good news and bad news

good news first.
-i had a LOVELY valentine's day. fraser and i went to baden-baden to the friedrichsbad spa...it's a combination of roman baths and irish steam baths and was actually the most relaxing thing that has ever happened. also nudist...you'd think this is strange, but after about five minutes it stops being strange, and is just european. best part of the baths= the last stage is a nap in a dark room where they swaddle you up in a blanket and you just rest for half an hour. it was lovely. then we had a quick lunch and went for a walk along the canal in baden baden; it was snowy and beautiful and it totally quenched our thirst for a bit of canadian-style winter. there was even a horse pulling a sled in a snowy field. we came back to strasbourg and had a delicious sushi dinner, and then drank wine and read quietly for the evening. ok so we're basically both 50 years old. some people think this is cute. sometimes i think people say "cute" when they mean "lame," but don't want you to feel bad. anyway, it was lovely, nonetheless.
-i am basically "in" to dalhousie, and have been nominated for a major scholarship. haven't heard back yet, but i'll keep you posted. i also have a line on a roommate who i worked with at naramata...we'll be chatting this week about whether this will work for both of us. this would be nice because she could find a place to live in halifax, and i wouldn't have to do it from france.
-i'll likely be working at naramata this summer.
-i managed to cut my own hair (!!!) and the hair of my friend hanna. we're both pleased. this means neither of us will be paying 40euro for a haircut. i did not cut fraser's hair because boy-hair is scary and i'm afraid i'll give him a girl haircut.

that's the end of good news. sorry. on to bad news:
-i had a lovely evening in the pub/microbrewery "la lanterne" the other night, with charles and other french friends, as well as fraser and hanna. this is not the bad news. the bad news is that as i sat with my bag at my feet, some asshole proceeded to steal the wallet and ipod from hanna's closed purse (on her chair), and then take off with my entire backpack. hanna recognized someone with a backpack like mine and asked if i still had mine. i didn't. by this point he was gone, and we still thought it might have just been an accident. it wasn't. i didn't have more than a handful of cents in my wallet, and cancelled all my cards toute suite. i had an english book called "the flying troutmans" (very good, pick it up), fraser's choir music, two cd's i had burned for hanna, and every important travel document you're not supposed to keep in your wallet. soooo...i've spent the last few days scrambling to try to replace my carte de sejour, my passport, my credit and debit cards, my driver's license, and the other assorted cards in my wallet. this has given me a distaste for canadian bureaucracy french-style. the embassy was difficult to get a hold of. the consulate in paris is only open three hours a day. they told me they could not get me a replacement document quickly, even though i have tickets to dublin on sunday. all in all, the canadian consulate that's supposed to rescue me in a time of crisis has been a giant disappointment. i did get ahold of a woman today that told me it was possible to issue a temporary passport if i came in person. so i'm going to paris on friday to try and get one so that our trip to dublin is not entirely ruined (our tickets are non-refundable). so...keep your fingers crossed for me as i fight my way out of the iron cage of canadian/french bureaucracy. i am grateful that at least hanna and i have been able to do the majority of our running-around together. it helps to have someone else to rant and be miserable with, and then buy consiliatory french pastries with.
-uhh..that's pretty much the worst news. but wait, it's SURPRISE good news time! my good friend brittany just had a beautiful baby girl! britt and chase have named her jewel, and she's absolutely gorgeous. the idea of the two of them as parents makes me incredibly happy, and significantly less spiteful of french thieves and bureaucrats.

i hope i have more good news, soon.
miss you all, sorry for not sending more frequent updates!
best.
anne