il fait neige, goddammit

#$%*^!!!!!

there are rumours of snow here and bad weather till Sunday. it's 3 degrees right now and raining. i'm never going to gloat about the weather ever ever again. and i mean it this time.

the problem is that none of the buildings are really set up to handle truly cold conditions, there are all these charming french door windows (i don't know what to call them) and shutters but nothing really seals you know. Drafts seem to be part of the package. Even in this cafe, the door is open to the patio (which has a plastic enclosure). So I have to wear my jacket and order 3 euro hot chocolates (there's a euro sign on the keyboard but i can't figure out how to make it appear). my hands are cooold.

i went to the Cocteau Chapel today after school, it's very small but i really liked it. the walls are covered in paintings/murals that consist of black lines and subtle daubs of colour. you can read more about it here:
http://www.thevesselofgod.com/pilgrimage.html
you can't really tell from the photo but the face of the angel that's in the bottom left corner of the last photograph is really incredible. i'm going to go back and see if they'll let me photograph it. if not i'll just stare at it until it's burned into my mind.

while i'm really loving the experience of being in school and using my brain again i'm really getting frustrated by my limitations in french. i haven't read anything but Tintin and the newspaper for the past three weeks. the main problem is that i'm really overstimulated right now and at the same time there are all these things that i'm hearing about and thinking about and wanting to learn about in more detail but i don't want to (for lack of a better word) pollute myself with too much english right now (even though i'm writing in english). i can't even understand most television still. i understand more and more each day but not enough to really get into something. although i had an interesting experience yesterday, sitting on the couch watching some program about orphaned elephants (i find that nature documentaries are the easiest to understand) when i sort of stopped thinking about trying to understand and for a few moments just understood what the narrator was saying. of course the moment i realised what was happening i started thinking again and poof! it was gone. i have the same problem when i do yoga.

one interesting thing is that i'm usually completely exhausted at the end of each day. at first i thought it was jetlag but after talking to other people here i think it's something we're all experiencing. you'd think that sitting in a classroom for approx 6 hours a day (plus that massive petit dejuner and dejuner and breaks) would not be physically exhausting. and you'd be wrong.
you will be shocked to learn that most school nights i'm in bed by 10:30 or 11 (and sometimes as early as 9, which just seems obscene), and getting up around 7:30 (school starts at 9 and it's a 5 minute walk from our apartment...do the math...in toronto i would have been getting up at 8:45). of course the difference is that now i'm excited about where i'm going each morning (sorry Andrew ;) ).