when it's cold outside...

Antoine and me

I forgot about this one... :)

what if I left me?

The first snow of the year here in Limoges, and it was a sacré snow. It topped off a really perfect and great night; we ate out at an Indian restaurant owned by Sri Lankans, topped with ginger-y chai, which goes really well with...

And in the meantime, it snowed and snowed and snowed outside, and when we were finally finished with a two and a half hour meal, we discovered that everything was covered, and that it was perfect snowball packing snow, and we had a battle in front of city hall, and all of downtown was lit up in Christmas lights, and it's really gorgeous. And the camera makes snowflakes look like shooting stars. (thanks to Anthony for the photos, as usual)

Today everyone just stayed in all day, eating and curling up and being warm and wasting time. What luxury days like these are...

don't ever tell anybody anything. if you do, you start missing everybody.

Here some more pictures of Annecy downtown from our trip a couple weeks ago, as opposed to the previous pictures of Cusy, a little mountain village in the countryside right outside of Annecy.

A band that took a walk around the city jamming out and such.

 There are canals running through the city, a large beautiful lake that touches downtown, and mountains that are always in the background. It is a very beautiful city, though not very large; hopefully one day my family can come visit.

This weekend was rather busy and social; drinks and late-night fast food at a friend's place Friday, international dinner with friends at our place Saturday, after-lunch coffee and pre-dinner drinks with various family friends today.

Special announcement: tomorrow is my and Antoine's 2-year anniversary...

He is super excited.
Lately I have been reflecting upon the importance and true value of the angsty teenage stage of human life and development, despite how immature and stupid a teenager can be... How, in some sense, it is the peak of many people's lives, when they were the most alive and sensitive, critical yet naive, lucid and yet in a dream state. Things that the world today lacks, or ruins. Thus the reference to Catcher in the Rye.

Annecy in autumn

Antoine and I went to his parents' place in Annecy for a nice long weekend, thanks to the national holiday celebrating the armistice of the First World War.

Riding bikes in the mountains is murderously exhausting, needless to say.

The fog kind of hides the fact that the mountain sides are turning red and orange and golden yellow. It's really beautiful. I love going over Antoine's parents' place more and more all the time.

I guess I don't have much to say right now. I just barely started the application process for schools in Chicago... it's complicated though.

Miss and love all of you at home.