Caution

When walking on a French sidewalk, watch out for:

Gifts the dogs have left
Cigarrette smoke

When walking under trees, watch out for:

Gifts the birds leave (yep, one got me in Paris)

Crossing streets used to scare me. Now it's an adventure - let's see how soon I can cross and how often I can do it on a red no-walking sign. No, don't worry, I don't run (much of) any risks, but then it doesn't take anyone long to figure out that if you follow the signals for pedestrians, you are going to have to wait twice as much. The key is learning how the traffic lights and the pedestrian lights don't synchronize, and more importantly, how much of a time lapse you have at each intersection - because no two are alike.

I hear it's much worse in Greece. Some girls from my class who traveled there during spring break informed us that Greek drivers drive as if pedestrians don't exist - even if they're right in plain sight. I just thought you might like to know in case you're planning on visiting Greece soon.

[Intermission: if I am forced to cut this post short soon, it is the fault of some sharp continuous ringing sound that is about ready to puncture a very fine hole in my eardrums]

... Believe it or not, I was going to post this yesterday. The first ringing stopped, then one minute later an alarm went off for the fire drill. So we all had to exit, but fortunately I saved the post first. Then after ten minutes of waiting and chatting, I came back into the building only to discover that my Internet connection didn't work, as it occasionally has the quirky habit of doing if I disconnect and then attempt to reconnect soon after. Tant pis. Too bad.