i forgot to tell you the best part of my french teacher not having the finger. well, it is a stub. she teaches first year french, and of course that means she has to practice counting with us. so when we got to 8 ("huit"), she laughed and pointed to the stub and then went onto 9 ("neuf"). i realized this must happen every year. i forgot about the snarky email she wrote me the second she pointed and laughed at her stub. coming to the stub during the counting must be a "spontaneous" event she has to reenact every year. it would be funny if she were spontaneous about it every time it was brought up in everyday life too. like "oh! forgot this wasn't here! now isn't that funny?"