An un-creative title: Annecy!

        It's time for another weekend update (nope - not like SNL).
        The entire trip went to Annecy, a town in the Alps, this weekend. Annecy might be the single most beautiful place I've ever been, and if not, it's certainly up there. It's situated on a giant crystal blue lake - Lake Annecy to be precise - and is surrounded by the Alps. My pictures don't nearly do it justice; all of us kept saying that we couldn't get sick of taking pictures of the lake and mountains. The city itself was very nice as well. It was also very small - the group spent most of today running into each other as we wandered around doing the typical "We are Americans and we don't know what to do when everything in France is closed on Sunday" thing that we've been doing this whole trip. But here's the day-by-day low down:
        We got there Friday and immediately headed over to the lake and rented paddle boats. Everyone jumped off the paddle boats into the (very cold Alpine) water, but since I'm not smart enough to remember to bring my bathing suit from Lyon, I stayed on the boat until it was too much to resist and I jumped in wearing my shorts and bra. (As Emily said, "You're so French." And as someone else said, "Nope, if she was French, she would have jumped in naked.") Afterward we touristed around taking pictures and checking out the town. The rest of the day was uneventful, though we learned that Annecy does really well with pizza; the restaurant where we ate dinner was like being in Italy.
        Saturday some of us went out on the lake again, but we rented a motor boat this time - and I borrowed a bathing suit from one of the girls. Figured I'd be classy this time, plus I was getting tired of the fact that some of my clothing was still soaking wet. Afterward we rented bikes and biked a ways around the lake, which can honestly only be described as "idyllic." I had a great conversation with the friendly owner of a sandwich shop where I bought lunch which I definitely needed. I go between feeling like I'm not very good at French and feeling like I'm a-okay, but this guy was impressed and we talked for awhile. I met up with Mark, who had jumped off a cliff while I was doing all this - safely, via paragliding, not suicidally - and we did the dinner thing.
        Today was kind of icky and rainy, but we found a cool outdoor market, though "found" is used loosely here, since the market had basically taken over most of the town, as markets do on Sundays in France. We went up to the castle that overlooks the town which has been turned into a museum...about fishing. It's a local museum about Annecy and the lake, and therefore has lots of information about fish and fisherman. I can't say it was too exciting, but students got in for 2.50, so it wasn't so bad. Then we spent the rest of the day wandering around and running into everyone else in the group while we killed time until our bus left at five. A highlight was a street performer doing cool stunts and juggling; after his show everyone was giving him money and a tiny French boy announced to the crowd of a couple hundred "Je donne les pièces!" which basically means "I'm giving money!"
        I cannot believe that this is my last week here. It feels like I've been here three days, not three weeks. Time flies when you're in France. Eek!