Since Ian has elected not to cultivate "The Daniel" (lest he start to resemble this lovely passport photo from yesteryear), he asked me to make him a hair appointment yesterday. His colleagues at IMD thanked me: they have seen the old driver's license photo -- they borrowed it from me for the yearbook! -- and they are worried for the future. Making appointments over the phone is a little too taxing to my French, so I went in person and managed to have a lovely "conversation" with the very encouraging salon woman. Yay for language skills, and more importantly, yay for the infinite patience of the locals! The Lausanneans (?) seem to appreciate the effort at French, fumbling though it may be at times: not knowing the word for "hazelnuts" last night at dinner, we tried to ask the waiter about the chocolate desserts, and he said that serving our table was like playing a game of Taboo! Thank you, Hasbro, for building cultural bridges via boardgames.

Dinner was at Cafe de Grancy with Rich and Tanja, Matt and Nicola (fresh off the train from Germany). Four of us elected to have the special, "La Famille Quesnoy," which was veal something or other. Ian loved it...until speculation at the table ran rampant that it was veal liver. Then he claimed he noticed the rather unpalatable texture. A likely story... All was made right with numerous drinks at Ye Olde White Horse...perhaps a few too many, seeing as Ian was late for his start-up group this morning by half an hour. We'll see if apologetic/compensatory pastries buys him the forgiveness he's hoping for.

Ian actually has a few hours off later on (!!!), so we are heading to the Musée de l'Elysée, the photography museum here in Lausanne, to catch the very cool looking Edward Steichen show. As an extra bonus, I think it's free today, as part of some first-Saturday-of-the-month promotion. Then we're off to some wine and cheese club thing at IMD (like Ian doesn't spend enough there already...), and then I'm sure Ian will pass out from exhaustion...and not the Lindsay Lohan kind of "exhaustion" you read so much about in People magazine.

We're hoping to take off tomorrow on a little day trip somewhere, so stay tuned for Laura and Ian travels and original photos!