Buckets today. In the form of rainfall. Slowly poured buckets, but enough to flood the gutters of the streets and somewhat flood the parking lots on campus. I was glad to have my umbrella handy in the car. I've always got it with me in the car, but have never really had much occasion to use it. But given the distance I had to walk, I opted not to do my usual rain-running. I instead favored the use of my umbrella, and it really did make things quite pleasant, despite the fact that my shoes still got soaked from the puddles and the flooding parking lot. To my great surprise, neither of my two classes today was a snoozefest. And one of the classes is of the three-hour once-a-week lecture variety. I had a feeling grad school here would be different. However, I had no idea I would be in for competent instructors who are also engaging presenters. AND they even have good senses of humor. How refreshing!

Certain assumptions were made, though I'm wondering if that's customary here. Because my last name is French, I apparently speak French. (I know a phrase or two, but it's my partner who actually speaks the language.) But given that the teacher who made this sly observation also signed APPLE when she meant to sign BORING, and that she talks very fast and in general seems very cool, I didn't bother to correct her. Call it laziness if you want to. I'm banking on the fact that she'll forget all about the whole French thing by next week, if she hasn't already. I just hope she's not taking any of those newfangled memory pills.