Bugs, ya'll

I just saw my first bug in France, after a whole week of being here. I remember my friend Rachel's parents telling me that they never saw bugs. Her dad said "I saw two lizards, and I couldn't figure out what they ate to survive." The one that ran across my desk was no bigger than a period, bright red with multiple legs. It looked an awful lot like a chigger, and if there's one place I don't want chiggers (other than the obvious), it's France.

So some American friends are coming over tonight to eat spring rolls, and I am pumped. I am so excited to be doing stuff with people again. I hope they don't get lost coming over here, even with maps. Why? I'll tell you.

Angers, France possesses a singularly distinct method of street naming. First, they rounded up all the obese history-buffs of the city, and had them jog as far as they could before collapsing. Some of these people made it three, four blocks. After resuscitation, they were allowed to name the distance they covered after their favorite personage from the mid 20th century.

Don't believe me? See this--
Rue Martin Luther King: 4 blocks
Rue Pablo Picasso: 3 blocks
Rue Anne Frank: 4 blocks
Rue Edith Piaf: 1/2 block
And others, including Gandhi, Saint-Exupery, Debussy, Marechal Foch, Edison, Mitterrand, and countless streets named after Angevine people who were "Mort Pour La France" around WWII, which is honorable.

...But basically, hitting an intersection or veering slightly to the left is reason to change the name of a street.