Snow, Snow, go away! Come after Saturday so I can volare!

OÙ EST LE BRAWNY MAN WHEN YOU NEED HIM?

France doesn't believe in paper towels. This bums me out. I get that it's more ecologically friendly to not have them around, but what do you do if, theoretically, you spill an entire cup of coffee on a chair and all over the floor of the teacher's lounge?

Search frantically for anything remotely absorbant. Printer paper? hmm, no. Clothes I'm wearing?...no,no, bad idea. The bathroom only has an air dryer. Toilet paper? Well, it's a sorry substitute, but it's what we've got. 

This leaves little flecks of tissue on the chair cushion but the floor looks pretty good. 
Back away slowly, no one will know it was you. Except the principal who just walked in the lounge and saw what you were doing... 
Excuse me? Did I put water on that? Uh, no, ma'am. I was more focused on the drying than the wetting. I will get right on that.

The students in my next class comment that something smells like coffee.


I SING, YOU SING, WE ALL SING FOR GIPSY KINGS

         The Friday after Thanksgiving, coming back from the Eiffel Tower with Claire on the 6, a man with a microphone and a guitar starts serenading the train. This is normal. Usually they sing a couple songs, pass around a hat for spare change, then hop off and move to the next car. Most passengers ignore the performers entirely and pretend like this isn’t happening.

         Today our singer is a Spanish speaker and he’s performing Gypsy King songs. He’s pretty talented and people in the packed train start to toe-tap along. When he starts to sing “Volare,” a British man on the train knows the words (kind of) and starts singing too. At first, people stiffen up at this break from the social norm, but little by little, more people join in and it turns into an all out sing-along. Gipsy Kings unite us all.

if you don’t know this song, you need to discover it now:

AHH! The weather folks are predicting heavy snow for Saturday when I'm supposed to be flying out! Apparently Charles de Gaulle is not equipt with the necessary snowplows, please everyone cross their fingers for me! If it could just wait until after my flight takes off that would be golden.