Blogger's Block

I know I haven't posted anything in a few days, but quite frankly there's not a lot to write about. Extracting DNA from bacteria in the lab? Not very exciting. Hopefully I'll find something inspiring soon and recover from my Blogger's Block. A few random thoughts and observations...

We are rapidly approaching the "premier tour" (1st round) of the French election, scheduled to to take place on April 22nd. There will be 12 names on the ballot--unlike the U.S., you can't do a "write-in" vote. Aside from the major candidates, there are a slew of candidates representing smaller parties, my favorite of which is the CPNT. CPNT stands for "Chasse, Pêche, Nature, et Traditions", which means "Hunting, Fishing, Nature, and Tradition." Kind of like the manly man's political party.

My new French class is pretty cool. Very international: there is only one other American other than myself, and just off the top of my head I can think of representatives present from Italy, Spain, Peru, Argentina, Japan, Sweden, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Wales, and Poland.

As of right now, I'm leading my family's Final Four pool, having correctly predicted Ohio State and Florida in the Final Four. However, I'm pretty sure that if Georgetown wins the whole shebang, my wife (who knows about as much about basketball as I know about, say, manicures) will beat me.

One good thing about living in Paris this year is that I don't have to hear very much about this Anna Nicole Smith business.

French vocab for the Day: The phrase for "writer's block" is "le syndrome de la page blanche" (syndrome of the white page), also referred to as the more directly translatable "blocage de l'écrivain."