Honestly, though, things are going well, if quietly.  I “went for a walk” yesterday - a 10 km (6.2 mi) stroll to a little pair of towns outside Laon, called Persles-et-Thierry.  It was a wonderful, wonderful walk.  The countryside was beautiful, the weather was fantastic, I petted a horse…  Actually, it’s funny - I even got to give the horse a treat.  I was standing on the side of the road, petting the horse, when a car pulled off onto the shoulder and a guy got out.  I thought, “Uh-oh, it’s the owner and he’s going to tell me to leave his horse alone!”  But when I asked the guy if there was a problem, he said, “No, no, pas de tout(not at all),” and asked me if I’d like to give the horse a bon-bon.  Without waiting for an answer, he opened up his trunk and got out a bag of horse treats, fed a handful to the horse and gave me a handful to do the same with.  (The horse was very happy.)  He asked if I lived around here, and when I said yes, that I lived in Laon, he amazedly asked if I came on foot.  When I said yes again, he asked me if I need a ride back to Laon, as that was where he was headed.  I said, “No, thank you though.  The weather is beautiful.”  He agreed, got into his car and started to drive off - without his little dog (a terrier of some sort that had slipped out of the car when he first opened the door).  I waved at him, he paused the car, and I picked up his dog and showed it to him.  He was very surprised and glad that I had noticed!  ::grin::
 
Yesterday afternoon went well, then, and I had that wonderful feeling of absolute contentment that I’ve gotten other times, usually when I’m by myself doing nothing in particular - wandering around a foreign country, for example.  I’m starting to get excited about all the traveling I might be able to do in the next few months - Madrid in a couple of weeks, England for Christmas, Germany at the end of February…  It’s amazing to be in a place where a few hours drive takes you to a totally different culture and country.  I know that the cultures of the different parts of the US are fairly different, but they are at least all in one country and speak (mostly) the same language.

I’m sure that there were other things that I was going to say in my entry, but I honestly can’t think of them right now.  Maybe they’ll come to me while I’m walking around the marché, and I can update again later today.  It’s funny - I’m also feeling like I’m not doing exactly what I meant to do with this weblog.  Part of me had this grand(iose) idea that I would be able to make insightful remarks about life in Europe, how it pertains to the world, things like that.  Instead, I find myself using it mostly to record my emotions and actions.  I know that this isn’t a bad thing, and that one can infer a lot about the culture and life around me by what emotions they engender, but it’s yet another example of idealistic notions running headlong into reality.  I’ve had quite a few of those run-ins these past few days.