinah and I headed over to Jill's house for a baking party.  We were supposed to have an international student picnic today (to which we were supposed to bring a dish native to our country), but that was obviously cancelled because of the rain.  But we decided to still get together and take advantage of Jill's amazing kitchen and bake for ourselves.  Now, our original thought was to make apple pie- because really, what's more American than apple pie?- but we were far too lazy to look up a recipe.  So we settled on brownies and chocolate chip cookies.  On the box of brownie mix, it said that they were "America's Finest." Ha. Hardly.  They were WAY too chocolatey, and we had to add butter to the mix, which was just weird.  Let's just say that they sucked compared to American brownies (plus, I think I was a little depressed that I couldn't make my signature "healthy brownies" with applesauce instead of oil).  The cookies weren't too bad.  The mix was Dr. Oetker's, which is a brand I've seen at Whole Foods, so I thought it had a much better chance of being good.  In any case, it was fun to spend a nasty weather day indoors cooking with friends.  Other than that, I've really just been relaxing today.  My host mom got back late last night (I think around 3 this morning, actually) from Bordeaux, where she was getting her son settled in to university.  She was gone for almost a week, so it's really nice to have her back.  I've also been bonding a little bit with Angela, the Colombian student and friend of Angelita's who has been staying with me this past week.  I'm really looking forward to finally trying Angelita's cooking, which I've heard is really good.  Speaking of cooking, Jinah and I were discussing the surprisingly large portions here, because we had both been told that the French have much smaller portions.  The ones in Strasbourg are absolutely giant.  She said that a friend of hers called Strasbourg "fake France," and more German than anything, which would explain the large portions.

Last night, Jill and I, along with a bunch of ERASMUS kids, went out to La Salamandre, a club in the Gallia neighborhood, for salsa night.  I was totally surprised, because it was actually a LOT of fun!  It was a little awkward at first, because we got there at 10:30 and there was almost no one else there, but pretty soon after, it really filled up.  Rather than sit awkwardly at the bar for hours, I decided to just jump right in and start dancing right away, and luckily a lot of my friends felt the same way, so we just danced in a circle.  Now, NONE of us are good salsa dancers, but at least we looked stupid together.  Nevertheless, Jill and I vowed to take lessons before we go back.  Which we will, because I need to practice if I want to have a chance of hanging with the Spaniards next semester!  Jill and I danced with 3 guys (1 for her, 2 for me) that can best be described as late-30s creepers.  They were very sketchy, and were clearly surveying the dance floor for girls that were dancing in groups.  They were also pretty good dancers, so I was mostly being yanked in several directions, obviously not knowing what to do.  All of that dancing was absolutely exhausting, so we left around 1.  And thankfully, the club was pretty close to my house (about a 10-minute walk), so I was perfectly fine walking home by myself (but, being my usual prepared self, I had still written down the name, address, and phone number of the club, in addition to numbers for 2 cab companies in case I didn't feel safe enough walking home by myself).  Let's just say that I walked fast!!!

We were planning on going to Baden-Baden (in Germany) tomorrow, but most of what we were planning to do is outside, and it's supposed to rain more tomorrow, so we may have to push the trip back.  But I talked to Kate the other day, and it sounds like we're going to try to meet up in Salzburg, Austria in early to mid-October so we can see where The Sound of Music was filmed (my idea, of course!!!).  I'm really crossing my fingers, because I would obviously love to see Kate this semester, and would really like to go to Austria too!

I hope everyone is doing well!  Keep the updates coming!

Sending you my love,

Kristen