who needs spring when you can skip straight to summer?

wow, it's been a while. probably the page should have been replaced with those color test bars they used to put on television when there was nothing to show...

what has been happening to me recently, anyway? that _is_ a pretty good question.

well, at the moment, the sun is shining and there's hardly a cloud in the sky; the weather has been positively gorgeous since sunday. it was totally crazy; like somebody decided to turn winter off with a light switch. but it was definitely getting to be about time for it---up until last week, we were still getting a couple inches of snow every two or three days. it always melted pretty quick, like within 24-36 hours, but then i would wake up the next day, and there would be another layer on my balcony again. i remember one morning in particular (it was a wednesday, i think) when i was riding the metro into work in the morning, and for some bizarre reason, the unusually large flakes of snow just hung immobile in the air, without falling. must have been the wind, or the motion of the train, or something, but the effect was really surreal. like in the movies where time stops, and you walk around looking at the frozen things. very beautiful; very trippy.

if this sunny streak holds out, probably next week i'll go buy seeds and try again to plant my balcony garden this year.

i've actually been up snowboarding again twice since last i wrote. good god, it's so amazing. i can't get over how much fun it was once i rented a real board and ditched the piece of crap i was using the first time (in january). i got some confidence back, and had a blast. oh, and what's more, i guess the snow in the northwest has been really crappy this year, so all the equipment is super-cheap, and dad found an incredible deal for me on a very nice snowboard, so next season, i'll even have my own stuff! i'm really looking forward to it. (for any snow-geeks out there who might care, it's a 2005 burton custom 154 with the white custom bindings to match; all together, it was only about $400. it's gonna rock.)

started another french class on tuesday. it's in the evening (6-8), which is simultaneously both convenient and a little irritating, but i think it will work out well in the end. there's actually more women than men in the class, which could make for a different dynamic, seeing as this is really the only such group i've participated in since getting here. (most of the people i know are the people i work with or near, and the ratio here at epfl is even worse than caltech, if you can imagine that.) oh, and i ended up just going into the next class in my sequence (B1), even though ildar had convinced me to go and try to take the test for passing into B1+. i mean, he had a point--it's better to be the worst in a class than the best--but i didn't quite pass the test to make it to the next level. my score was right on the borderline for the written, and then when she spoke to me, i don't think she was very happy with my verbal grammar skills (though she mentioned that my vocabulary was pretty good). it's hard to tell (after only one class) where i will fit into this group. my verbal skills are very bad (i'm the first to admit that), but in terms of general knowledge and aural comprehension, i'm tempted to guess that i could very well be towards the top of the class. i just want to improve, that's all. and i'm as impatient as ever. sigh.

a week ago tuesday, enno and i made samosas from the recipe that sarah sent me. jesus christ, they were fucking *delicious.* i have no way of judging if they were in any way authentic at all, but at least they reminded me of things i had had in indian restaurants in the united states, so that made me happy. god i love indian food. i really need to learn to make more of it. oh, and that was when i finally got to present enno with his christmas gifts---three months later. [rolls eyes] but again, he seemed appreciative, so that's all that really mattered to me.

so many things have happened. i need to be more diligent in keeping up...

let's see... jean-christophe defended his thesis, and is now officially "dr. zuffrey." he threw a big party afterwards, and the whole event was a lot of fun.

jim and fabius and i went to the theatre to see "ray," which was excellent. i wasn't sure what to expect going into it, but i definitely came out feet a-tappin' and fingers a-snappin' -- i totally want to try to get some of his albums now (i'd never really heard any of his music before). it will probably be interesting to see how closely they kept to what the music really sounded like, or if they had to schnazz it up for a more modern audience. which would be a real shame, especially since it would make me feel like a total tool for liking what they did to it... well, let's just hope that it always rocked this much.

i'm finally getting off my ass, and have announced that twin peaks will officially begin next wednesday (march 23) with the pilot episode, and we will be continuing on wednesdays until we finish the series. now i'm just trying to find a donut shop in lausanne (you can't watch twin peaks without donuts---it's just unnatural).

okay, i think that pretty much brings us up to speed. probably i've forgotten some things, which will now be forever lost in the sands of time, but i guess i just have to try to do better next time... hope the things i forgot weren't too important. :)