Bonsoir! (10/01/09)

So today I moved into my homestay, or "famille d'accuiel." The woman I'm living with is so cool. Her name is Madame Biard, and I have no idea what her first name is. She's 75 years old, she's got 3 kids and 6 grandkids that live all over the world (Geneva, New York, Barcelona, etc) and she is truly an amazing cook. She made a ham quiche for dinner today and it was the best quiche I've ever had. Not that there's that much quiche to be had in Virginia, or California for that matter. But it was delicious. Her apartment is beautiful, I took lots of pictures and will be posting them as soon as I get a reliable internet connection. The information they gave me says that she has internet...but I soon found out that she had only recently bought a router, and had no idea how to set it up. Even if I was technically savvy and knew about these sorts of things, the instructions in French were a little more advanced than I could handle. Anyway, I took myself to the most reliable place to find free wifi in Paris- "un mcdo" (pronounced "mack-doh" = McDonalds). It was quite an experience, I was sitting next to a woman that, over the course of the 15 or 20 minutes I was sitting there, tore her french fry container and napkin into little square pieces, while occasionally talking into the air. I would have uploaded pictures there, but the connection was too painfully slow. I hope that my host mother's son comes to set up the internet tomorrow, she called him today and left a message. Luckily, he lives here in Paris.

Last night, 21 out of the 24 students who came to Paris this quarter went out to dinner together (unfortunately, Heimunn, Mackenzie and Farah made plans to go out to dinner with Farah's Dad earlier). We found this great restaurant close to the hostel where we were all staying, right next to the Hotel de Ville. It was expensive enough to feel like we were splurging but not pricey enough to really hurt when the check arrived. Ahhh...French food. Mes amis, expect the "French fifteen" when I return.

I didn't realize until today just how frustrating the language barrier can be. When I was with all the other kids the past few days, we would be speaking in French but if you didn't know the right word for something, you could just say it in English and more often than not, someone else would be able to supply the correct French word and then the conversation would continue in French. I got very used to asking "comment dit-on...en français?" (how do you say...). Not so with Madame Biard, because she doesn't speak a word of English. I've been doing some pantomiming, its like charades its great. If only she understood the charades signals...2 syllables, sounds like...

OH speaking of the French fifteen, there's a boulengerie/patisserie/chocolaterie verrry near my apartment, and this is verrry dangerous. For those of you that don't speak French, that's essentially a bread store, a pastry/dessert store (think the best of both worlds) and a chocolate store all rolled into one. And if that weren't enough, there's a store just across the street from that that essentially takes chocolate and makes flower bouquets out of it. You have to see it to believe it. I'll take pictures, don't worry.

Je pense que ça c'est tout...if I think of anything else, I'll hopefully be able to put it up there right away since hopefully tomorrow I'll have internet yayyyy :)

peace