I thought it was bad when I got charged taxes for the free tv programs you can pick up with an antenna. But, it got worse. For Christmas I got charged more than 50% on the gifts that my family sent me. One american here paid over $600 in taxes for her presents. These are gifts from friends and family, personal packages, not things we bought over the internet and had shipped here. reeediculous...
The blizzards are still going on in the mountains, but we get blue skies from time to time now in the valley. It's beautiful when it clears out a bit. We had giant snowflakes falling the other morning on my way to work. These are bigger in diameter than a quarter, and just softly falling down.
I'm getting to work pretty early these days. My french classes just started back up (after a 2 month reprieve). I have them 3 times a week at 7 am. I'm getting to work at about 6:30. Since it's so early I thought it would be nice if we took turns bringing in breakfast (there are 4 students and one teacher). So, I brought in a "king" cake (not nearly as sweet as the ones in New Orleans, so a bit more palatable for breakfast. My teacher loved it and she ended up finding the "prize" in it, so it turned me into a teacher's pet....
Christmas was great! The only big difference between a French Christmas and an American one seems to be the language! Angelique's family was very nice, and very welcoming. It was great to see Orbey, Kaysersberg, and Strasbourg. I have pictures up, they are under "Alsace Region" on the "France" page. The Christmas markets were really cool. The wine was great, the food was amazing...it was a good time.
I've been skiing a few times now. Getting a little better. I learned how to ski backwards on Sunday, that was fun. It's been snowing a ton at the higher elevations. 4 people were killed last week from avalanches. There's supposed to be a high risk now for more avalanches. You can hear cannons firing every day to set off small avalanches to prevent a big one.
I'm supposed to take the driving test again soon. Hopefully I'll pass this time, though I haven't studied since the last test. I missed 6 (out of 40) last time, and the most you can miss is 5. Wish me luck!