January 18th

Hello and welcome (maybe) to the first post on my shiny new blog for my second semester in France. There are a few white elephants we need to dismiss before we actually begin this post, so just skip ahead if you are too bothered to take the time to read them.

First off, this is a different blog meaning that it will be run in another manner. You will find similar pages, such as the Friends of France, making an appearance here but you will also discover some unusual ones along the way as well audience. I figured that I should put some more effort into my blog besides my day by day posts which brings me to the second elephant, the widgets. These would be my bells and whistles of my blog otherwise known as the magic eight ball, the weather forecast, and my looping music player. The eight ball is something silly for those of you who like me enjoy having something else predict your future without any logical means. The forecast is the most practical widget for it gives you an inside to the time and place in which I'm staying. The music player known as "looper" is my favorite widget. Looper is a term that refers to someone who enjoys looping one song over and over again into oblivion. I am one of those people (I can't help opening up the Kvatch gate) and it drives everybody, mostly Kate, insane. Well, this music player is very simple and is only able to play one song rather than a playlist. Simple is better for a blog in my opinion because it often makes it easier for browsers to load. Looper will be playing whichever song is dominating my head at the moment meaning that it will change from time to time; the frequency changes but usually is around two weeks to a month and half. Actually my record is my entire summer vacation which spans over three months. I have thought of you audience and thus given you the choice whether or not to activate the music rather than it playing automatically. You could thank me but I'll just assume that you sorta did. Third and final white elephant is the poll. This is a widget provided by blogger and something that I enjoy. The poll will be weekly, this first one is a bit longer, and will be asking a random question that pops into my head. Have fun answering it and each Sunday that I'm in town I will post the poll results on the blog as well as my own answer. There we go now we can finally start this first post!

Audience today was pretty sweet. It started off sweet which made the rest of it better and the pretty sweet came into the end. On this simple Friday Le Havre experienced its first full snow of the year. This could possibly be its only snow of the year, but regardless it happened. I love Chicago winters. To those of you not familiar with the climate of Chicago (possibly a good chunk of you audience) it often snows during our winters but it is always rigidly cold. Come January and February our days are littered with the average temperature of 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 degrees Celsius or 258.15 Kelvin) along with nights of -3 degrees Fahrenheit (-19.4 degrees Celsius or 253.75 Kelvin). That's freakin' cold. Winter is also our longest season and can, usually does, last into April. Spring is only about a month long before the summer heat wave hits at the end of May. I, Marebear love winter in its entirety. Some part of me does this to rebel against the norm, but most of me loves winter for being winter. So when it snows in Le Havre a city which rarely sees this silent falling beauty, I become happy. Its an uncanny happy since there is a lot of giddiness stuffed into it. Remember audience, everyone has something odd that makes them tick full of smiles. The snow gave me a joyful start to the day, as always the rest just followed.

If you all remember my friend Paula was only here for the first semester. She is now back in Nebraska but we still keep in touch. Her sorority duties keep her busy and the time difference does interfere, however we are still involved in each other's lives digitally. Well since it is a new semester that means new students are arriving, foreign students to be precise. Jaimie is such a student. She hails from Nebraska, originally from the East Coast, and arrived in Le Havre today. She actually arrived in the late afternoon later than planned. This is due to that rascal snow (weather will be weather) that scared everyone in Normandy including the trains not built for snow into chaos. Poor Jaimie spent an extra hour and forty five minutes on her train because of climate delays. Kate and I were still there to welcome her to Le Havre which took some of the pressure off. Michael (Mama Duck) was there as well the second time in order to see that Jaimie made it to St. Nicolas residence hall in one piece. She did, don't worry, and is now relaxing in her room after Kate and I (mostly me) chewed the fat relentlessly. Ollie even made an appearance which Jaimie enjoyed. Jaimie seems to be a nice girl with both feet on the ground. She isn't Paula and no one can replace your friends, but I think that Kate, Jaimie, and I will go along nicely. Fingers crossed audience.

Oh yeah, P.S. I have internet in the dorm now!