Autumn Commencement

It's been a busy weekend, I'll tell you what. I've a feeling this is going to be a long post but I'll include every picture on the planet to keep you satisfied. Everybody loves picture books. So where to start... Thursday. I'll start with Thursday.

So, Thursday morning I walk my fanny on down to the tram station to wait for the B tram that takes me to school. I'm sitting there for maybe two minutes when this announcement comes on saying that the day before there was an incident and that trams A, B, and C aren't running. However, nobody gets up to walk away so I stay sitting. A couple minutes later the same announcement is played. Still, nobody moves. Some girls come and sit next to me, they look at the overhead sign that says that no tram is running, and ask me how long I've been waiting. I tell them, we sit, the announcement comes back on, and by this point everybody decides that the information is probably true and we all leave the station. As I'm walking back up the street to go home, I spot my friends Carrie and Stephanie N. I tell them the news and after a couple minutes of deciding, we start to walk to school. It took us an hour and a half, and we were late so we just skipped the morning class (knowing we wouldn't be the only ones) and hung out in the API office for a while.

At the office, we were told the story of why the trams weren't running that day. Yes, that day. At all. It goes like this: The trams have police that sometimes check peoples' tickets. If you got on the tram without paying, you're fined. So this guy was checked and fined, he called his buddies, and two stops later he and his hired help beat up the six tram officers. So the next day the tram drivers took the day off in protest. The hoodlums were caught.

Also, while waiting for the late afternoon class, my morning teacher comes out of nowhere, and asks where I was that morning. I make a couple feeble mumbles about the tram and being late and she asked if I had my book so she could give me the homework. Ugh! She did it with all smiles too, like "It's ok you weren't in class, nobody was, let me give you this homework though. Later!"

Me, Carlos, Shawn

Shawn, Stephanie S, Adrian, Brady,
Sutton, Rachel, and I

So after class a bunch of us had to walk home, which was actually fun because we just walked on the tram tracks and sang songs and chatted. We were getting ready for a night of fun because we were celebrating Stephanie S's birthday. I ate dinner at home, met Carrie and Shawn at the tram stop, and we walked to Le Tord Boyaux. We danced and sampled from their grand selection of wine. Best wine flavor: peach. Some people had flaming shots. Carrie had two. She felt it later. Side note: Carrie reminds me a lot of Madame Bailey, so it was quite entertaining to see her drunk. That story comes a little later. For now - Le Tord Boyaux pictures!

Enjoy those? Yes, ok, so after that Carlos took me, Shawn, Ashley, Carrie, Allison, and our German friend Lena to this discothèque called Sun 7 (which is a play on words for "Sunset"). But first! A bottle of wine was bought and shared (although I only had a sip or two because it was really cheap and tasted like meat). So we got our grove on there as much as we could... it was super packed and a small place anyway. Three DFMOs took place (dance floor make out) though I shouldn't be spreading around who was a participant. I was not.

So we left around 2am, walked Lena home, and then walked all the way back to La Tronche. I got home at 3:30 and Carrie and Shawn got home at 4 or so. The whole walk was stalled a couple times to let Carrie have a sit down. All in all it was a very good night. Yesterday we went to Annecy but I'll post about that in a separate blog.