When I told my friend Nathan to meet me by the statue of human hearts, I didn't imagine that we could have any confusion.  Outside one of the exits of the Nancy train station is a monument towards organ donation--a (grotesque) statue of human hearts in a sort of twisting shape.  Well, apparently most of the people in Nancy don't even notice the statue, even though it's next to the most central bus station--I guess it's just one of those things that people walk by and don't think about.  Because when he got off the train, he asked several people where it was, and no one knew.  Even the guy at the information desk didn't know and tried to Google it.  Well, we sat on opposite sides of the train station for over an hour before we found each other.

Nathan is one of my friends from Lebanese Convention who I've known for years, and in his backpacking trip through Europe he made a stop in Nancy to see me.  The night he arrived the other lecteurs and I had already committed to going to a pub with our students to give them a chance to speak English in a more relaxed setting.  I was a little apologetic for having to drag Nathan along, but it really worked out for him because on his trip he'd been wanting to have more contact with natives--and there they were a bar full of them, excited to talk to anglophones, especially one who lives in New York.  It was really a huge success, the night out.  I was pretty surprised based on how lethargic and apathetic my students are in class, but then I remembered that French students don't have clubs and organizations, and the students were excited for a chance to socialize, especially the ones who have just moved to Nancy.  It looks like this is going to be a regular event throughout the year.  The boss of all of the lecteurs warned us that the attendance to such evenings will wane, but it doesn't matter to me because I won't be bothered at all if there are no students there and just lecteurs!

Wednesday is my day off so I took Nathan around Nancy.  We had a lovely day and visited some museums, all of which I had seen before, but I still enjoyed them.  

This week was pretty busy, mostly so that I could make sure to have plenty of free time to show Nathan around.  And after not having had much time to prepare for my classes this week, I was kind of running around and floundering in a few of them (especially sociology!).  Hmmm...my plan is to work on it this weekend, but now that I have a little free time and internet, I am not exactly where to start, and I often end up getting distracted reading up on news from the presidential elections.  

Today I met up with Ruth, who is basically a friend of a bunch of my good friends friends and just arrived as an assistant here.  She is from Alabama and went to Ole Miss so it's cool because not only can we talk about being from the South, but we can reminisce about our specific friends.  Plus, I like being able to impart my wisdom seeing as I am a former assistant.

You will be proud to know that I sewed myself some curtains, and they didn't turn out half bad--the problem now is that my window is so tall that I can't hang them!  

My Spanish class is too advanced, but I guess that's good because I am learning a LOT in my classes...I will study in my free time if I can ever catch up on my classes.  I'd like to be able to pull off at least a few sentences the next time I see Carlos' family.  Only 3 weeks away!