My latest intense google search

"Black and white bird with seriously long tail"

The other night I was over at Kathleens house watching her cook me dinner when I looked outside and I saw a bird with the longest tail I have ever seen.  I tore her away from her duties and made her look at this freak of nature with me before it flew away, the way that all magical creatures do just as someone is coming to verify that it exists.  When she saw the bird I was talking about she turned around unexcited and said, "Oh yeah, we have those all over here." I couldn't decide if I wanted to be seriously disappointed that I hadn't just discovered a new species, or seriously excited that I could see it again.  I chose the latter, and good thing because two days later I looked out my window to find my friend sitting on the fence post outside my window.  I went to get my camera, because what would a discovery like this be without a blog post? By the time I made it back to the window the object of my fascination had flown away.  I've been keeping my eyes sharp and my camera ready in hopes that I'll get a second chance.

Determined to do a blog post about how maybe France and the U.S. are more different than I think with my new species of french bird as proof I took to google.  What I found is bad for the point I'm trying to make.  What I learned from google is that the United States has the bird that I saw, well if not the exact bird one that looks freakishly like it.  Here's a picture of the bird I'm talking about. 

This is a magpie. It's not the bird I saw, but they might as well be cousins. The magpie is native to the Western half of North America and I find it's existence to be very disappointing. 

I am still on the hunt for my french bird, I might have to get Kathleen on the camera hunt as well and maybe I'll start to ask some of my stephanoise (people native to St. Etienne) if they know what the name of this darned bird is!

Now you all know how very exciting my week has been. Actually, I've been kind of sick so this might actually be the most exciting thing to report.  

Next big trip to look forward to: Zadar, Croatia, I leave April 30. It's supposed to be beautiful!