Late to work...

I woke up yesterday morning dreading the idea of getting out of bed. Of course, since I had to get to work, I forced myself into the shower. Just before leaving, I noticed the rooftops of the buildings behind our apartment were frosted over. Moving over to the window, I realized that they were in fact couvert de neige! As was everything else - this rapidly changed my attitude! I quickly threw on an extra pair of socks and grabbed a mismatched scarf and flew out the door. It was a lovely fifteen minute walk to the tram; my street is pretty when covered in snow!  

La neige just outside my apartment and on Avenue Foch

In my excitement over the snow, I didn't even think that there could be interruptions on the bus lines until the tramway dropped me off at Euroteleport and noticed a larger-than-normal crowd waiting at my stop. The automated tracker thing said the bus would be five minutes but that later changed to 15 minutes and then one of the destinations dropped off the list... Eventually the bus showed up and we piled on. Unfortunately, tardiness wasn't my only issue with the bus yesterday morning... After a few stops, the conducteur pulled off onto a side street and declared "Terminus! Terminus!", thus signaling that we all needed to get off and start hoofing it... And I was several stops away from my destination. (At this point, I decided I should have just stayed in bed.) My cell phone was out of credits, so I needed to find an open tabac to buy a phone card in. After walking for half an hour, the fourth tabac was open and was able to call the school to explain my predicament. Ten minutes later I finally arrived. I was actually quite lucky to have found my way, since usually I have my nose in my book each bus ride and don't look up until just before my stop; there were a few minutes where I didn't recognize any of the buildings I walked past... Oh, and did I mention that other bus drivers on the same line didn't stop? Two buses passed me while I was in between stops... but it was far too cold to stand and wait for another to possibly pass...

Yes, those are leopard hand-cuffs, snorkels, and squirt guns... and yes, they are temporary

Today, I've been too cold to leave the apartment. Sébastien's work gave him their old artificial Christmas tree, which we spent the afternoon decorating. I introduced him to my favorite Christmas cd (Amy Grant's "Home for Christmas") and finally felt in Christmas spirit! It's a work in progress (he's going to try to grab a few other decorations from work tomorrow). I contributed all of the paper flocons de neige! It's not your conventional tree but it works, for now. I'm just hoping that tomorrow doesn't present the same difficulties in getting to work!

Bisous,

-kelse

Couvert de neige - covered in snow

Le conducteur / la conductrice - the driver 

Terminus! - end of the line or terminus (is that really and English word?)

Un flocon de neige - snowflake