Playing catch-up on the blog. Or, the Catch-22 of traveling and blogging.

I’ve been traveling like a crazy nomad lately (I’ve been in 5 different countries in the last month!), which means that I have loads of stuff to blog about, and I’ve had absolutely no time in which to do so! If only I were traveling less and had more time to blog... but then, I'd have nothing to actually blog about! I guess I’m going to have to work backwards or something to get my blog caught up with the present. Not to mention the fact that 2 weeks in the Netherlands for Field Orientation, plus the visit of a dear friend from California, plus a vacation traveling all over Ireland, plus a conference in Paris have provided so many stories, thoughts, and ideas that I need to get them down in writing before they’re lost forever in the depths of my long term memory. But before I launch myself into retelling my travel tales, let me share what’s going on in Aix right now.

1. It’s snowing!!!!! I’m not even kidding people. It is SNOWING in the south of France in the middle of November! And I’m not even talking about a little bit of slushy rain that melts as soon as it hits the ground. I’m talking big fat white flakes that stick to the ground and are perfect for making snowballs. I looked out my window yesterday afternoon and all I saw was a flurry of white. What is going on here?? The thing that baffles me the most is that nobody else seems at all baffled by this. Ok, I know I’m a southern California girl who doesn’t really know how to deal with snow, but I’m thinking that massive amounts of snow in the south of France in November should surprise anybody! Am I right? But everyone’s wandering around like this is perfectly normal. I guess I better buy some snow gear or something.

2. I got a kitten!!! Perhaps you remember hearing the story of the kittens that were born on our balcony on my birthday? Back at the beginning of September, our next-door neighbors’ cat was looking for a cozy, safe place to give birth to her 6 kittens, and decided that our balcony was the ideal location. The neighbors discovered this, brought the kittens back to their own apartment, but Mama Kitty courageously returned her kitties one-by-one to our balcony by leaping from her 5th floor balcony to ours with a kitten in her mouth. So when the kitties were old enough to leave their mama at the end of October, I decided to adopt one. I admit I surprised myself when I decided to get a cat, as I’ve always been an ardent dog person. But a dog requires a bit more commitment and effort than I can provide right now. I really wanted a pet, and I felt a special connection with the kittens that were born on my balcony on my birthday, so now here I am, a cat owner. And as it turns out, I love my kitten! His name is Fitz (short for Fitzwilliam, as in Fitzwilliam Darcy, as in the Jane Austen character…) and he is tiny and black and adorable. He’s the ideal cat for our extremely extroverted apartment, because he’s very social, loves to cuddle, and loves new people. And for some reason, he loves to perch on my shoulder like a little bird. While I’m at my desk working on the computer, he’ll sit on my shoulder for hours and stare at the screen. (I thought this was extremely bizarre behavior until I stumbled upon Jenelle’s blog entry).

3. I’ve got loads of good stuff going on right now with my job at iccp, so I’ll just give you one highlight—youth group! Adam and Tasha and I have been planning all kinds of fun activities lately. On Halloween we took our middle schoolers bowling—in full Halloween costumes of course. Halloween is a pretty new thing in France, so we attracted a lot of attention walking down the Cours Mirabeau in crazy costumes and wigs.

The next week (during school vacation) we took the youth group to the OK Corral, a “western” themed amusement park not far from Aix. A western amusement park, complete with cowboys and Native Americans, in the south of France, is completely hilarious. We had a hilariously good time. (Check out pictures of both of these events here.)

Ok, travel stories coming very very soon. And please hold me accountable, friends. If it’s been too long without a new story, feel free to get on my case.