Books, birthdays and baguettes

School has come into full swing now, there can be no doubt. I am nearing the end of week number two of class, and I have to say that I like my schedule. Not having any classes on Friday's while in Europe is one way of doing it I suppose. Also one way of doing it is traveling and buying ridiculously cheap flights to places all over Europe to see friends on those long weekends that I happen to have every week. So far the places I have flights to are London (for the Harry Potter premiere), Norway to visit a friend from home and Seville, Spain to visit my roommate from last year. Europe is the best. Save for one thing...

One of the most anticlimactic birthdays ever happened on October 9. Mine. Come on, a birthday is never anticlimactic, one might say. As an American citizen turning 21 in a foreign country where the drinking age is 16, I beg to differ. This does not make my big day bad, but rather the celebration seemed just a little bit less than exciting because I have been buying beer for over a month here. Not that my 21st, had it been in the US, would have been crazy, but there would be something special about going into the store or bar and ordering the drinks for the first time as a 21 year old. A special feeling that will have to wait and not be quite as awesome as it could have been. Oh well. Life is so rough because of that.

Baguettes are also becoming a mainstay in my diet. And by mainstay, I mean I eat a half a baguette daily for lunch, dinner or both. I have found the stereotype of French people eating baguettes to be very much true, and as a result of my attempts to assimilate into the culture, I have picked up the habit. Also included in the habit is the overwhelming rate of cheese consumption. That, too, I have adopted as my own. America best watch out when I return because I will be ravenously searching the bread and cheese sections of every store I see for the $.80 baguettes and $2 wheels of cheese. When I can make a dozen lunches out of 6 baguettes and most of a wheel of cheese here, I am banking on coming home and being able to do it just as cheaply. Here's to hoping the local IGA stocks up for us returning French study abroad kids who need to eat cheese with everything they put in their mouth.

For now, that is about all I have to say. Weather is good and the skies are blue again after two straight days of rain. Life on the Mediterranean (or at least very near it) has returned to normal.

Free pic of the week, from my birthday hike to the top of Mt St Victoire. As you may be able to tell, we did the hike with several Canadians and it was windy up top.