The day before Carlos arrived, I decided I'd surprise him in Metz since he was going to arrive there in a bus from Frankfurt and then take the train to Nancy. His bus was late, so I called several times with not-so-subtle "Hey...Are you in Metz yet? I mean, I am still in Nancy and all of course ...but I was just wondering where you are" calls. He was pleasantly surprised to see me at the there when his bus finally fought through all of the Friday-before-Easter vacation traffic. And I'm glad I met him since he had a pretty long wait for the next train to Nancy and I was glad to help with his suitcase since it was full of clothes I'd left in Spain over Christmas and yummy Spanish tuna and lomo for me.

It is really bizarre how quickly 2 weeks can pass, especially when you want them to go slowly. I know it's a cliche, and everyone always says "Time flies..." but it's really true. I did have a lot of private lessons and doc appointments and stuff too which kept me busy so it wasn't a particularly relaxing holiday...but that's ok because laziness can sort of get out of control when you have too much time without anything scheduled.

One day we went to Metz with some of my Nancy friends, and of course it was nice with Carlos because we were able to reminisce last year together, and because it was the first time my friends from Nancy had seen Metz, and they liked it. That meant a lot to me because in the Nancy vs. Metz wars, I think Metz doesn't get enough credit (especially when the night life in Nancy is so much better). But Metz is a really beautiful city, and it was a lovely day to go back and stroll along the Moselle. We also saw our friends who run a sandwich shop there, and Carlos has convinced them to vacation in Almeria.

The fair is in town so we spent a lot of time there. I was surprised at how similar the Foire Lorraine is to the Mississippi State Fair. That is to say that the rides and games and junk foods are the same, the carnies are all kind of scary and have weird rural accents, and there are rednecks everywhere (mullets galore).  We had fun just walking around, watching people ride the rides, figuring why every game was nearly impossible to win and eating fair food.  (Strange fair vocabulary for you-- Cotton Candy is called "barbe à papa" or papa's beard (ew!)  and candy apples are "pommes d'amour" or love apples).

We did a lot of cooking too--homemade pizza, lasagna, teriyaki salmon etc...but that meant that we spent lots of time doing dishes too. I dream of the day that I will once again have a dishwasher.  And I will not even complain about unloading it!  

Easter is strange when you are not with your family...or at least someone's family! We didn't really know how to celebrate...so it was a pretty uneventful day except for the yummy barbecue pizza followed by chocolate crepes we made for lunch.

Carlos left at 6 o'clock yesterday morning, and I've had such busy days, and I've been so tired that I haven't had time for it to really sink in and be sad. Over the two weeks that he was here a lot of things I need to do accumulated so I have plenty to do to keep my distracted.  

And now for your latest news on the student strike.  There will be another vote on Tuesday to determine whether the blocage will continue, and there has been some discussion of pushing back exams, which could mean I'd have to stay in France longer than expected.  Last year however, they had a similar situation, and what they ended up doing was just having exams at the normal time despite only having had a few weeks of class.  Despite the fact that this means the students will have had a lot less class, this is what I am hoping for--there is still a chance they will make me recover all the lost hours of class and then do exams later.