feeling at mid-June

It's June 14. We have 23 days in Nancy. (I wish I hadn't just counted that.) We're trying to live it up, but the rain lately seems to be endless. I realize that, as I write this, it's very sunny outside... but there's more than a 50 percent chance of rain. For the week. Luckily, you can have marvelous meals with friends inside! This means our Final Month album on Flickr is filling with some great memories.

Last night, we had a dinner at Excelsior. Nancy's history is rich in art nouveau, & the town has beautiful reminders of the école de Nancy all over town. I'd walked by Excelsior countless times, & I jumped on Lauren's suggestion that we have a nice dinner there. While dining for four hours–because we were relaxing & because the waiter was incredibly forgetful–I snapped a few pictures.

I've started making a mental list of the things I'll miss in France. Long dinners, ancient architecture & the girls I've gotten close to form a sort of trifecta at the top of that list. Now here they were, three of them all together.

I'm forcing myself out into the rain coming this afternoon to care for our contracts that need cancelled & send money back to the States. While this started out stressful, it's gotten rather exciting to wait for our money to fly across the ocean, as it jumps from 500 euros to $674, then $705 the following month. This doesn't say great things about the economy we're returning to (but The Atlantic posted an article that says this situation could be changing).

Clearly, I'm trying to find ways to get excited about today. In the meantime, I'm watching "The Big Lebowski," cleaning the apartment & getting ready for graduate school with their handy, e-mailed to-do list. (It's like they KNOW ME ALREADY!) Unfortunately, first on their to-do list is agree to the loans they've "given" you.

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