Of yogurt, accents, and umbrellas

As a follow up to the stealing of my yogurts, the Awkward Prof who did it was waiting at the bus stop with me Friday morning. He did talk to me, but he didn't say anything about my yogurts. I kind of wanted to say "thanks for the mousse, but I don't actually eat it, so feel free to eat it yourself" or something with the purpose of saying "I know you stole my yogurt!" But I didn't, because I don't see what purpose that would serve besides making him uncomfortable and being mean. So he will go the rest of his days thinking that I never knew it was him who stole the yogurt.

I had to go to Paris to see my horrible specialist doctor who I strongly dislike yesterday, and surprise surprise, he was less of a jerk than usual! Normally we speak mostly in English and he asks me a couple of questions in French, but yesterday he started off in French and after a short conversation about my vacation he said "you've really improved your French, you have hardly any accent left." Ummm, WHAT? I kind of didn't believe him because I thought he might be buttering me up just so that I would follow whatever cockamaimy medical plan he has for me this time (normally I ignore what he says because he's wrong). So when I got back to my town and showed up to teach my class I asked D and another teacher at the school how my accent is. They said "no, you still have an accent, but you speak French really well," which was nice of them but that doesn't give me any information about how good or bad my accent is. Now I don't know what to think. I'll have to seek other opinions.

Yesterday French Umbrella #3 finally bit the dust due to the force of the winds from the tempete (tempest). Yes, in the 15 months I've been here I've gone through 3 umbrellas. The first two broke from overuse. It rains a lot here and I use them often. Rule # 1 of life in Picardie: never leave home without your umbrella! I think this is also true of Nord Pas de Calais, both Normandies, and Bretagne. Granted my first umbrellas were little cheapie 10 euro umbrellas, so when I bought # 3 I splurged on the 15 euro one. This one lasted a long time, about 9 months, and I can't blame it for breaking in the incredibly strong winds we had yesterday. Rule #2 of life in Picardie: spend at least 15 euros on your umbrella. For Umbrella #4 I decided to really splurge and spent 18 euros, which got me a super cute automatic umbrella. But when I got home and looked at the tag I was puzzled to see that the tag said it is a parapluie homme. The umbrella is black with a white band covered in black polka dots. Ummmm, I don't know about the rest of you, but to me polka dots aren't so manly. Then again, French men carry man bags, so why not a polka dot umbrella?

I know everyone is pretty bummed about the rainy, windy, nasty weather we've been having for like two weeks now, but I don't mind so much. It does suck to be caught outside in a rain storm, but when you're inside and you can hear the torrential rains hitting the roof, all warm and cozy curled up with a tea and a book it's delightful. And I'm really looking forward to using my new umbrella!