today would have been my grandpa's ninety-fifth birthday. since he died in april, i've mostly gotten used to not having him around, but it's his first birthday that he won't celebrate. i got a text from dad at breakfast saying that it was grandpa's birthday, which of course I hadn't thought of. then, of course, i had to get out of the cafeteria as fast as possible. nobody wants to be the girl that cries in the Bon. it's a strange kind of sadness, though. i wouldn't feel this sad if i hadn't had the opportunity to love him as much as i did.

classes are going well so far. french conversation is by far the most awkward class I have ever taken, but it's a lot of fun most of the time. we were studying french puns on friday. then we had to make one up (porcelain=pour sa laine) and write a skit about it. french literature is a great class so far. we're reading Béroul's Tristan et Iseut, which is a really old piece of writing. the edition we're using includes the old french, which is really cool to look at, but i don't have the slightest idea what it says. my behavioral ecology class is pretty interesting. my lab partner is a cynical philosophy major in the last semester of his senior year, so this should be interesting. on tuesday, we're going into the forest to observe wild animal behavior. squirrels and birds and such. and intro to linguistics is interesting for sure. we're learning about phonetics on a very mechanical level, and learning some of the IPA alphabet, which is pretty sweet.

adrian and I are going to go buy red hair dye today and dye a section of her hair. perhaps that will cheer me up.